St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge in Franklin County, Florida

Photograph: Big Bend Scenic Byway - St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge - NARA - 7717310.jpg by Unknown authorUnknown author or not provided · Public domain · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.

Franklin County attraction

St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge

Franklin County · Panhandle & Emerald Coast

A 12,490-acre island refuge reached only by boat, where sambar deer left from a private hunting preserve still roam and red wolves are bred.

ABOUT THIS PLACE

St. Vincent National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1968, after The Nature Conservancy bought the island for 2.2 million dollars and passed it on. It covers 12,490 acres: the triangular St. Vincent Island, the 46-acre Pig Island in St. Joseph Bay, and 86 acres on the Franklin County mainland along Road 30A. The island is ridged with old dunes, with freshwater lakes, sloughs and dry upland pine between them. In the 1940s it was a private hunting preserve and its owners stocked it with animals from other continents, including zebras, eland and sambar deer from Asia. The sambar are still here, and their numbers are held down by an annual hunt. Since 1990 the refuge has bred endangered red wolves, which run free on the island until the pups are weaned and moved to the Alligator River refuge in North Carolina. Loggerhead turtles nest on the beaches in summer. There is no bridge. Visitors come by boat, and the nearest ramp is at Indian Pass, 22 miles from Apalachicola. There is no visitor center, no drinking water and no restroom, only undeveloped trails and empty beach, and no charge except for a hunting license

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official place website ↗

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