City of Hawkinsville

The City of Hawkinsville was a paddle steamer constructed in Georgia in 1886. Sold in 1900 to a Tampa, Florida company, it delivered cargo and lumber along the Suwannee River. Eventually rendered obsolete by the advent of railroads in the region, it was abandoned in the middle of the Suwannee in 1922.It became the third Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserve when it opened to the public in 1992. This was followed on May 31, 2001 by its addition to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as City of Hawkinsville (shipwreck). It is located in Dixie County, 100 yards south of the Old Town railroad trestle (which is part of the Nature Coast State Trail).HistoryGeorgiaIn 1886, the Hawkinsville (Georgia) Deepwater Boat Lines had the wooden-hulled City of Hawkinsville built for them in Abbeville, Georgia.After 14 years of service, they sold it to the Gulf Transportation Company of Tampa.FloridaThe largest steamboat stationed on the Suwannee, The City of Hawkinsville transported lumber and supplies from Branford to Cedar Key for the next two decades. Some of the supplies would include construction materials for the railroads that would end the need for the steamboat itself.