A Florida Nonprofit 501(c)3 tax Exempt Organization
West Nassau Historical Society - West Nassau Museum of History
Located Inside the Historic Train Depot at 45383 Dixie Avenue, Callahan
Mail to P.O. Box 1758, Callahan, FL 32011 (904-879-3406)
Abner McGehee
Special Events
Yard Sales - Yard sales occur about every 6 to 8 weeks during the Spring and Fall on the front lawn of the historic Callahan Depot. They run from 8am to 1pm. Miscellaneous items and clothes are donated by Historical Society members and local businesses to help raise funds for the upkeep and maintenance of the 1881 Victorian style train station and the fostering of our County's rich and diverse history.
Callahan Farmer's Market - The Farmer's Market is held each Saturday during summer months at the Depot from 9am to 1pm.
History Tours - Several times a year tours are conducted to different sections of west Nassau County. One of the tours begins at Hilliard and includes Kings Ferry and Boulogne. Another covers Bryceville and the southwest section of the county. Another is the general area around Callahan.
Annual Railroad Days Festival - The society's major fundraiser of the year is the Railroad Days Festival that usually occurs in March or April. It celebrates the railroad as the cartylist of west Nassau's growth. David Yulee was the founder of the Florida Railroad which began at Fernandina in 1853, was finished through Callahan by 1856 and completed at Cedar Key by 1861.
Annual Art Show at the Depot - 2014 will be the second annual art show open to Nassau County residents that celebrates the talent of our many artists. Held within the historic depot, the first year brought six talented painters to the front...the second will include photography and three dimensional art.
This page was last updated: June 27, 2014
The June 2014 General Membership Meeting
One of our ongoing projects is to give credit where credit is due. King's Ferry is due that credit. It has nearly 250 years of history, since the British occupation of Florida from 1763 until 1783. The Brits built the King's Highway from their colonies to the north across the St. Mary's River, through western Nassau County and on to St. Augustine. King's Ferry hosted several large milling operations into the 20th century, embarkation point of millions of board feet of lumber aboard large square rigged ships and was community of churches, dry good stores, millinery and barber shops and a skating rink. It was a "town" in every since of the word that served western Nassau County and its thousands of farmers.
It is time that we mark this faded community in this small way to remind future generations of the town's historic past.
On the move toward getting King's Ferry
a historic marker......
Talk was over coffee and donuts and a sleeping pooch. View of the St. Mary's from the porch is beautiful
Chatting on Gene Higginbotham's porch.
Probably the best secure location of the future sign.
Chatting on the river.
Guest speaker on June 25th was Annette Myers, retired educator, author and historian. Annette worked for the Nassau County School Board on Amelia Island and here on the west side.
For more than 20 years Annette has dedicated herself to the preservation of American Beach, a community on the Atlantic Beach of Amelia Island. Founded in the mid-1930s. American Beach was developed for African Americans that were not welcome on most beaches of a segregated America. Two hundred acres were purchased by Abraham Lincoln Lewis, founder of the Afro-American Insurance Company and Florida's first Black millionaire for the use of his Black employees. American Beach remains today half of its original size but exists as a residential community and a monument to its historic past.
Annette Myers speaks of historic
American Beach.....
