Walking beneath Southern magnolias taller than any we’d ever seen before, we realized that the forest around us has been protected since the 1930s.
That’s a long time in Florida for the forest to re-establish itself on what was a dairy during World War I and a plantation before that.
Hardwood hammock on the Hickory TrailOlustee Monument existed, but the first Florida State Park was yet to open. Private camps, not parks, are where citizens went to camp.
South of Jacksonville where Black Creek flows into the St. Johns River, Camp Chowenwaw (cha-WHEN-wah) was one of the first.
Black CreekResources
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Overview
Location: Green Cove Springs
Length: 3.1 miles
Trailhead: 30.036493, -81.712794
Address: 1517 Ball Road, Green Cove Springs
Fees: Free. Camping fees apply.
Restroom: At the visitor center and near Big Cabin
Land manager: Clay County Parks
Phone: 904-529-8058
Open 8 AM to sunset daily. Leashed dogs welcome.
Call ahead to make camping reservations, or take your chances on a walk-in on a weekday. Check in for campsites between 1-4 PM.
A cluster of duplex cabins near Big CabinCamping is in cabins or tents only, no campers or vans, and you must walk to your campsite from the parking area. Carts to pull your gear are available.
While some of the facilities are as rustic as you’d expect a historic camp to be, the price for staying in the woods near the Jacksonville metro can’t be beat, $18-50.
Directions
Camp Chowenwaw Park is 4 miles north of Green Cove Springs off US 17 on the west side of the highway just before the bridge over Black Creek leading to Fleming Island. The entrance sign is somewhat obscured by a large subdivision built in recent years. Follow the entrance road to the ranger station to check in for camping. Park either there or at Big Lodge to walk the trails.
About the Park
Established in 1932, Camp Chowenwaw – Chowenwaw meaning “sister” in Creek – became Florida’s first Girl Scout camp.
To construct facilities during the Great Depression, work crews of unemployed men from local communities joined a Hoover-era, pre-Civilian Conservation Corps effort.
Fully renovated historic Big Cabin, an Adirondack-style lodge (Chris Stevens)Using materials from the property itself, they felled and processed pines for the log cabins and dug clay pits for chinking.
They whittled pegs to use instead of costly nails, made shingles from cypress trees, and crafted furniture from magnolia wood.
A tool uncovered during renovationsThe centerpiece of the camp, Big Cabin, looks out on a cove across to where Black Creek flows into the St. Johns River.
In the 1930s, they couldn’t have imagined it being spanned by a highway, but now US 17 adds a buzz of traffic to what was once a serene scene.
Black Creek meets the St. Johns just beyond the US 17 bridgeThe work crews also created the Jungle Trail – likely the first boardwalk trail in Florida – so the girls could reach a “swimming pen” built in Black Creek.
The pen kept water hyacinths and alligators out of their swimming area.
Interpretative marker where the swimming pen once wasA cluster of original cabins, including five for visiting troops, a hospital and a bathhouse, and one for the cook and another for the director, are centered around Big Cabin.
As you might suspect, the camp is no longer a Girl Scout Camp. Clay County purchased it from the Girl Scouts for $5.8 million in 2006.
Nature displays at the ranger station (Chris Stevens)It is now a county park. An important aspect of the park is camping, especially for youth groups, given the nice individual camps within the 150 forested acres.
Individuals and families are welcome to camp here, too, and that’s what makes this park unique in Florida.
All campers check in at the ranger stationHiking
Along two miles of nature trails, you’ll be as impressed as we at the sheer size of the trees.
There are three different trails to follow, easily connected together to loop around the park to its scenic highlights.
Camp Chowenwaw Trails Explore Camp Chowenwaw Park on a network of trails into an old-growth hardwood hammock and floodplain swamps near where Black Creek empties into the St. Johns River.The oldest of the trails, the interpretive and accessible Jungle Trail, starts at Big Cabin.
It heads through the swamp along the cove of Black Creek on a long boardwalk to an observation deck on the creek.
Observation deck on Black CreekThe Treehouse Trail is another beautiful boardwalk, built through the floodplain forest along Peter’s Creek.
Treehouse TrailThe Hickory Trail loops through upland forests as it passes by most of the camping areas.
It’s here you’ll see the towering magnolias and pines that were spared the logger’s axe. A blue-blazed spur trail off the Hickory Trail leads to a bird blind.
Another spur leads to the pool area adjoining Big Cabin. Leashed pets are welcome on the trails, but not in the buildings or overnight camping.
Hickory Trail trailhead kioskCamping
In the 74 years the camp hosted Scouts, they continued to add clusters of cabins and camping areas.
Eventually they replaced the swimming pen, first opening “Otter Springs” (a clay pit) for swimming and later building a chlorinated swimming pool.
Otter SpringsHiking the Hickory Trail, you walk past most of these camping areas. It’s fun to figure out the vintage of each grouping.
Ahwenussa, for instance, is made up of little log cabins that look like they came from a 1980s KOA, while the concrete block cabins at Squirrel Run have that 1960s feel.
Squirrel Run cabinsWe don’t know of anywhere else in Florida quite like Treehouse Point.
Up on stilts with broad staircases, each treehouse has four bunks and screening on two sides, so you are sleeping in the tree canopy with protection from bugs.
Treehouse cabinTwo tenting areas, Magnolia Hill and Hickory Flats, round out the accommodations in the camp. Tent sites are $18.
Single cabins sleeping 4-16 people are $35 for the open-air treehouses, and $50 for the climate controlled cabins.
Hickory Flats camping areaOr rent an entire complex of cabins for a night or two for you and your friends to have a gathering or host a wedding.
Each complex has a bathhouse and screened dining hall (or kitchen facilities indoors).
Looking from inside a treehouse to the shared dining hallOnly the cabins at Squirrel Run and Ahwenassa have air conditioning. Of course, the Treehouses are a compelling destination for many campers!
Day use meeting rooms can be rented as well, including the historic Big Cabin. Nonprofits receive 20% off their camping fees.
Ahwenassa camping cabinsMuseum
What ties it all together is the Camp Chowenwaw Park History Museum, housed in a historic cabin.
Girl Scout museums aren’t often open to the public, so this one not only gives a glimpse into the history of the park, but the history of Girl Scouts in Florida.
History MuseumPicture 35 young women on horseback, armed with rifles, patrolling the mouth of the St. Johns River and signaling conditions to naval vessels offshore.
Securing the coast was the primary duty of the first Girl Scout troop in Florida, the Cherokee Rose Troop of Mayport, during World War I.
Displays on the closure of the campThe museum includes many artifacts found on the property and donated by campers who enjoyed their summers here over the years.
A mockup of a cabin bed is a centerpiece of the display. The museum opens the third Saturday of each month from 9-11, or by appointment.
Depicting Girl Scout camping long agoTrail Map
Explore More!
Slideshow
See our photos from Camp Chowenwaw Park
Nearby Adventures
Green Cove Spring Park Swim in the perpetual flow of Green Cove Spring in a spring-fed swimming pool, the centerpiece of a landscaped riverfront park beneath old growth oaks along the St. Johns River.
Ronnie Van Zandt Memorial Park Gimme three steps and a whole lot more on a circuit of a park established to honor the lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd, northwest of Green Cove Springs where he grew up.
Jennings State Forest Protecting the headwaters of Black Creek, one of the northernmost freshwater tributaries of the St. Johns River, Jennings State Forest spans almost 24,000 acres west of Jacksonville.
Bayard Conservation Area Bayard Point Conservation Area preserves an untouched riverfront forest on the St. Johns River. Follow this route through the John P. Hall Nature Preserve to visit the river.
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