A New Capital
Simmons
1822
In the following days Simmons explored the surrounding area with Mr. Mitchel, finding the area abounding in game. That night they ate like kings with an Indian Negro bringing them a deer and three wild turkeys, and then later another bought in six wild geese, another day the Indians brought them more venison and wild turkeys. He describes the winter as being remarkably mild, with spring having begun with the red-bud trees blooming.
Although Simmons never meets Chief Micanopy, in his account he says, “The King, or Chief of the [Seminole] nation, Micconope, is settled with his Negroes, but not many Indians, at Pulacklicha, distance thirty miles to the southwest of the crossing place on the Ocklewahaw.” Simmons did get to spend time with the Seminoles when on one excursion they traveled to the Seminole Chief Bowlegs’s town, which was about ten miles southwest of Micanopy. On the way then Simmons comments about how the land “would prove healthy situations for settlements,” meaning white men settlements. There was one problem with that, it was already occupied by the Indians.
Simmons writes,
Into Alachua a very good navigation has lately been discovered to exist. The northwestern branch of the Ocklawaha, though, at present, obstructed by logs, has been found to be deep enough for keel-boats, up to Orange Lake, from which it flows, where there is always three feet of water in the driest seasons. This lake is fifteen miles in length, and approaches within six miles of Micconope, being to the northeast of the latter place.
This did not prove to be true, the Ocklawaha does not flow from, nor into, Orange Lake. It reflects on how little the interior of Florida was known, much less mapped. The Ocklawaha begins 40 or so miles south of Orange Lake and flows northward joining the St. Johns River north of Lake George. Perhaps Simmons was referring to Orange Creek that flows from Orange Lake eastward to the Ocklawaha but is just as its name implies, a creek and is not considered navigable. When steamboats came into regular service in the 1870’s they regularly traveled from Palatka on the St. Johns, to the Ocklawaha, then up the Ocklawaha on the Siver River to Silver Springs which is about 15 miles south of Orange Lake.
Simmons 1822 account of his journey to Alachua ends at this point, he does not tell of his journey back to St. Augustine. Simmons in the following chapter gives an account of the Seminole Indians in Florida based on his contact with them and information from others, with much of coming from Horatio Dexter who Simmons spent considerable time with. Dexter had many years of experience dealing directly with the Indians and was instrumental in the negotiation with Chief Micanopy to allow Wanton’s settlement.
Updated: 2026-08-07