The Highlands Pilot, 1919–1925

Summary

The Highlands Pilot was Avon Park’s principal commercial weekly throughout the post-World War I era and the height of the Florida land boom. Established on 28 November 1919 by George W. Adams, the paper documented the political division of DeSoto County, the formal creation of Highlands County in 1921, the spirited county-seat contest between Avon Park and Sebring, the paving of Main Street’s Mile Long Mall, and the construction of the Hotel Jacaranda.[pilot-run][loc-pilot][maxwell-1976]

The Avon Park Historical Society preserves a digitized, searchable collection of 231 issues spanning from Vol. 1, No. 1 (28 November 1919) through 4 July 1925, totaling 2,109 pages.[pilot-run]

The run

Attribute	Details
Place of publication	Avon Park, DeSoto County (until April 1921) / Highlands County, Florida
Founding publisher & editor	George W. Adams (The Pilot Press)
Subsequent management	Gilbert Freeman (from early 1920s)
Digitized collection	231 issues (2,109 pages) spanning 28 November 1919 to 4 July 1925
Frequency	Weekly, published on Fridays
Format	Multi-page broadsheet; high-resolution PDF with full selectable OCR text layer
LCCN	sn95026910
Physical repository	Avon Park Historical Society Depot Museum, Avon Park, Florida

Historical significance

County division and the 1921–1923 seat contest

When the Florida Legislature enacted Chapter 8513 in April 1921 dividing DeSoto County into five separate counties, The Highlands Pilot became an indispensable chronicle of the newly formed Highlands County.[pilot-run] The paper published the initial proceedings of the Board of County Commissioners, recorded the appointment of county officials, and led editorial advocacy for Avon Park during the contentious county-seat contest that ultimately resulted in Sebring’s selection in 1923.[pilot-run][maxwell-1976]

Boom-era civic development

Between 1920 and 1925, The Pilot reported week by week on the physical transformation of Avon Park:

• The design and landscaping of the Main Street parkway (the “Mile Long Mall”) under civic designer William A. Cook.[pilot-run]
• Municipal bond campaigns that financed waterworks expansion, electric power plant construction, and modern asphalt paving.[pilot-run]
• The organization and capitalization of the Hotel Jacaranda project, recording local stockholders and construction milestones.[pilot-run]
• The arrival of modern automobile tourism along the Ridge Scenic Highway (State Road 8 / U.S. 27).[pilot-run]

Pioneer historical serials

The Pilot holds unique value for Florida historiography because it serialized first-person memoirs of Avon Park’s earliest settlers. Beginning in late 1919, the paper printed Oliver Marvin Crosby’s multi-part retrospective, “Avon Park’s History: 1885 to 1896,” providing the founder’s own narrative of the May 1885 expedition, the Disston contracts, and the devastating 1894–1895 freezes.[pilot-run][maxwell-1976] Concurrently, the paper published Samuel D. Lee’s “Avon Park’s Pioneer Days,” detailing homestead entries, early farming hardships, and the financial structure of the Florida Development Company.[pilot-run][maxwell-1976]

Archival arrangement and access

The digitized collection is structured chronologically by year, month, and individual edition. Each issue is maintained as an individual, deskewed PDF containing complete selectable text:

• File naming structure: The_Highlands_Pilot-<Month>-<Day>-<Year>[-vol<V>-num<N>].pdf
• Date span: 28 November 1919 through 4 July 1925
• Microfilm and digital masters are preserved at the Avon Park Historical Society Depot Museum.

References

• pilot-run — George W. Adams, editor and publisher (The Pilot Press). The Highlands Pilot (Avon Park, Fla.), 1919–1925, digitized collection of 231 issues. 4 July 1925. Held at the Avon Park Historical Society Depot Museum, Avon Park, Florida
• loc-pilot — Library of Congress, U.S. Newspaper Directory. Highlands County Pilot (Avon Park, Fla.), LCCN sn95026910. 31 August 2026. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn95026910/
• maxwell-1976 — Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell. The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida. 1976. the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md

Related

• The newspapers of Avon Park
• Report: Avon Park Newspapers and the Pioneer Press
• Finding: the Highlands Pilot 1919 citation problem
• Finding: The Pioneer Historiography of Avon Park: Crosby, Lee, Fenton, and Maxwell
• Reference: Chapter 8513, Laws of Florida 1921: the act that created Highlands County
• Reference: Highlands County Messenger, 1921–1923
• Reference: Avon Park Times, 1928–1942

Where this comes from

Evidence

corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.

Review

unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.

Rights

public-domain

Sources

1. George W. Adams, editor and publisher (The Pilot Press), The Highlands Pilot (Avon Park, Fla.), 1919–1925, digitized collection of 231 issues (Held at the Avon Park Historical Society Depot Museum, Avon Park, Florida) (1925) · newspaper
2. Library of Congress, U.S. Newspaper Directory, Highlands County Pilot (Avon Park, Fla.), LCCN sn95026910 (2026) · official
3. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976) · book

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