The Great Florida Cattle Drive 2022 is December 4–10, with 500 participants helping take 1,000 head of cattle through some of the last “Old Florida” style lands.
To celebrate the previous drives and to salute over 500 years of Florida’s “cow culture,” this event consists of driving cattle, riding the trail, sleeping on the ground and living the life of our ancestors for a few days.
The starting gathering point was in St. Cloud, Florida with the drive ending near Kenansville, Florida with a Grand Trail’s End Celebration, which will include musicians, singers, poets, storytellers, historians and re-enactors. Dancers, singers and historians from the Seminole Tribe of Florida will be there to make the event more colorful and to remind folks that the Seminoles were an important factor in the states development as a cattle power; and remain so to this day.
The re-enactment drives began in 1995 to honor Florida’s rich ranching heritage, a reminder of times when wild cattle were collected, driven to ports and exported to Cuba. The cattle were originally brought over by Spanish explorers and settlers to the newly discovered “La Florida” in 1521, and went wild, adapting to living in swamps and various ecosystems of Florida. The event is used to educate folks around the globe to the fact that the cattle business in the U.S. began in Florida.
I would love to participate next year. Easier than flying to Montana from Jax. What do I need to join the drive?