ABE SPRINGS BLUFF COURTHOUSE

Side 1: Abe Springs Bluff was Calhoun County's second county seat -- from 1849 to 1880. About 4/10 mile west of here, at a remote location overlooking the Chipola River, stood the one-story wood frame courthouse that housed county courts and offices for over three decades, including the turbulent period surrounding the Civil War. Earlier, St. Joseph had served as the original county seat from the time Calhoun County was created in 1838 until the coastal boom town was destroyed by a yellow fever epidemic and a hurricane in the early 1840s. For a time thereafter the county actually had no seat of government. Side 2: From 1845 to 1847 the Florida Legislature tried unsuccessfully to re-establish a county seat. Finally, in 1848 Calhoun Countians voted on proposed locations and, the following January, Abe Springs Bluff -- a more centrally located inland site -- was officially declared the county seat. Unlike its ill-fated predecessor, Abe Springs Bluff never was a true community -- just a courthouse site. In 1880 the Abe Springs Bluff courthouse was destroyed by fire and the county seat was moved to the new community of Blountstown on the Apalachicola River.