Dunlawton Sugar Mill

Where: Dunlawton Sugar Mill

Address: 950 Old Sugar Mill Rd, Port Orange, FL
Cost: Free
Age: All

Accessibility: Handicap and stroller friendly

I love a good adventure. While on my most recent vacation I was looking for some fun and educational places to take the kids. I try to keep learning going even if we are not at home. We were staying in Daytona Beach and there isn't much to do directly in Daytona, that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, for big families. My kids are not to much into history so we try to make history learning hands on so finding historical sites is something we search for.

During my search I found the Dunlawton Sugar Mill, it is also now a Botanical Garden. It was about 9 miles from our hotel so I was excited. We loaded up and headed out. There were a few people there but luckily it wasn't crowded. You enter into the garden and take a stroll around some beautiful flowers. Once you come to the old sugar mill you will see the huge building that it was. It was once a rock building but as you will see in the story markers it has burned multiple times. They replaced with a steel roof and added nice walkways, that are handicap accessible. There isn't much left to the actual machines but the process of boiling the sugar can in the tubs was so neat. 

It was amazing how they built the fireplaces to suck through the length of the building to heat all the iron pots. Truly amazing how even with the lack of our technology things were done so wonderfully thought out.

You will continue on through the park and see some amazing plants, including a huge patch of elephant ear plants.

The place was also used as an amusement park with the theme of dinosaurs. There are huge cement replicas of them in the park. However in those times amusement parks were not popular so the park fizzled out.

If you are ever looking for an adventure in the area you should really check it out.

Closer shots of the process picture.