E.E Callaway was a native of Weoquefka, AL, became a Baptist lay preacher at 17 and was, for a time, the only lawyer in Liberty County, Florida. He was Florida's 1936 Republican candidate for Governor, in addition to being a white lawyer for the NAACP. Callaway was friends with both 'Clarence Darrow' and 'Franklin Deleno Rossevelt', among other prominent Americans. Elvy, called 'E.E.' and referred to as 'An Old Cuss' believed that the Torreya Tree (Torreya taxifolia) was the 'gopherwood' which grew in Eden in t he Bible. He also stated "The Bible tells that 'a river went out of Eden to water the Garden and became four heads.'" "Well, the Army Corp of Engineers'map shows you that. God Created Adam one mile east of Bristol. Then he created the Garden of Eden just north of town."
In 1966 he wrote a book, "In The Beginning" in which he said the Garden was between Bristol and Chattahoochee. According to Callaway, he had been summoned to Winter Park in the 1940's by the late Dr. Brown Landone, who told Callaway that he had been ``nominated'' to interpret the ancient events. As for the Gopherwood, a story in The Orlando Sentinel Dec. 7, 1952, quoted Dr. Louis T. Nieland of the forestry department, University of Florida, as saying, ``The gopher wood in question is unique. So far as is known, it grows only on the east bank of the Apalachicola River in a small area near Bristol.
The original area of Eden was much broader, he said: It consisted of south Georgia and south Alabama, lying east of the Alabama River, and that part of west Florida lying between the Alabama line on the west and the Ochlockonee River on the east.
The Bible itself doesn't say. All it says is, ``Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.''
Callaway says he was challenged as to why the many different species of Noah's Ark could not be found in this part of the world. Callaway's explanation: From the Ashley lime beds of South Carolina have been taken fossilized remains of every animal that has ever been known to have existed on earth.
The 'fact' E.E. collected and based his discovery were stated by him as these:
- Of the 28 trees identified in the 'First Land' in the Bible, 25 are in Liberty County.. more than anywhere else on earth.
- The 'Gopherwood Tree' (Torreya) only grow in a 20 mile stretch on the Apalachicola River.
- The drift and pull of the earth was calculated to take an ark 40 day to Mount Ararat.
- Just as the River in the Bible, the Apalachicola river is the only river in the world with fout heads to flow through Eden in the Bible.
- He also stated he had a divine revelation (of some kind).
Though this sounds silly to most of us today, his explanation and description from his book convinced many prompting many to take a 'pilgrimage' or at least a 'curiosity' trip to the location. E.E. Callaway responded by build what was in it's day, a tourist stop out of the site.
Paths, were cut, signs were placed pavilions were built. However, these have since all have disappeared. The site is now 'Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve' and though not the tourist destination of the past, it is a wonderful location to see native Florida, some historical locations and a views of the river from Alum Bluff among the best in Florida. At 135 feet above the Apalachicola River, Alum Bluff is the largest natural geological exposure in Florida!
Gnarley Boot
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