People lived in North Florida here ten thousand years ago. When Europeans arrived in 1562, Timucuans lived in north and central Florida; powerful and wealthy Timucuans tattooed their bodies with geometric designs, with higher ranks having more tattoos, and they mastered hunting, fishing, and preserving meat. On February 20, 1864, Union and Confederate soldiers clashed in a pine forest within the Osceola in the Battle of Olustee, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War; the fighting lasted five hours before Union forces began a hasty retreat, Confederate cavalrymen pushed them until dark, and more than 2,800 men were killed. The Confederates won the battle but eventually lost the Civil War, and the battle is reenacted every year during President’s Day weekend in February. Built in 1888, the Olustee Train Depot became the hub of this rural north Florida community and today, after rehabilitation, serves as a national forest information and interpretive center. Through the mid 1900s, turpentining was a way of life in this area, as sap collected to make turpentine became an ingredient in products including varnish, paint thinner, and soap, and the Osceola National Forest served as a research lab where turpentining techniques were developed and improved.