A boom-to-bust generational saga of a pioneer family and their cattle empire  
 
“Cow Creek Chronicles is both a settler genealogy and a land-use history that reconstructs the background of the communities of this unique region. Gregory Enns uses interviews, some of which contain the only record of conversations with older residents of that world which is now disappearing—a world that re?ects much of early settlement Florida.”—Willard Steele, former Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Seminole Tribe of Florida  
 
“Entertaining and educational. This book brings the early members of the Cow Creek area to the forefront, including the Native Americans who led the way. A good read and a good reference for historians of all ages.” —Magi Cable, president, Okeechobee Historical Society  
 
Cattle ranching has long been a major force in Florida, covering over 12 percent of the state’s lands. In Cow Creek Chronicles, journalist Gregory Enns explores this history through the century-long saga of the Raulerson family, who built a cattle empire at Cow Creek Ranch between Fort Pierce and Okeechobee.            
 
The Raulersons were a family of pioneers that moved south to Florida during the nineteenth century. Family patriarch Frank Raulerson established the ranch in 1923. As the cattle herd grew and fences were built, Seminole communities that had lived near the creek in thatched huts called chickees were forced off the land to nearby towns and reservations, and this book includes their stories. At its height in the 1960s, the 23,000-acre Cow Creek Ranch, operated by Frank’s granddaughter and heir Jo Ann Raulerson Sloan, boomed under the supervision of a core group of cowboys using modern agricultural methods. As the years went by, Jo Ann’s husband, T. L. Sloan, mismanaged expenses and mired the ranch in debt, and the family sold off the land in parcels—many of which are now conservation areas.
 
In this narrative, readers will gain insight into how ranches were first established in Florida, including how cattle were managed and breeds developed. Enns opens a window into the lives of ranch hands and cowboys, highlighting traditions such as roundups, cattle drives, parades, and rodeos, as well as folkways such as cooking and handcrafts. He also draws attention to the history of the Cow Creek band of Florida Seminoles, including their legendary heroine Emateloye Estenletkvte (Polly Parker). Cow Creek Chronicles weaves together many strands in a unique history of the modern settlement of Florida.  
 
Gregory Enns is the founder of Indian River Media Group, a company that publishes magazines for Florida’s Treasure Coast and Space Coast. A fifth-generation Floridian, Enns has worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Florida and Alabama for over 25 years.

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