In 1821 Charles Bulow bought more than 4,600 acres on Bulow Creek and built Bulowville — the largest sugar plantation in East Florida. Some 200 enslaved people in 46 cabins cleared half of it for sugar, indigo, cotton and rice. Fifteen years later, in January 1836, Seminole forces burned it at the onset of the Second Seminole War — a glow reportedly visible from St. Augustine. The coquina walls that stand in this state park are what the fire left.
The mill, room by room
The history films walk the ruin properly: the steam-powered mill (modern machinery for 1830s Florida, steam from 1831), boiler and machinery rooms, wells and the curing room. The workflow mattered: cane cut with sharp knives had to be crushed and boiled immediately, and the finished sugar and molasses were hauled by the enslaved workforce to a landing on Bulow Creek for shipment. The interpretive signs carry this story, and the films read them aloud — the plantation's working reality stays in frame, not footnoted.
Layers under the plantation
The solo-visit film adds the earlier layer: the site began as John Russell's 1812 Spanish land grant, traded for a 53-ton schooner, before Bulow assembled the estate. A WUCF public-television short gives the broadcast version, and an 8K 360° film lets you look around the walls yourself.
Visiting
The park profile film has the logistics as filmed: 150 acres, day-use only, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays; a boat ramp for boats under 16 feet, kayaking, fishing and shaded picnic areas. The nearly seven-mile trail through the hammock connects the ruins to Bulow Creek State Park and the Fairchild Oak — the two pages pair into one long hike.
Sources: the 8 videos on this page, filmed at Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park in Flagler County.