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Manatee Festival
Where to go locally for manatee, other area visitor information
By TIMES WIRES
Published January 11, 2007
CHASSAHOWITZKA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE COMPLEX HEADQUARTERS: The administrative office has a small visitor center with educational displays of an original bald eagle nest and manatees in an underwater habitat display of Kings Bay. Visitors are welcome to enjoy a picnic or bird watch along the dock. The office is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. Getting there: From U.S. 19, turn west onto SW Paradise Point Road; it's just north of County Road 44 West or Fort Island Gulf Trail. At the stop sign, continue straight and the road will bend to the right. The office is immediately on the left. MANATEE EDUCATION CENTER AT THE HOMOSASSA SPRINGS WILDLIFE STATE PARK: A partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida State Park Service, the education center is located at the visitor center of the park, 7 miles south of Crystal River on the west side of U.S. 19 in Homosassa. Visitors can become acquainted with the National Wildlife Refuge System and the Chassahowitzka and Crystal River refuges. A 900-square-foot exhibit area is accessible to the disabled, providing many interactive displays for all ages. Manatee Education Center hours are 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily and visitors do not have to pay a park entrance fee to see the displays. Other displays available at the park's visitor center include: -Migratory bird interpretive exhibits -A history of the Homosassa area from the mid 1800s through the present with panels of photographs and articles that span the inside front wall of the center -A diorama with a working model of the Mullet Train telling the history of old Homosassa -An exhibit of reproductions of famous American artist Winslow Homer's watercolors of Homosassa painted during a visit in February 1904 -Life-size reproductions of crocodiles, alligators and other animals -GeGe the two-headed turtle, which has been living at the park for years
[Last modified January 11, 2007, 06:38:00]
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