GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Ryan Worthington took members and guests through a captivating journey through time, sharing the unique and compelling history of Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park during last week’s Historical Society Meeting at the Old Courthouse.

Worthington, a volunteer with Friends of Gold Head State Park and Palatka to Lake Butler State Trail, a Citizen Support Organization whose members do anything from public relations outreach to speaking at community events to fundraising, with 100% of monies from the organization returning to Gold Head, has a special connection to the park.
Worthington’s father was a park ranger with the State Parks. He grew up going to several parks but resided at Gold Head from the early to the mid-1980s. He recalled the building of the park, which was completed via a Civilian Conservation Corps project from 1935-39, which was part of a national initiative kickstarted by Franklin D. Roosevelt during his presidency, among other developments that shaped what Gold Head has become today, such as the ongoing fight over the depth levels of the four lakes in the park, a microcosm of a larger problem throughout the Keystone Heights area.
He showed a side-by-side of two aerial graphics on the screen, one from 1953 and another for this year, showcasing the stark difference between then and now. One focal point of that portion of the discussion was Little Lake Johnson. Decades-old changes to the shoreline and hydrology of the lake, initiated by the CCC, have been gradually rectified, including creating a beach by dredging sand from Pebble Lake to Little Lake Johnson’s swimming area. Recent measures, such as installing a berm between Little Lake Johnson and Big Johnson Lake and diverting the branch to stabilize lake levels, addressed concerns dating back to Pebble Lake drying up in 2012. 

Many of the structures originally built by the CCC still stand today, such as the famed Ravine Stairway, which overlooks the branch that flows through the middle of the Gold Head, along with two pavilions on Pebble Lake, one which still boasts an original cypress picnic table from the 1930s beside it.
Worthington even touched on events before the inaugural opening of Gold Head on April 15, 1939. He spoke about a historic area of the park that was part of Tram Road, a Narrow-Gauge Trail Line from Green Cove Springs to Melrose near the northern boundary of the park that was removed early in the 20th century after the “Great Freeze of 1894-1895”  in Northern Florida.  Some tales even go much further. Sheeler Lake, the clearest and deepest lake at Gold Head, dates back 23,000 years.
Barbara Bradley, a volunteer with the Friends that joined Worthington, touched on the significant impact Gold Head plays on the county from another angle: the local economy. She said that 2022 the park hosted 83,498 visitors, supporting 151 local jobs and creating nearly $10.8 million in economic impact.

Droves of visitors supported the economy by shopping at local convenience and grocery stores, filling up on gasoline, and stopping by a mom-and-pop coffee shop for a morning wake-up call in Keystone Heights, Middleburg and Orange Park. “They will say, ‘I forgot hot dog buns,’ and run into the local grocery store,” she said.
Bradley also addressed the CSO and the organization’s great success in the last year, which received accolades from the state because it spent the most money on the park compared to other groups of its size (per capita). The organization purchased golf carts, lawnmowers, vehicles and “all kinds of equipment” for Gold Head, which should help preserve it for future enjoyment.