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Record Group Number: 900000
Series/Collection Number: N2011- 4
Creator: Crawford, Roger S.
Title, Dates: Wakulla Springs boat tour recording, 1971.
Amount: 1 compact disks
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Biographical/Historical:     Luke "Old Lou" Smith was born in 1901 and worked as a farmer before serving as a guide at Wakulla Springs for over 30 years, ferrying visitors along the river in glass-bottom boats. Smith's tours were characterized by trivia and jokes, interspersed with singing. Before the area became Edward Ball State Park, and for some time after, the facilities and boat tours were staffed by multiple generations of a few families, including Smith's, and it was Luke's uncle, Ed Thomas, who taught him how to guide the tours. Smith, in turn, helped teach other guides, including Tom and H.D. Gavin, and a namesake grandson.

    In 1968, the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce employed Roger Crawford to help Tallahassee retain its status as the capital of Florida. To illustrate the attractions Tallahassee has to offer, Crawford visited Wakulla Springs and recorded the storytelling tradition of his boat tour guide, Luke Smith, in 1971.
Summary:     This single-item collection consists of a sound recording of Wakulla Springs boat driver Luke "Old Lou" Smith conducting a glass bottom and jungle boat tour in April 1971.
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Associated Materials: For more recordings and interviews of Wakulla Springs tour guides, see Collection N2008-6, a recording of Tom Gavin's glass-bottom boat tour, and Series S1576, Audio Records of Florida Folk Festival Performances and Other Folk Events (particularly T81).
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Electronic Records Access:
Subject Access Fields: Springs Florida.
Tourism Florida.
Sound recordings. aat
Compact disks. aat
Audio recordings.
Wakulla Springs (Fla.)
Added Entries