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LOCAL AUTHOR >> THE IDYLWILD COWGIRLS
Three Idylwild Cowgirls — Cindy Cowart Mclean (front left), Beth Cowart Eddy (front center), and Becky Brown Munden (front right) and their neighborhood friends.
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OUR TOWN MAGAZINE
girls not only strengthened their friendship and equestrian skills, but learned valuable life lessons that still impact them today. Segal’s curiosity about the birds and other wildlife she saw while riding around Paynes Prairie led to her career as an environmental scientist (she was part of the design team for Sweetwater Wetlands Park). The cowgirls also got a crash course in civics when they rallied against a neighbor who planned to widen and pave their favorite haunt, a shady dirt road called Crown Road. Now marked as SW 56th Avenue on its south end and SW 17th Terrace on its north end, the road became one of Alachua County’s first scenic reads and today remains much as it was in the 1970s: a quiet, narrow dirt road shaded by a lush canopy of oaks. Being young and cavalier, the cowgirls also made their share of mistakes. On one occasion, they rode across the middle of Paynes Prairie on an old dike trail (this trail now ends at the Bolen Bluff hiking trail observation tower) and discovered they were surrounded by alligators. And when they finally reached the other side of the prairie, they became
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018
trapped in the vast prairie wilderness with thousands of mosquitoes just as darkness set in. On another occasion, the girls decided it would be fun to race their horses across the fairway at the Gainesville Golf and Country Club, sending chunks of sod flying through the air. But to modern readers, perhaps the most exotic part of the story is not the idea of young girls navigating the roads of Gainesville by horseback, but the fact that they did so with absolutely no parental supervision. “Our parents just trusted us,” Segal said. “Sometimes we’d be up and out before the rest of our families, and not see them again until we got back in the evening. Our only instructions were to be home by supper.” For more information on the Idylwild Cowgirls, visit: idylwildcowgirls.com IDYLWILD COWGIRLS – BOOK PRESENTATION
Thursday, March 8 at 6 p.m. The Newberry Public Library 110 South Seaboard Drive, Newberry 32669
PHOTOGRAPHY: ELLIOTT BROWN