Pellicer Creek is a stream in the U.S. state of Florida. It is a tributary to the Matanzas River, and delineates the border between St. Johns and Flagler counties in the northeastern part of the state. The creek begins as a blackwater stream in the swamps west of Interstate 95, and meanders eastward into the Matanzas River; it is part of Florida's Designated Paddling Trail System.
Pellicer Creek was named after Francisco Pellicer, an early settler from the island of Menorca off the coast of Spain. The waterway was formerly called Woodcutter's Creek, along which lumber and turpentine from a sawmill owned by British master carpenter John Hewitt were transported to the Matanzas River and then northward to St. Augustine. In 1770, Hewitt had purchased of land near the Kings' Road, where he built his water-driven mill, in operation from 1770 to 1813.
Beginning in the 1760s, the British founded a naval stores industry in northern Florida to procure timber for their shipsâÂÂincluding the harvesting of yellow pine for masts and live oak for bowstems, as well as pine tar and pitch for caulking the hulls and preserving their sails and the rope rigging. Hewitt's sawmill was the first commercial enterprise in the area; artifacts from the site are on display at the Florida Agricultural Museum. Spain regained Florida from the British in 1783, and during the Second Spanish Period, 1784-1821, the Spanish governors of La Florida made a series of land grants to private owners. Francisco Pellicer was among the original grantees, and settled on an acre plantation on the south bank of Pellicer Creek in about 1790, acquiring title to it in 1815. He used the forced labor of enslaved Black persons to clear and cultivate the land and erect buildings. Pellicer likely cultivated oranges.
Pellicer Creek is located approximately 16 miles south of the city of St. Augustine. The creek borders the northeast section of Flagler County and the southeast section of St. Johns County. The general topography of this area is composed of ancient marine terraces running parallel to the Atlantic Ocean shoreline that formed during the Pleistocene epoch. The Pellicer Creek Aquatic Preserve was established in 1970 by the Florida state legislature to protect its salt marshes and wildlife habitat from development. The preserve includes only state-owned submerged lands below the mean high water mark. It borders U.S. Highway 1, and extends approximately eastward to the Matanzas River. The Silver Bluff terrace occurs within the boundaries of the Pellicer Creek preserve at an altitude between sea level and ten feet above sea level. Outside of the preserve boundaries, the Pamlico terrace rises from above sea level.
According to the Pellicer Creek Aquatic Preserve Management Plan, wildlife species found at Pellicer Creek include: