Today we departed our hometown
of Zephyrhills. This community began as the town of Abbott on April 18, 1888 and consisted of
280 acres. A voting district was established in 1893 followed by a post office
in 1896. In 1909, Captain Harold B. Jeffries, a Civil War Union veteran from
Pennsylvania purchased 35,000 acres and created the Zephyrhills Colony Company.
Zephyrhills was officially founded in March of 1910 and incorporated in 1914. In
1999, the City of Zephyrhills conducted a city-wide historic resources survey,
finding over 400 historic resources. Who knew Zephyrhills is so rich in history?
The next town
north on US 301 is Dade City, the capital of Pasco County. It is named for Major
Francis Dade, who with 110 other soldiers was slain December 28, 1835, in a
Seminole ambush. The founding of Fort Dade at Lachoochee protected homesteaders
in the region but it wasn't until the arrival of the railroad in 1884 that the
present-day Dade City boomed. Judge Samuel Pasco was US Senator when the county
was established in 1887.
Speaking of Lachoochee, Trilacoochee it is the next traffic light after you pass the US 98 cut-off from 301. Trilacoochee
is so named because it is located between Trilby and Lacoochee. Trilby once
held an extremely promising future.
It was the largest city in Pasco County and
boasted the third largest railroad yard in Florida, until tragedy struck. It
all began as a farm owned by Elijah McLeod.
McLeod obtained his 160-acre farm m in 1882 from the US Government. The
area became known as McLeod Settlement and a post office was established in
1885.
Soon afterward the name was
changed to Macon. Henry B. Plant, the Florida railroad magnate, renamed Macon
while laying
tracks here. Mrs. Plant
supposedly encouraged her husband to rename the village after one of her
favorite novels, "Trilby," a bestseller by George DuMaurier.
When Mr. Plant platted Trilby, he named the
streets after characters in the DuMaurier novel. In May of 1925, at about 1:00
in the afternoon, a fire started upstairs in Brad Ham's Dry Goods Store, and
the whole town, on the west side of the tracks, went up in smoke.
Bucket brigades were formed, but the stores
were already gutted.
The Dade City Fire
Department raced to Trilby in a Model T fire truck to put out the fire.
When they arrived, they found all the water
hose had unreeled and had been left alongside the road. The fire was finally
extinguished around 5:00 in the evening. G. H. Mills tried to start another
store in the Masonic Temple and the post office was moved into the bank
building, but it was useless.
Trilby
would never again be the same.
We pass
through Ridge Manor and into Bushnell. Bushnell was first founded with the
establishment of the Post Office on October 28, 1885 and incorporated 26 years
later in 1911. The City of Bushnell was named after John W. Bushnell, who was
responsible for bringing the railroad to the community. 301 turns and you enter
the small town of Coleman.
Between the
sleepy town of Coleman and the booming metropolis of Wildwood is a new expansion
of The Villages along County Road 470 near the Coleman Federal Prison. Sumter
County commissioners approved rezoning about 35 acres on the northeast corner
of US 301 and CR 470 to commercial from agriculture and another two acres on
the southeast corner to heavy industrial. The Wildwood commissioners approved a
new community development district south of CR 470 that will cover a
neighborhood of 8,280 homes on 2,485 acres as part of the Villages of Southern
Oaks.
We continued into
Citra. Along US 301 is The First Baptist Church of Citra. In December of 1876,
Florida was sparsely settled and Baptist were few and far between. It was
originally built in 1880. The original church building consisted of one room
with three windows on each side, and seated about 100 people. By 1893 the
membership had outgrown the original building so a new house of worship was
erected which forms the main part of the present structure.
In Citra you
can also stop at The Orange Shop, set in an orange grove. But not this time of
the year, as it is closed for the season.
In Lawtey,
you see a road sign directing you to Camp Blanding. In mid-1939, the National
Guard relocated its training facility 30,000 undeveloped acres east of Starke,
Florida in Clay County. In tribute to Gen. Albert Hazen Blanding, active
Florida Guardsman and President Roosevelt's National Bureau Chief from
1936-1940, the new camp was named Camp Blanding. Camp Blanding Joint Training
Center is the primary military reservation and training base for the Florida
National Guard, both the Florida Army National Guard and certain nonflying
activities of the Florida Air National Guard.
The Cary
State Forest is a 13,385-acre forest that is located in the northeast in
Bryceville, Florida, a community between Baldwin and Callahan northwest of
Jacksonville. It was established as the second State Forest of Florida, in
1937. Cary State Forest is dominated by slash pine flatwoods and is located
between the St. Mary's rise and the Atlantic Ocean.
Outside of
Hilliard we found the Little Boggy Creek Quail Preserve. It is a place to train
or hunt with your dog. It is a privately-owned, licensed quail hunting preserve
in northeast Florida. They are open in the fall and run through the first week
of March. They have multiple courses open to the hunter and trainer with each
course having a different look and challenge. If you need to start, finish, or
practice for an event (hunt test or field trial), this is the place for you. We
have seen quail in the northeastern states, but never in Florida.
Crossing from
Florida into Georgia on Route 301, you cross the St Mary’s River. It is a
meandering river that starts in the Okefenokee Swamp and winds along a 130 mile
path leading to the Atlantic Ocean. No grand sign as you enter Georgia on US 301, just a simple "Peachtree" State.
We arrived in
Folkston GA, just a few miles over the state line. We are spending one night at the Jenny Ridge RV Resort and Events
Venue.
Stay tuned as we Two Lane Adventure across the US and into Canada for a while!
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