The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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The 1895 wooden railroad route and extent of track

The wooden railroad promoted by the Avon Park Transportation Company in 1895 constructed and operated approximately 3.5 to 4 miles of wooden track between downtown Avon Park and the neighboring settlement of Pabor Lake.[plp-1895-09] Although chartered to build a 40-mile line north along the Lake Wales Ridge through Frostproof to Haines City, no track was ever laid beyond Pabor Lake.[harpers-1895-novelty][fa-1895-02-06]

Chartered Corridor and Geographic Route

The Avon Park Transportation Company (also styled locally as the Avon Park & Haines City Railroad) was organized at Avon Park on 5 January 1895 with $25,000 in capital stock.[harpers-1895-novelty][plp-1895-09] Its officers were:

  • President: Clark Darwin Knapp, pioneer attorney.
  • Vice President: Oliver Marvin Crosby, founder of Avon Park and president of the Florida Development Company.
  • Secretary and Treasurer: Charles C. Chollar, cashier of the Bank of Avon Park.
  • Superintendent: John C. Burleigh, local sawmill manager.

The company was chartered to construct a 40-mile north-south common-carrier line from Avon Park in northeastern DeSoto County northward across the Polk County line to Haines City.[harpers-1895-novelty] At Haines City, it would connect with the Plant System’s South Florida Railroad mainline to Jacksonville and northern markets, bypassing the costly 23-mile wagon haul through deep sand to Bowling Green or Bartow.[harpers-1895-novelty]

The projected right-of-way followed the elevated sandy spine of the Lake Wales Ridge, routed north through Pabor Lake, Midland, Crooked Lake, and Frostproof.[fa-1895-02-06] B. M. Hampton, writing from Frostproof in The Florida Agriculturist in February 1895, confirmed that the line was to pass directly through Frostproof on its northward path to Haines City.[fa-1895-02-06]

Construction Method and Right-of-Way Clearing

The wooden railroad utilized an experimental low-cost construction method developed by Superintendent John C. Burleigh, who in December 1894 had moved a 12-ton Lima Shay geared steam locomotive (Lima shop no. 469, locally christened the Crosby) 23 miles overland from Bowling Green to Avon Park by repeatedly laying and relaying timber beams across the pine flatwoods in nine days.[harpers-1895-novelty][shay-roster-469]

Construction began on Saturday, 12 January 1895, as a communal mobilization. Contemporary reporting in The Morning News of Savannah recorded:

“On Jan. 12 over 200 stalwart, earnest men, with axes and shovels, cleared up about three miles of the right of way through pine and palmetto for the road. The first spike was, that day, driven by Mrs. O. M. Crosby.”[savannah-1895-01-20]

The track was constructed using 4x8-inch yellow pine stringer rails laid directly on the leveled sand without cross-ties or ballast. Rail ends were joined with wooden fish-plates, and the entire assembly was anchored into the sand with 18-inch wooden pins.[harpers-1895-novelty]

Completed Extent: Avon Park to Pabor Lake

Track laying advanced northward through the summer of 1895 from Avon Park toward Pabor Lake. The operational line reached Pabor Lake on Saturday, 7 September 1895, covering an operational route of approximately 3.5 to 4 miles.[plp-1895-09]

The Pabor Lake Pineapple reported the arrival on its front page under the banner “IT HAS COME. / The Tramway Reaches Pabor Lake, / On Its Way From Avon Park to Bartow / First Excursion Over the Line”:

“The tramway reached Pabor Lake on Saturday, September 7, this being the first station from Avon Park on the way north… Two trains were run from Avon Park to the Twin Oak picnic ground, nearly a hundred people prepared for picnicing being on the first train.”[plp-1895-09]

The terminus at Pabor Lake featured a passenger platform and siding at the Twin Oak picnic grounds, where speeches were delivered by President Clark D. Knapp, Oliver M. Crosby, W. E. Pabor, and John C. Burleigh.[plp-1895-09]

Abandonment and Legacy

No track was ever laid beyond Pabor Lake. The severe freezes of December 1894 and February 1895 destroyed the area’s burgeoning citrus and pineapple crops, eliminating the freight revenues upon which the railroad’s financing depended. Although the promoters at the 7 September celebration suggested pivoting westward toward Bartow rather than continuing 36 miles north to Haines City, funding could not be secured.[plp-1895-09]

The Florida Development Company defaulted, and in January 1897 a DeSoto County sheriff’s sale liquidated Crosby’s holdings.[plp-1895-09] The Shay locomotive was seized by creditors and later sold to lumber operations in West Virginia.[shay-roster-469] The wooden track weathered and fell into disuse.

The exact 40-mile Lake Wales Ridge corridor through Frostproof to Avon Park was finally built seventeen years later, in 1912, when the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad constructed its standard-gauge steel Haines City Branch.[fa-1895-02-06]

References

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
society

Sources

  1. Harper's Weekly, Harper's Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 2008: A Novelty Among Railroads (references/harpers-weekly-1895-novelty-among-railroads.md) (1895) · newspaper
  2. W. E. Pabor, editor and publisher, The Pabor Lake Pineapple, September 1895, front page: 'It Has Come — The Tramway Reaches Pabor Lake' (references/pabor-lake-pineapple.md) (1895) · newspaper
  3. The Morning News (Savannah, Ga.), The Morning News, Savannah, Georgia, 20 January 1895, page 16, Georgia and Florida column: the first day's work on the Avon Park tram railroad (1895) · newspaper
  4. B. M. Hampton, in The Florida Agriculturist (DeLand, Fla.), The Florida Agriculturist, 6 February 1895, page 1: letter from B. M. Hampton, Frost Proof, Fla. (1895) · newspaper
  5. shaylocomotives.com, Lima Shay Shop Number 469 factsheet (2020) · secondary

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