The area was once the domain of the Timucuan nation, two tribes of which existed in the Palatka region under chiefs Saturiba and Utina. They fishingfished bass (fish)bass and mullet (fish)mullets, or huntinghunted deer, turkeys, bear and oppossum. Others farmingfarmed beans, corn, melons, Squash (fruit)squash and tobacco. But war and disease devastated the tribes. Florida would then be taken over by the Seminole, who called the location Pilo-taikita, meaning boat (pilo) ford (crossing)ford (taikita), or "boat crossing." Here the St. Johns River narrows and begins a shallower, winding course upstream to Lake George (Florida)Lake George and Lake Monroe (Florida)Lake Monroe. Because of the Treaty of Paris, control of Florida changed in 1763 from Spain to England. In 1767, Denys Rolle, an English philanthropist and nobleman, established Rollestown on the east bank of the St. Johns River at the head of deep water navigation. His 78,000 acre plantation was a utopiautopian commercial and humanitarian experiment, recruiting settlers off the streets of London, including paupers, vagrancy (people)vagrants, pickpockets and "penitent prostitutes." Two hundred indentured servants arrived to clear wilderness for agriculture and livestock. Unaccustomed to either hard work or a subtropical climate, however, they scattered. Rolle next imported slaveryslaves from West Africa to tend chickens, hogs, goats and sheep, or produce cotton, indigo, citrus and turpentine for export to England. A mansion was built and a village laid out, but trouble beleaguered the "ideal society." In 1770, a disgruntled overseer sold over 1,000 of his employer's cattle and disappeared with the money. Rolle hired new overseers and bought more slaves, but the plantation remained unprosperous. When Spain resumed control of Florida in 1783, Rolle abandoned the colony and chartered a ship to carry his household belongings, livestock and slaves to a 2,000 acre estate on ExumaGreat Exuma in the Bahamas. The point in East Palatka, however, is still called Rollestown. With changes of sovereignty in Florida came numerous changes of ownership in Pilatka, as Pilo-taikita was first contracted. In 1774, naturalist William Bartram noted an Indigenous peoples of the AmericasIndian village on the west bank, but it would vanish. After the United States acquired Florida in 1821, Nehemiah Brush established a ferry and bought a 1,200 acre tract in 1826 and then an equal number in 1827. The site became a distribution point, where goods were shipped by a New York company to supply immigrants at the Grant of Arredondo, which lay to the west. The infusion of American settlers, however, created hostility among the Seminole people. When the government attempted to relocate the tribe starting in 1833, the Seminole WarSecond Seminole War began. Pilatka was attacked and burned in 1835. Recognizing the site's strategic importance for control of the St. Johns River, the main artery into Central Florida, the military in 1838 established Fort Shannon, named for Captain Samuel Shannon. It included a garrison, supply depot and hospital. During 1842 the Seminole were driven from the area, and consequently Fort Shannon was abandoned by the army in 1843. But the piers and buildings it had erected (including 8 blockhouses, 5 of which burned in a fire of 1855) would spur development of the town. By 1847, it was growing rapidly. In 1849, Putnam County was created, with Pilatka the county seat. With the help of Judge Isaac H. Bronson, whose house in now a museum, it was incorporated a city in 1853. During the 1850s, Florida in general and Pilatka in particular gained a reputation as a haven for invalids escaping northern winters. Steamboats carried them up the river in increasing numbers. One visitor wrote that amusements included "sailing, fishing, rowing, walking, riding in horse and buggybuggy and on horseback, whist, enchre, backgammon and hunting." The trend was interrupted by the American Civil WarCivil War, when gunboats cruised the waters and Pilatka was destitute and largely deserted. On October 7, 1862, the USS Cimarron (1862)USS Cimarron fired several shell (projectile)shells over the town after seeing some Confederate cavalry. Mary Boyd pleaded with Union (American Civil War)Union Commander Maxwell Woodhull to spare Pilatka, assuring him that the horse soldiers were not residents. He complied. Following the rebellion, tourists returned to find new hotels, including the Putnam House and the Larkin House. Steamers ran up the Ocklawaha River to Eustis, FloridaEustis, Leesburg, FloridaLeesburg and Silver Springs, FloridaSilver Springs, or the St. Johns River to Enterprise, FloridaEnterprise and Sanford, FloridaSanford. Industries included logging, raising cattle and hogs, and orange (fruit)orange groves. On May 24, 1875, the post office changed the spelling to Palatka, ending confusion with Picolata. By the 1880s, several competing railroads crossed the community, which became an important railroad junctionjunction. These included the Florida Southern Railroad, the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad, the St. Augustine and Palatka Railway, and the Georgia Southern and Florida Railroad. But on November 7, 1884, Palatka suffered a devastating fire. Guests arrived that season to find no accommodations, and so continued on the train south -- the beginning of a gradual tourism shift elsewhere. It would also lose trade, shipping and transportation preeminence to Jacksonville. Nevertheless, with its downtown rebuilt in brick to be fireproof, Palatka emerged a finer place. In 1893, A. E. and H. S. Wilson of Saginaw, Michigan bought the Noah J. Tilghman & Son sawmill, which manufactured Taxodiumcypress lumber. Renamed the Wilson Cypress Company, it expanded operations and became a major employer. At its peak, it was the second largest cypress mill in the world, but closed in 1944. The Great Freezes of 1894 and 1895 destroyed Palatka's citrus groves for 5 years, which were formerly a major attraction. The ill-fated Cross Florida Barge Canal was once intended to pass the city. Today, tourism remains important. Image:Larkin House, Palatka, FL.jpgLarkin House in c. 1880 Image:A Palmetto Glade Near Palatka, Florida.jpgPalmetto Glade in 1893 Image:An Orange Grove Near Palatka, Florida.jpgOrange Grove in 1893 Image:Putnam House, Palatka, FL.jpgPutnam House in 1915 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatka%2C_Florida