Oakland honoring heritage at festival

The town of Oakland was incorporated in 1887, but the land has an even longer history that dates back to the 1850s, when four Indian trading posts and six Indian villages were set up in the area.

The 19th annual Oakland Heritage Festival will pay tribute to the town’s history from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, at Speer Park, 331 N. Tubb St., Oakland. The day will include cultural exhibits, merchants and concessions, a petting zoo and wildlife presentations, hay rides and Lake Apopka boat tours, a silent auction, kayak and bicycle raffles, live music and a pollinator plant sale.

Tours on the lake begin at 10 and 11:30 a.m. and 1 and 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 (children 4 and younger are free). Paul Ek is the guide for the one-hour boat tour. Hay rides are every hour from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets are $1 each (free for children 4 and younger).

Tickets for both can be purchased online at oaklandnaturepreserve.org.

Two Alibi bikes and a Discovery 124 sit-on-top kayak are being raffled off. Tickets are $1 or six for $5 and can be purchased in advance from the Oakland Nature Preserve office, 747 Machete Trail, Oakland.

Bidding for the silent auction starts at 10 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m. Items up for auction include rounds of golf, Orlando Magic skybox tickets, Doral Canal boat tours, Garden Theatre tickets, theme park passes and restaurant gift cards.

Festival admission is free; proceeds benefit the Oakland Nature Preserve. For information, call (407) 905-0054.

RICH IN HISTORY

The park at which the festival is being held pays tribute to the town’s origins and is named for the town’s first real settler, James Gamble Speer, who moved to the area after being appointed a member of the Indian Removal Commission.

When this early pioneer lived in Oakland, it was a loosely designated area between Lake Apopka and John’s Lake and two or three miles east and west. (In 1926, the town limits stretched from Killarney to Tildenville, but town officials de-annexed more than 800 acres in 1959 because of financial restraints.)

The first post office was established in 1860. In 1886, the railroad system was extended through the area, bringing with it a wave of new residents. When the town was incorporated in 1887, Peter A. Demens was elected the first mayor.

The festival celebrating the town’s history actually started as a spring clean-up day. Afterward, the volunteers were rewarded with a family picnic with hotdogs and entertainment. Locals shared old photographs and memorabilia, and several craftspeople set up booths.

It became an annual tradition that continued to grow, and eventually the nature preserve took it over and turned it into a fundraiser.

Contact Amy Quesinberry Rhode at [email protected].