The St. Johns River has long been known for its natural beauty and helped spur Florida’s development as a tourist destination. Traveling along this ancient waterway still reveals many of the same vistas of Florida’s natural splendor, and this stretch of the river includes many conservation areas that preserve that beauty and offer recreational facilities such as camping, fishing, and canoe and kayak launches. Some of these places also have important histories of their own, including Ravine Gardens State Park, which was constructed by the WPA and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Cross Florida Barge Canal, an ill-fated project begun by the WPA but never completed. Murphy’s Island, an upland spot in the Murphy’s Creek Conservation area five miles south of Palatka, is a sand hill and hardwood hammock with high bluffs overlooking the St. Johns River. Horse Landing was the site of a Civil War battle in which the Union warship Columbine was destroyed, one of the few times a Union warship was destroyed by land-based forces. The Ocklawaha River flows from a chain of freshwater lakes to the St. Johns River, and in 1860 Col. H.L. Hart introduced the river to tourists through steamboat tours between Palatka and Silver Springs.