Lafayette County Florida Pioneer Day Festival Official Website

The banks of the Suwannee River are drenched in history. No other river in the U.S. except the Mississippi has played a bigger part in the heritage of the American people. For many years, the Suwannee was used for commerce, a waterway, and a gateway into the midst of pioneer Florida. Though Stephen Foster never saw the Suwannee River, he immortalized it in song. When you go over any bridge over her stream, you feel the words, “Way down upon the Suwannee River” well up in your throat. School children sing about the river. Foster had three names of rivers in mind when he wrote the song. The Pedee in South Carolina, the Yazoo in Mississippi and the Suwannee. Fitting in much better with the rest of the lyrics, “Suwannee” was the choice which, incidentally, Foster misspelled as “Suwanee.”

Read more about it in this years Pioneer Day Festival Memorial Book!

Contact Vi Johnson for information on purchase

Online Purchase information coming soon!