Jacksonville's Ghost Town: Yukon

[north miami]

While there are some deeper holes in the Ortega, there is a huge part that is only a few feet deep, but that could be silt and such.

Swerving off "Yukon" thread here,but perhaps of interest and I can swing it all back to the Yukon area:

Twenty year observations at Lambs Yacht Center and on the water clearly reveal silt in.
Nearby Fishweir Creek is a dandy example all can witness-the sludge and sand bars easily viewed from The Loop and Harpoonies,and series of stand alone sand bars upstream from Herschel bridge-deposited in storm flood event in the 80's.Early 1940's era Dept.of Army aerial maps depict a much different Fishweir..the large "marsh" near the mouth was only a figment back then....the 'marsh' is silt builup,complete recently with upland vegetation.The compromised creek is depicted as essential manatee habitat.
Fishweir chokes and spits on out to the main river and mouth of Ortega.There is possibly a man made rock bar at the easterly mouth of Fishweir that may contribute to the back up.
Joint city/Corp of Engineers 'restoration' (dredge) plan possibly announced this summer after ten years fits and starts.

The Ortega morphs to "McGirts" and wraps around to the west of Yukon and on towards the Orange Park mall and Little Black Creek system.
Most would be happily stunned at the wild nature of McGirts behind Yukon.
There are development intrusions-thanks to the fact that a proposed McGirts State Conservation Lands protection proposal never happened.

[north miami]

While there are some deeper holes in the Ortega, there is a huge part that is only a few feet deep, but that could be silt and such.

Swerving off "Yukon" thread here,but perhaps of interest and I can swing it all back to the Yukon area:

Twenty year observations at Lambs Yacht Center and on the water clearly reveal silt in.
Nearby Fishweir Creek is a dandy example all can witness-the sludge and sand bars easily viewed from The Loop and Harpoonies,and series of stand alone sand bars upstream from Herschel bridge-deposited in storm flood event in the 80's.Early 1940's era Dept.of Army aerial maps depict a much different Fishweir..the large "marsh" near the mouth was only a figment back then....the 'marsh' is silt builup,complete recently with upland vegetation.The compromised creek is depicted as essential manatee habitat.
Fishweir chokes and spits on out to the main river and mouth of Ortega.There is possibly a man made rock bar at the easterly mouth of Fishweir that may contribute to the back up.
Joint city/Corp of Engineers 'restoration' (dredge) plan possibly announced this summer after ten years fits and starts.

The Ortega morphs to "McGirts" and wraps around to the west of Yukon and on towards the Orange Park mall and Little Black Creek system.
Most would be happily stunned at the wild nature of McGirts behind Yukon.

There are development intrusions-thanks to the fact that a proposed 'McGirts Stream Valley' State Conservation Lands protection proposal never happened.Thanks to Ralph Wickersham for his efforts.Too bad his efforts were decades ahead of Jacksonville's care and concern.

[Ocklawaha]

I haven't paddled the McGirts portion over in Argyle, but the Blanding - Collins segment and much of the run to Timuquana is as you say, amazing.  It SHOULD rank with the Wekiva or Econ Rivers as nearly pristine. If we could halt development on it's banks and allow nature to continue to claim large segments we would have an IN TOWN attraction as cool as the Okefenokee.

The upper Pottsburg Creek, Beach to JTB, would be a paddlers paradise. There are probably others, perhaps the upper Trout? Mount Pleasant Creek, and believe it or not some short segments of Hogans, McCoy's and Long Branch Creek (Remember Long Branch is the Creek that JTA said would be like "bridging the Nile" when discussing rebuilding the old railroad)


OCKLAWAHA

[north miami]

I haven't paddled the McGirts portion over in Argyle, but the Blanding - Collins segment and much of the run to Timuquana is as you say, amazing.  It SHOULD rank with the Wekiva or Econ Rivers as nearly pristine. If we could halt development on it's banks and allow nature to continue to claim large segments we would have an IN TOWN attraction as cool as the Okefenokee.

The upper Pottsburg Creek, Beach to JTB, would be a paddlers paradise. There are probably others, perhaps the upper Trout? Mount Pleasant Creek, and believe it or not some short segments of Hogans, McCoy's and Long Branch Creek (Remember Long Branch is the Creek that JTA said would be like "bridging the Nile" when discussing rebuilding the old railroad)


OCKLAWAHA

You are so correct Ock!

The natural setting we have today with McGirts/Ortega is due not to proactive vision but rather simply to long established basic wetlands development rules-which can and have been 'mitigated' in some cases.
We really lost something with the passing of the McGirts Stream Valley proposal,which would have protected (and placed in public ownership) significant water resources extending on in to Little Black creek-a vast wetland belt extending down to Middleburg in the midst of a (then undeveloped) regional groundwater recharge area west of Orange Park that has become Brannon/Chaffee (Beltway) Oak Leaf.Many future (mitigated) impacts to Little Black.(And the recent past has seen our focus on evil Central Florida's growth.....)
A former MPO future roadways map depicted a maze of future roadway wetland impacts at the I-295/Argyle area.Argyle residents brought to tears during public hearings.Probably worth getting with MPO to see current status.(I have throttled back on such zeal-the answer for me is MOVE)

Ron Littlepage correctly touts the areas' small waterway water recreation-too bad we have missed so many opportunities.We have competition.
See   www.purewaterwilderness.com

[fieldafm]

but the Blanding - Collins segment and much of the run to Timuquana is as you say, amazing.  It SHOULD rank with the Wekiva or Econ Rivers as nearly pristine.

Agreed!  Whenever I take people back there they are amazed at what a beauty the old girl is as it winds through the Westside.

I used to water ski in the wider section right at the 103rd street bridge.  There are several shallow spots.  Towards the shore its mostly 2-3 feet but there is a channel 6-8ft deep.  Like North Miami said, much of the river has silted over pretty hard over the last 20 or so years.  Fishweir is an excellent example.  My dad and uncles used to swim in Fishweir when they were kids.  There used to even be a big rope swing on the bank of the creek so that should give you an idea of how deep it was at one point.  There's just so much crap piling up at the bottom throughout the Ortega.

[Ocklawaha]

Lamplighter his buddy and trusty metal detector have been exploring the back streets of the old Yukon Town site and have been finding some very cool artifacts.  These latches were located where the WWI army troops lived, somewhere out on the old brick road in Yukon.  Keep your fingers crossed as they might dig up a complete submarine! Well maybe not, but there are certainly lots of things out in those woods that could help us tell a story.









Happy digging folks! I'm still missing some spokes from a 1964 version of a spider bike... Y'all let me know okay?


OCKLAWAHA

[lamplighter]

ha ha...no spider bike spokes found yet, but i did find a 1942 penny near the bluffs in the south west section...that yours?  could have fallen out while you were terrorizing the woods with your bow and arrow!

[deathstar]

Anymore investigating been going on since these postings? This is probably my favorite thread on the entire site!

[RMHoward]

Speaking of Yukon.  There is (was) a nice store back there named "Patriot Pride" or something similar.  Was in there Friday looking around.  Pretty neat store with lots of patriotic stuff, as well as guns, gear, knives, etc.  Saw on the news this morning, it was gutted by a fire last night.  Dang, what a coincidence.
Rick

[Luveenyah]

I hail from the Touchton Rd. area (west of Southside Blvd. where the older neighborhoods predating the recent decade's development).  I'm far less familiar with these parts of Jacksonville being discussed since I never ventured too far from the Southside burbs. 

So I found this thread while bored at work today and it's been a spectacular read.  I will never get tired of wandering around these threads and reading about people's firsthand experiences with the city!  Thanks and Happy Holidays all!

[spuwho]

Local lore says the Ortega was dredged to an extreme depth and submarine pins were built behind the Yukon Community early in the fight. I know there are old piles out in the river, but never found so much as a trail down to the water... The water IS very, very, deep.

OCKLAWAHA

According to the nav charts, Ock is correct, the Ortega is 16 feet deep as it passes the Yukon area (23 feet farther up!). However it shallows out considerably between there and the 2 Ortega bridges, in some places only 4 feet.

It looks like the city or military placed a drainage tile across the former Yukon under what was Blaine Street and it empties out in the Ortega at the deep point. This may have what led people to believe that something water based was being built back there, since Venetia was yet to be built on the other side.

[Ocklawaha]

SHIT!

Just in the last month they have torn down my dad's old furniture store, and the grocery store. We would pocket the tithe money given us for Sunday School in the tiny church, climb out the side window and run to the grocery.
Somehow chocolate ginger snap cookies and sugar daddy's tasted better on our bootleg run. Sad to see it go.

OCKLAWAHA

[johngreen]

AS A YOUNG KID  16YRS OLD I DID WORK FOR WILLIS BUTTS , AT THAT TIME  MR BUTTS  SOLD  HOUSE TRAILERS NEW AND USED HE ALSO HAD A TRAILER PARK   WE RENTED FROM HIM,  IF THIS IS THE SAME BUTTS ME AND HIS SON RUN AROUND TOGEATHE HIS NAME WAS WELDON,   AND THERE USE TO BE A  BE A BODY SHOP IN YUKON IT WAS DOUG WELLS  BODY SHOP AND I ALSO WOKKED FOR MR,WELLS   THE POSTMASTER WAS MR, WEBB I THINK AND I USED TO RUN THE MAIL TO THE DEPOW AND HAD TO HANG IT ON A HOOK THE TRAIN PICK IT UP AT FULL SPEED,    AND SOMETIMES IT WOULD MISS IT. BY THE WAY  MR, BUTTS WAS A VERY GOOD PERSON,  I KNEW MOST OF THAT FAMILY,  I LEFT YUKON BOUT 1954,JOHN GREEN

[BridgeTroll]

Thanks John!  Feel free to add some more!  We would love to learn more about Yukon.

[wsansewjs]

After reading this entire thread wholeheartedly, my jaws just dropped by the sheer awesomeness of Uncle Ockie.

I think he should join the ranks of Gods and Generals for his epic vast of knowledge and cheerful story-telling.

HOORAH to Uncle Ockie!

-Josh