Sparrow Music Camp at O'Leno State Park

Several years ago I started the journey to learn fiddle... this is not for the timid or feint of heart. There are days when I can not stand to hear myself practice but still I give it 10-15 minutes.  However, with each passing year the number of good practice days are catching up to the number of bad practice days!  Workshops have been the key to improving my music.

The sparrow heralds the details.

Last summer I first heard of Sparrow Music Camp and thought, "Maybe I'll go in 2015."  So here I am at the music camp.   

2014 Decal

 The camp is dedicated to teaching and preserving traditional music. This is often code for 'learn by ear' from instructors who gathered the tunes from traditional music masters.  It started as a mostly fiddle camp with a target audience of youth; however, we older folks help to fill the ranks and support the camp.  

Saturday afternoon Student Concert
The Old-Time Band #1

If the only instruction was for fiddle then the camp would not support interesting jams or a variety of instructors and players.  So the organizers designed the camp to include workshops in banjo, mandolin, dance, guitar, uke, and mountain dulcimer in addition to fiddle and fiddle-family instruments.

Practicing Banjo by the Sante Fe River

The camp is the dream of Aisha Ivey, a wonderful violinist and fiddler who just happens to teach music at Florida State University.  She has many credits to her name including nine Scottish Fiddle Championships, president of the Florida Fiddlers Association, and leader of a youth Old-Time String band.

Aisha Ivey & Chuck Levy
Saturday night concert

 The instructors and musical styles taught echo Aisha's broad range of interest with classes in Blues, Bluegrass, Improvisation, Irish, Minstrel, Old-Time, Scandinavian, Scottish, Swing, and the ever present theory buried in most classes.

Sharon Hartman, Mary Algire and band

The camp is held at O'Leno State Park with a recorded history back to the 1880s when the town of Leno was founded on the banks of the Santa Fe River. 

Remains of the Rock Dam
built for crop and lumber processing

The town was originally named Keno after a popular gambling game at the time. In 1876, Colonel Whetstone applied for a post office for the town of Keno and was denied due to the name and its relationship with gambling. The Colonel then had the name changed to Leno and was granted the post office. The town was an industrious town, consisting of two grist mills, a saw mill and six cotton gins. The town also had a general store, a hotel, a livery stable and a doctor’s office. In 1894, the S, F & W Railroad was diverted to pass through Fort White instead of Leno. This led to the eventual demise of the town, and by 1896, everyone had moved away.

History of Leno

O'Leno State Park is one of the original CCC parks.  The projects include many buildings, a lodge, and a well preserved suspension bridge built in 1935-1936 by the Civilian Conservation Corp and Works Progress Administration.

Suspension bridge
Built by the CCC in the 1930s

Suspension bridge
Built by the CCC & WPA in 1935-1936

The park, CCC, and the WPA...

Tom and Nancy Wilson
view the Student Concert
Held in the CCC Lodge

Development of the camp started as a Works Progress Administration project using unemployed labor from the High Springs area. In July 1935, the Civilian Conservation Corps installed workers from Company 418. Camp P-67, to assist WPA workers at O’Leno. Development of the site progressed rapidly and between 1935 and 1936 the CCC cleared land, built roads and trails and constructed many of the buildings found in the park today.

Saturday afternoon Student Concert
in the CCC Lodge