The information in this booklet may be useful to fourth grade teachers with the responsibility of teaching Florida History. It certainly will be useful to those teachers who plan a field trip to the Roy Hyatt Environmental Center in conjunction with their studies of Nineteenth Century Florida life. It is this history field trip that will transport students to life in Northwest Florida during that time.

It is hoped that all may better understand and appreciate present Florida if we can go back in time to when Florida first became a state and learn how people got along without electricity, gasoline, and nuclear power. Please allow students to make comparisons with the ways each activity is accomplished today. Hopefully this will help to provide the stimulus for a far-reaching energy conservation ethic, and appreciation for schools, home, and community.

Look around and see how much energy is being used today. Why is there so much talk about conservation of energy? Why are the costs of electricity and gasoline continually increasing? How soon will we run out of oil, natural gas, and coal?

It is estimated that as much as 50% of our energy today is wasted. Because of this, energy conservation has become our most valuable source of "new" energy. We cannot go back to "the good old days". Not enough people have the knowledge and the skills to live close to nature and to take their livelihood from the land. We do not have the plant resources to furnish wood as fuel for today's population of over 250,000,000, let alone the nearly133,000,000 people that will be added to the population within the next 55 years. Our U.S.population in1850 was only 23,000,000.

The United States, with about 1/6 of the world's population, now uses about 1/3 of its total energy production. Most of our energy comes from fossil fuels, such as oil, natural gas, and coal. Although potentially dangerous because ways have not been found to store nuclear waste safely, nuclear energy continues to generate some of the electric power. Maybe in time we will begin to use our best source of energythe SUN. So, sit back, relax and enjoy with your students this booklet as it takes you back to Nineteenth Century Northwest Florida-a time that many think was easier, but in reality was extremely difficult.