A railroad survey was working south from Haines City toward Avon Park in 1906
The Avon Park column of The De Soto County News for 18 May 1906 carries a contemporary report on the initial field survey for what became the Atlantic Coast Line’s Haines City Branch:
“The railroad survey southward from Haines City is slowly making its way in this direction, we are told, having begun nearly three weeks ago, at the above named point.”[dsc-1906-05-18]
Surveyors began line-running from Haines City in the final week of April 1906, working their way southward along the spine of the Lake Wales Ridge toward Avon Park.
Significance for Settlement and Transport Chronology
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad did not begin formal construction on its Haines City branch until 1910, and the completed line south to Frostproof did not appear in the Railroad Commission of the State of Florida’s official station tables until the report for the year ending 29 February 1912 (reaching Avon Park and Sebring later that calendar year).[frc-15] Standard accounts have therefore generally dated regional railroad initiatives to 1910. The May 1906 newspaper report establishes that preliminary engineering surveys and route alignment through northern DeSoto (later Highlands) County were actively underway four years prior to construction.
Continuity with the 1895 Wooden Tramway Route
The 1906 survey route mirrored the earlier private transportation initiative attempted by the town’s pioneers. In January 1895, Oliver M. Crosby, Clark D. Knapp, and John C. Burleigh organized the Avon Park Transportation Company to construct a 40-mile wooden-railed tramway connecting Avon Park directly to the Plant System mainline at Haines City.[harpers-1895-novelty] Although that wooden line was abandoned after the great freezes of 1894–1895 halted local financing, the 1906 survey followed the same geographic corridor, confirming that regional citrus growers and railroad planners recognized Haines City as the natural northern rail gateway for the upper Lake Wales Ridge.
References
- dsc-1906-05-18 — O. R. Thacher (department editor), The De Soto County News, Arcadia, Fla. The De Soto County News, 18 May 1906, page 8: Department of The South Florida Sun, Avon Park Locals. 18 May 1906. de-soto-county-news-avon-park-department.md
- harpers-1895-novelty — Harper’s Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 2008. A Novelty Among Railroads. 15 June 1895. harpers-weekly-1895-novelty-among-railroads.md
- frc-15 — Railroad Commission of the State of Florida. Fifteenth Annual Report of the Railroad Commission of the State of Florida, for the year ending 29 February 1912. 29 February 1912. https://archive.org/details/FifteenthAnnualReportOfTheRailroadCommissionOfTheStateOfFlorida
Related
- Entity: Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Haines City Branch
- Entity: Avon Park Transportation Company
- Finding: the railroad reached Avon Park in 1912
- Finding: automobile transit and Wauchula road proposal in 1906
- Report: the railroads and the making of modern Avon Park
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
- O. R. Thacher (department editor), The De Soto County News, Arcadia, Fla., The De Soto County News, 18 May 1906, page 8: Department of The South Florida Sun, Avon Park Locals (1906)
- Harper's Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 2008, A Novelty Among Railroads (1895)
- Railroad Commission of the State of Florida, Fifteenth Annual Report of the Railroad Commission of the State of Florida, for the year ending 29 February 1912 (1912)
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