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National Parks in the Nature coast include:
Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Historic State Park is located in Homosassa, Florida and is off U.S. 19. It contains the ruins
of a sugar plantation owned by David Levy Yulee. Yulee was part of the Territorial Legislative Council, and was a member of
the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate after Florida became a state. The site was added to the National Register
of Historic Places on August 12, 1970. The original plantation covered more than 5,000 acres, worked by approximately 1,000
slaves. Among the crops raised were sugar cane, citrus, and cotton. The mill (which was steam-driven) ran from 1851 to 1864.
It produced sugar, syrup and molasses, the last of which was part of the rum-making process. Remaining is the stonework (foundation,
well and chimney), a cane press, and some of the other machinery.
The Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge is part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge System, located in Kings
Bay, in the town of Crystal River, and is comprised of 20 islands and several small parcels of land. The 80 acre refuge (only
accessible by boat) was established in 1983, to protect the West Indian Manatee. It is administered as part of the Chassahowitzka
National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
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