Walk the landscape and discover the history that inspired Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Yearling in 1938, on Pat’s Island in the Ocala National Forest.

In the fall of 1876, Reuben and Sara Jane Long established a homestead on Pat’s Island, a high spot in the Big Scrub. Shaded by longleaf pine and turkey oak, they grew sugar cane and corn, peas, beans, and watermelon, a frontier existence for a hardy family. Their son Melvin found and adopted a fawn he named Dogwood. More than 50 years later, author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings spent time at the Long homestead and learned about the fawn. It inspired her to write The Yearling, her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. When the novel became a movie, Pat’s Island became a set for some of the scenes.



Now part of the Ocala National Forest, Pat’s Island is a shady place in the desert-like scrub, with historical artifacts from the Long family waiting to be discovered—remains of homesteads, a cistern, a cattle dip vat, and the family frontier cemetery. The Florida Trail runs along the western side of the island, but The Yearling Trail provides easier access and your choice of two loops to explore this literary and historic site.

Guidebooks
50 Hikes in North Florida
The Florida Trail: The Official Hiking Guide
Along the Florida Trail
Hiker's Guide to the Sunshine State
The Hiking Trails of Florida's National Forests, Parks, and Preserves
Hiking Florida
Orlando & Central Florida: An Explorer's Guide