Sheltered by Oaks

From Tallahassee to the sleepy Jefferson County seat of Monticello, the Canopy Roads vividly remind visitors of Florida’s past.

by Todd Keith
photography by Allen Rokach

On Miccosukee Road, just minutes beyond Tallahassee proper, the miraculous occurs. With the first glimpse of aged brown trunks and green leaves tangled in gray Spanish moss, all vestiges of the city vanish almost before you can blink. It may be the most successful city-to-scenic-country-lane transformation in the nation. This dramatic shift is itself the quintessential Canopy Roads experience—the pleasant movement back to a time when meandering rural roads led from hamlet to hamlet, the curious and unexpected to be found around every graceful bend. While this drive attracts visitors seeking the famous long avenues lined with grand old trees, often the roads’ surprises make the greatest impression.

For example, driving along the well-known routes, one can’t help but notice the whimsical names of the numerous sandy-bottomed feeder roads linking up with the blacktop. Walkabout Lane, Bandits Run, Witch Boulevard, Divine Way, and Long and Winding Road—these dirt paths are barely more than trails in the forest. But like the quaint whitewashed churches, grassy fields, and thick woods along the way, they reverberate with the echoes of simpler times. While Leon County directs visitors to several official trails, the best way to enjoy what is collectively known as the Canopy Roads is to head east on Miccosukee Road and, like those who first made these historic byways hundreds of years ago, simply see where the path leads.

Created by Native Americans, Spanish explorers, and early American settlers, roads such as Miccosukee, Moccasin Gap, and Centerville began as trading paths leading through the rolling hills. After centuries of use, deep embankments are revealed in the red clay, so that it almost seems you are traveling through ravines cut deep into the land. And over all—just as in times past—the majestic live oaks as well as large laurel, water, and southern red oaks elegantly stretch their arching limbs across these historic routes. On cloudless days, the sun breaks through thick tunnels of trees, illuminating the road with dappled light.

Other sights reward the slow, curious traveler willing to investigate the area’s many offerings. Old Pisgah United Methodist Church, a stately, white structure dating from 1858, stands among towering pines—seemingly forgotten, yet lovingly maintained. The rusted, wrought iron cemetery fence surrounds graves from before Florida’s statehood, and silence gloriously reigns all around. At nearby Letchworth Mounds, the lonely setting seems to add to the mysterious poignancy of this large earthen mound built by Native Americans more than one thousand years ago. The number of small surprises that awaits you is limited only by the time you have to dawdle on your way.

The real social center of the Canopy Roads is surely Bradley’s Country Store—part grocery, part deli, all local color. “My daddy sold nails and horse collars, plow lines, and everything an old farmer needed,” says owner Frank Bradley, affectionately known as Mr. Frank by customers and friends. “He hauled all his groceries in from Tallahassee back in the thirties. My grandmother started making our famous sausage back in 1910, and in the beginning, sold it from her kitchen window.”

On the National Register of Historic Places, the country store has survived as a result of the Bradley family’s hard work and their loyal patrons’ often unspoken need for an authentic, tangible connection to a Florida past that is slowly receding. “I suppose this old store has gotten to be something of a landmark after all these years,” Bradley reflects.

Indeed, so have Tallahassee’s distinctive Canopy Roads.