SW080 Writer Weaves Tales of Osceola‘s Capture on the Old King‘s Road, Seminole War Flashpoint

 

 

We have alluded to it before: There is a Fort King Road running through the central Florida peninsula. And then there is the Old King’s Road running parallel to the state’s east coast.

The search for the Old King’s Road will take listeners this week through other searches as well: for lost planation gold, for lost sugar plantations, for lost ancestors, and for lost Osceola, who lost his freedom to an Army ruse on the Old King’s Road, just south of St Augustine.

Joining us this week is Bill Ryan. Bill moved to the Palm Coast some years ago and immediately fell in love with his surroundings and with the vibrant stories told about the area. Although visible in only a few places, Bill set out to trace its length and to tell stories related to it. He believes he found the spot where Osceola sought to parley with the Army – and where his camp was. He also investigated an old painting purported to portray Pocahontas but which in fact may have been a rendering of Osceola’s Wife and child.

Bill discusses these in fascinating detail as well as the plots and discoveries from his heavily fact-based historical fiction. His books are In Search of the Old King’s Road, Bulow’s Gold, Osceola: His Capture and Seminole Legends, I am Grey Eyes: A Story of Old Florida, Door to Time in Florida: Past, Present, and Future, and Journey into History: Flagler County, Florida. For more, visit http://www.oldkingsroad.com.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo below is of era-reenactors and living historians with writer Bill Ryan. This site show the marker where Osceola was purported to have been captured while seeking to parlay with the U.S Army. The plaque on it has not survived hunter's buckshot, Bill Ryan says, and is no longer affixed to the marker. 

 

 

Above left: Likely site of Osceola's camp before his parlay; Above right: Bill Ryan treks through overgrowth along the Old King's Road. 

 

The late Willie Johns, Seminole Tribe of Florida Historian and Chief Justice, and someone his friend Bill Ryan called a true warrior. Bill Ryan brought him to the site of Osceola's capture and ruefully noted that Justice Johns may have been the first Seminole at that site in nearly two centuries. 

Above, image of Pocahontas but not really. Bill Ryan discusses how he showed it was more likely a Seminole and possibly Osceola's wife and son.  Below, American Indian National Museum magazine Summer 2013 page 38.

 

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida. 

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