Clay County landmarks and traditions get the public television treatment Thursday, when WUCF's "Florida Road Trip" airs an episode dedicated to the county's history.

The episode, hosted by Emmy Award-winning journalist Scott Fais, visits Green Cove Springs, Camp Chowenwaw, Camp Blanding, Penney Farms, the Clay County Agricultural Fair and Orange Park, according to the show's producers. Viewers also see the Clarke House, a 1912 home in Orange Park preserved as a public landmark, and learn about the Laurel Grove Plantation, which preceded the community.

The premiere airs at 8 p.m. on WUCF. It repeats at 3 p.m. Saturday on WUFT and at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, on JAXPBS. After it airs, the show streams free on the PBS website and app.

Host brings two decades of Florida reporting

Fais, now in his second season as host, spent two decades as a Florida TV reporter covering hurricanes and space shuttle launches before joining the series. He has won multiple Emmys, 12 Associated Press awards and 16 honors from the Society of Professional Journalists, including the Green Eyeshade Award for travel writing.

Wartime camp and a retailer's farming experiment

Camp Blanding's wartime scale gets close attention. More than 850,000 soldiers trained there during World War II, and at its peak the post housed 65,000 troops at once. Workers built 10,258 buildings in 90 days. The camp also held two prisoner-of-war compounds for an estimated 1,250 to 1,450 German prisoners.

Penney Farms gets its own segment. Retailer James Cash Penney bought 120,000 acres for $400,000 in 1922 and invited farmers to claim 40-acre tracts. If they planted crops and raised livestock for two years, the land was theirs at no cost. The state Legislature chartered the town of Penney Farms in 1927.

Volunteers, historians and the series' roots

The fair segment focuses on the people behind the event. Tasha Hyder, its executive director, said on the show that more than 2,000 volunteers keep it running.

"This isn't Tasha's fair. It's the people's fair," Hyder said. "I'm just in the seat to make things happen."

A dozen local historians and community figures appear on camera, including Vishi Garig of the Clay County Clerk's Office Archives, John Bowles of the Clay County Historical Society, Cynthia Cheatwood of the Historical Society of Orange Park and George Cressman of the Camp Blanding Museum.

"Florida Road Trip" began in 2017 as "Central Florida Roadtrip" and expanded statewide by 2022, according to WUCF. The Clay County installment is the second of eight new episodes in the 2026 season, airing weekly on public TV stations.