Miccosukee Indian Arts Festival

           

  The arts festival takes place between Christmas and New Years at the Miccosukee Indian Village. It features Indian dances, food and crafts booths, a museum and alligator shows.

  The parking lot is paved, there are many handicapped spaces and plenty of room for RV parking. All of the paths between the craft chickee booths are new concrete. The viewing for the alligator shows is very good. There’s a short ramp into the seating area for the dance stage which puts you up close for a good view. The museum is small but everything is easy to see. There’s also a boardwalk that goes a little way out into the marsh and around a pigpen (they don’t smell!).

  The only thing that isn’t very good is the ramp up into the gift shop. It’s steep and the door opens out. I think that it would be impossible for someone on their own to push up and then open the door.

  We were pleased at how well thought the access was in the village and enjoyed our visit. There were very few dancers, not the number that we’re used to seeing at powwows, but they were all very good.

  On a cautionary note – I’ve read some reviews of the Indian Village and it looks like it may be kind of empty at slow times of the year.  
Village
25.76129, -80.77604
 

Koreshan State Historic Site

We had planned on camping here but during the winter months the sites are reserved well ahead of time. We decided to visit the settlement area anyway. The Koreshan Unity Settlement was a utopian religious village founded in 1894. The population grew to about 200 people but it eventually failed because, as is the practice in many of these communities, the members did not marry or have children.

 The parking lot is close to the settlement. There are handicapped spaces and a couple of larger ones for RVs. A path leads to a handicapped bathroom which we didn't check out.  The main paths are hard packed shell and sand, easy to roll along. The main buildings have good ramps. The doors are opened to the buildings and you can view the interiors through plexiglass with some glare off of the plastic. There’s a small museum with easy to view exhibits and a video in the building which housed the dining hall.  Koreshan Park
26.43291, -81.81621