On October 15, 1878, William H. C. Collins, Charles E. W. Collins’ son and my great-grandfather, was appointed postmaster of the Ichetucknee Post Office by the Postmaster General of the United States. The post office was located at Mill Pond.
 
I know that Elim Baptist Church performed baptisms in the 1960s as well.
 
In the early 1960s, Carlos M. Maxwell, Regional Director for the Florida Park Service, and Sam Kelly, President of Loncala Phosphate Company (Loncala is a London based company that also had established an operation in Ocala, Florida – thus the contraction of London and Ocala as “Loncala”) collaborated on several occasions to get the State of Florida to purchase this parcel. Carlos M. Maxwell (my father) and Sam Kelly were personal friends; Sam Kelly’s son, Bryan, was married to Carlos Maxwell’s daughter, Martha. Sam Kelly was aware that Loncala had been approached by business interests to purchase the property for the purpose of retail development and Carlos Maxwell thought that the Ichetucknee basin should become a part of the park system. These are the ones who made it happen!
        
Note: the common objection to adding the Ichetucknee to the park system was that there would be two state parks in close proximity to each other (O’Leno is 10 miles away). It is also important to note that the private business sector was offering more money than the state for purchase, but Kelly’s persistence prevailed.
 
In the late 1950s, a professor, Mr. Cole (I can’t remember his full name) from the University of Florida, lived at the headspring; his family still owns property across from the north entrance. Cole found mastodon bones in the river, possibly at Blue Hole. I believe that the University of Florida has these bones in its possession.