Travel Articles

There’s a place in Florida that an old-time preacher contended was the Garden of Eden, where Adam plucked the apple . . . well, you know the story, don’t you? If you’re hardy, you can go there and decide for yourself whether this preacher knew what he was talking about.

This place in Florida is not your average tourist attraction. In fact, not a whole lot of people know about it. Still fewer go there. This article will tell you why, how to get there and what you’ll find when you do.

The Baptist preacher, Elvy E. Callaway, was a lifelong Bristol resident who spent his entire life trying to convince anyone who would listen that the apple Adam plucked for Eve was on a tree along the banks of the Apalachicola River north of Bristol. There is little evidence that many believed him – certainly not Biblical scholars.

So why did Callaway think this was the original Garden of Eden?

He based his evidence on a Biblical passage that said a river in Eden spawned four other rivers (which the Apalachicola River does), and that Noah built his ark with a rare species called Gopher Wood, which grows along the Apalachicola. He chose to ignore certain other Biblical passages and even geography in fashioning his theory.

Not many people go looking for this place in Florida because Bristol is off the beaten path. It’s on State Highway 20 about 45 miles west of Tallahassee. If you go, once you’re in Bristol, you’ll want to head north on State Highway 12 for about a mile and a half.

Careful. Don’t blink – you might miss it — because there are no signs pointing to Callaway’s Garden of Eden. But you will find signs that preserve a little bit of history: Garden of Eden Road, leading off to the west. A short distance up the road, there’s a trailhead that links up with the Garden of Eden Trail.

But be forewarned: If you’re infirm or faint of heart, don’t take this trail, no matter how much you want to see this place in Florida. It’s full of steep climbs and descents.

The place is now preserved by the Nature Conservancy, not because it believed Elvy Callaway’s theory, but because his Garden of Eden is one of the few areas where steephead ravines exist.

What’s a steephead ravine? That’s a place that has unique plants and animals, some found nowhere else on Earth.

The strenuous trail that leads to Callaway’s Garden of Eden is 3.5 miles round trip, taking you to Alum Bluff on the Apalachicola River and back. Presumably, Callaway’s Eden was on or near the bluff, 135 feet above the river.

The Nature Conservancy’s Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve doesn’t lure tourists like many other places in Florida do. But those who survive the trek to the bluff are likely to tell you what they think of Elvy Callaway’s theory.

2009 Gene Ingle – You may reprint this article on your site, blog, autoresponder, etc., so long as you leave all the links in place – including the link to http://www.gipublications.com – and do not edit or modify the content.

Gene Ingle is an award-winning editor-writer-cartographer who has driven nearly a million miles in Florida researching places on maps you probably never heard of. This place in Florida is one of 213 featured in “The Famous Florida Trivia Game” available at http://www.ebookserendipity.com – Test your knowledge. It’s fun and it’s free.