HISTORY & HERITAGE
City of Hawkinsville Underwater Archaeological Preserve
Dixie County · North Florida & First Coast
A wooden steamboat of 1886 lies on a ledge in the Suwannee River near Old Town, so shallow on one side that it can be seen from the surface.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
The City of Hawkinsville was built in Georgia in 1886 for the Hawkinsville Deepwater Boat Line at Abbeville. At 141 feet long she was the largest steamboat ever stationed on the Suwannee. Sold in 1900 to the Gulf Transportation Company of Tampa, the paddle steamer spent the next two decades carrying lumber and supplies from Branford down to Cedar Key. She even hauled materials for the railroad bridge that would put her out of work. By 1922 she was no longer paying her way, and her captain left her in the river about a hundred yards south of what is now the Old Town railroad trestle. Fresh water has treated her kindly. The hull is nearly whole, with the original propulsion machinery and steam piping still in place. The port side sits about three feet under and the starboard edge about twenty, so part of the wreck shows from the surface. It became Florida's third Underwater Archaeological Preserve when it opened to the public in 1992, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 31, 2001. The site is open all year and free. Diving requires advanced open water certification, going inside the hull is not allowed, visibility is limited, and nobody should dive it in high water
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