BAGDAD, Fla. — In this week’s Amazing America 250, we visit a waterfront that helped build Florida.
From Spanish ships to sawmills, Bagdad Mill Site Park was once the heart of Florida’s timber industry. Today, a committed group of citizens has transformed it for the next generation.
There are lots of stories at Bagdad Mill Site Park, but they all start with one thing—the longleaf pine, also called the heart pine.
“Because that was the economic driver for this entire area for years,” Doug Lasater, president of Bagdad Waterfront Partnership, said. “At one point, this was the economic hub of the entire state of Florida with the sawmills and the operations. There were 400 people who worked here on this site. 400!
“They had sash mills, they had turpentine mills, they had everything you could think of, shipbuilding; it was all right here on this waterfront. It was huge,” he added.
Long before the mill occupied this waterfront, the Spanish harvested longleaf pine trees on a massive scale. The old-growth pines were enormous then — a primal forest where the Blackwater River and Pond Creek come together.
“The King of Spain brought the sailing ships up the river here, and they rode them up,” Lasater said. “They cut a hole in the bow, and they put these entire pine trees into that ship.”
Lasater now leads Bagdad Waterfront Partnership, the group that came together to restore these 22 acres.
“There was actually a railroad track that went across the river, connecting the other side to over here, that fed into the mill site,” Lasater said. “One recording recalls, describing how the operation once stretched across the water.”
Walt Schumann, David Bailly, and Lee Anne Winchester were also instrumental in the years-long effort to create the park.
When they started, the site looked nothing like it does today. A paving and concrete company operated here beginning in the 1970s, taking a painful toll on the environment.
“Just to see this and have it here is really outstanding for the population,” Schumann said.
Schumann, who loves to kayak, is most proud of the park’s water access—and the timeless experience it offers.
“Majestic. Quiet,” Schumann said.
Lasater says the park is a shining example of what everyday citizens can accomplish when they work together and refuse to give up.
“So this is a testament to the people in the community and also the history of 250 years here in Bagdad,” Schumann said.
Next to the new boat dock sits the most striking remnant of the site’s history—the base for the old mill’s flywheel.
Past and present share the waterfront. And now, what was once the economic engine of a region is a public space—preserved for families, visitors, and the generations still to come.
“They bring their families and the kids,” Schumann said. “Then the kids see it, and they get experienced being out here—the fishing pier we have over here that is the big thing; for the next generations, we preserve this for the next generations. There’s not a condo sitting here.”