Qualla: Fort Christmas https://qualla.com/fort-christmas en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:13 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/n/6/fort-christmas-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Fort Christmas https://qualla.com/fort-christmas Fort Christmas: Introduction https://qualla.com/fort-christmas/ Photo credit TomFawls, CC BY-SA 3.0. On Christmas morning 1837, there was no celebration. Brigadier General Abraham Eustis and a column of 2,000 U.S. Army soldiers and Alabama militiamen arrived at a marshy clearing near the headwaters of the St. Johns River in east Orange County, Florida. They brought 1,000 horses and 70 wagons. Their orders: build a fortification as part of a chain of more than 200 installations meant to force the Seminole people from their homeland during the Second Seminole War. The troops raised the palmetto-log fort in just over a week. Someone noted the date of their arrival, and the name stuck: Fort Christmas.

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Image: TomFawls | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/n/6/fort-christmas-wp/djn6-fort-christmas-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Fort Christmas: A War in the Swamps https://qualla.com/fort-christmas/ Photo credit TomFawls, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Second Seminole War, fought between 1835 and 1842, was the longest and most expensive of the Indian Wars waged by the United States. It began when the federal government tried to enforce the Treaty of Payne's Landing, which required the Seminole to relocate west of the Missis...

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Image: TomFawls | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/n/6/fort-christmas-wp/djn6-fort-christmas-a-war-in-the-swamps.mp3 0:06 2 full Fort Christmas: Palmetto Logs and Living Memory https://qualla.com/fort-christmas/ Photo credit TomFawls, CC BY-SA 3.0. For more than a century, the site of Fort Christmas was little more than a name on a map and a crossroads in rural Orange County. The community that grew up around it remained small and agricultural. Then in the late 1970s, Orange County Parks and Recreation partnered with the Fo...

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Image: TomFawls | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/n/6/fort-christmas-wp/djn6-fort-christmas-palmetto-logs-and-living-memory.mp3 0:06 3 full Fort Christmas: Cracker Country https://qualla.com/fort-christmas/ Photo credit TomFawls, CC BY-SA 3.0. Beyond the replica fort, the park preserves something equally valuable: the vernacular architecture of rural Florida. A growing collection of restored "Florida Cracker" houses and farm buildings has been relocated to the site, furnished with original and reproduction period piece...

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Image: TomFawls | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/n/6/fort-christmas-wp/djn6-fort-christmas-cracker-country.mp3 0:06 4 full Fort Christmas: Christmas Every Day https://qualla.com/fort-christmas/ Photo credit TomFawls, CC BY-SA 3.0. The community of Christmas, Florida, has long embraced its seasonal name. The fort's park hosts an annual "Cracker Christmas" celebration each December, drawing crowds for pioneer-era demonstrations, bluegrass music, and holiday festivities. A bluegrass festival in late March ext...

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Image: TomFawls | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/n/6/fort-christmas-wp/djn6-fort-christmas-christmas-every-day.mp3 0:06 5 full