{"id":303,"date":"2017-02-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-06T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes-2\/?article=cracker-educator-tony-morrell-from-the-great-flori"},"modified":"2019-09-26T14:00:07","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T18:00:07","slug":"cracker-educator-tony-morrell-from-the-great-flori","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/2017-02-06\/cracker-educator-tony-morrell-from-the-great-flori\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Cracker Educator- Tony Morrell&#8221; &#8211; from the Great Florida Cattle Drive: Unbroken Circles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Tony \u201cRooster\u201d Morrell is one of the people featured in the upcoming documentary: The Great Florida Cattle Drive: Unbroken Circles by Elam and Nic Stoltzfus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this video, we learn more about this educator and storyteller and why he enjoys talking about the history of Cracker Cattle and the lifestyle associated with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEvery state has got history and they should be proud of it,\u201d says Morrell. \u201cMy heritage is Florida Cracker and I\u2019m proud of it.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QtqXIPe77tI\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Morrell says he takes every opportunity he can to talk about what it was like back when European settlers first tried to put down roots in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was rough. It was tough. You know there was no stores. No Nothing,\u201d explains Morrell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He says the cattle, horses and pigs that arrived with the explorers in the early 1500\u2019s, and began to run wild throughout La Florida, were a key source of survival for those settling here. The people who caught and eventually raised those cattle, were called cow hunters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCow hunters or cow catchers,\u201d says Morrell. \u201cBecause most of the time when they first started out with this cattle, they had to hunt them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Morrell got started as a living history educator back when he did a single presentation with a friend for the Florida\u2019s State Parks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt just kind of went wild after that. Everybody in the world wanted us to come do a living history presentation for them.\u201d Morrell says he has even travelled out of state to share the history, including a presentation in Washington, D.C. for the Division of Tourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt kind of blossomed from the State Parks Service for me getting out and being able to share with the general public.\u201d said Morrell. \u201cI can thank the park service for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Morrell says teaching and learning about Florida history is important for everyone.&nbsp; \u201cThis is part of our heritage. We love it. You know, I want to live it every day the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tony \u201cRooster\u201d Morrell passed away in December 2016, but you can see more of him in the documentary, \u201cThe Great Florida Cattle Drive: Unbroken Circles.\u201d&nbsp; The film debuts on WFSU-TV on Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 9pm ET.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tony \u201cRooster\u201d Morrell is one of the people featured in the upcoming documentary: The Great Florida Cattle Drive: Unbroken Circles by Elam and Nic Stoltzfus. In this video, we learn more about this educator and storyteller and why he enjoys talking about the history of Cracker Cattle and the lifestyle associated with it. \u201cEvery state [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":"","wds_primary_category":0},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Cracker Educator- Tony Morrell&quot; - from the Great Florida Cattle Drive: Unbroken Circles - WFSU Local Routes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wfsu.org\/local-routes\/2017-02-06\/cracker-educator-tony-morrell-from-the-great-flori\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Cracker Educator- Tony Morrell&quot; - from the Great Florida Cattle Drive: Unbroken Circles - WFSU Local Routes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tony \u201cRooster\u201d Morrell is one of the people featured in the upcoming documentary: The Great Florida Cattle Drive: Unbroken Circles by Elam and Nic Stoltzfus. 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