The Carr Family Cabin
The Carr Family Cabin —
Celebrating a Forgotten Place
in the Florida Scrub
Equinox producers Bob Giguere and Bill Belleville have completed a short film for the Umatilla Historical Society and Friends of the Carr Cabin celebrating a “Cracker” style cabin in the Ocala National Forest used extensively by renowned Florida naturalist Archie Carr and his family.
The film vividly describes the creation and use of a Cracker-style cabin retreat built in the late 1930’s after Pastor Archibald Carr and his wife moved to Umatilla, Florida. Constructed on the shores of Lake Nicotoon in the Ocala National Forest, the little cabin afforded three generations of Carrs a lasting relationship with an authentic Florida that tourists seldom see.
For Archie Carr, Jr. a young grad student in zoology, the subtropical landscape was a natural treasure trove where a scientist could fashion ideas from the unstudied terrain. Archie went on to become a world expert in sea turtles, helping the rest of us understand the concept of “conservation biology” revealed by the wide ecological range of the reptiles.
Archie’s wife, Marjorie Harris Carr, saw the devastation the Cross Florida Barge canal was doing to the Ocklawaha River nearby, and organized opposition to it — thereby galvanizing the state’s environmental movement. Archie’s younger brother Tom became a respected radio astronomer in his own right, and each of Archie Carr, Jr.’s five children went on to become accomplished scientists or conservationists.
The tract was recently donated to the U.S. Forest Service by Dr. Tom Carr. The public, including school children, would be introduced to a living classroom where the iconic cabin and landscape allows a rare glimpse into the ethic of Florida’s “first family” of conservationists.