News & Events

When you join the Friends of Jonathan Dickinson State Park, you will receive our quarterly Newsletter via mail as well as being invited to our socials at the park and other park events.

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On February 23 Friends of JDSP will host a special event in honor of Trapper Nelson. It could be the highlight your winter! The official reason for the Saturday event is to dedicate an historic marker that adds the Trapper Nelson Interpretative Site to the nation’s Registry of Historic Places. Unofficially, it’s much more. At 4 p.m. you’ll join 48 attendees on one of the two JDSP River Tours pontoon boats for a leisurely tour of the upper Loxahatchee. As you wind through the Wild and Scenic River, you’ll learn about its ecology and history from retired park biologist Dick Roberts and author-historian Jim Snyder. Then you’ll dock and learn about Trapper Vince Nelson’s unique role in Loxahatchee history as you tour his hand-built “Zoo and Jungle Gardens.”

On the return trip you’ll watch colors dance on the twisting river as the sun sets and a guaranteed!) full moon prepares to rise. Once back at the park (6:30ish) you’ll take part in a brief ceremony dedicating the historic marker. After that we’ll savor the succulent fare furnished by Jupiter’s own Park Avenue Barbecue. That’s right: no potluck this time and no need to bring a dish. Dinner, drinks and dessert are all supplied by Park Avenue Barbecue and Friends of JDSP!

And the price is outrageously low! For paid-up members, the entire cruise and evening is $15 each. For newcomers, $25 each includes the cruise and dinner PLUS a year’s membership in Friends of JDSP. Among the membership’s benefits are 12 free visits to the park for a year and a subscription to this newsletter.

There’s only one hitch: the park’s two pontoon boats can accommodate only 24 persons each. Therefore, the trip to Trapper’s will be limited to the first 48 who sign up. (All others can still watch the dedication ceremony in the park pavilion and join us for dinner.)

Please reserve your place now by calling President Pat Magrogan at 746-7353.
We hope you’ll become a part of this historic and very special evening.