The 1895 Haines City tram road report was written from Frostproof
In the 6 February 1895 issue of The Florida Agriculturist, a published letter reported that “the Avon Park tram road is to be built, and that soon, by this place and on to Haines City.”[fa-1895-02-06] The original dispatch resolves the geography of the statement: the letter was written by B. M. Hampton from Frost Proof, Fla.[fa-1895-02-06]
Geographic Context and the Chartered Ridge Corridor
Hampton’s phrasing (“by this place and on to Haines City”) directly reflected Frostproof’s position on the north-south spine of the Lake Wales Ridge, situated fifteen miles north of Avon Park and twenty-five miles south of Haines City.[fa-1895-02-06]
This aligns with the corporate plans of the promoters who incorporated the Frost-Proof Line in November 1892 (projected from Haines City south through Crooked Lake, Midland, Pabor Lake, and Avon Park) and the Avon Park Transportation Company (also known as the Avon Park & Haines City Railroad) in January 1895.[harpers-1895-novelty][pineapple-1895-09] As Harper’s Weekly described in June 1895, the wooden tramway was projected for forty miles from Avon Park in DeSoto County to Haines City in Polk County to connect with the Plant System mainline.[harpers-1895-novelty]
The Route Shift of Late 1895
When the wooden tramway track was constructed northward from Avon Park in the summer of 1895 under superintendent John C. Burleigh, it reached its first terminus at Pabor Lake on 7 September 1895.[pineapple-1895-09] At that point, facing financial constraints following the Great Freeze of 1894–95, the promoters announced an intended westward pivot toward Bartow rather than continuing forty miles north along the full ridge to Haines City.[pineapple-1895-09]
The corridor through Frostproof to Haines City envisioned by Hampton in February 1895 was ultimately built seventeen years later in 1912 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, which followed the exact ridge route through Frostproof into Avon Park.[fa-1895-02-06]
References
- fa-1895-02-06 — 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. 6 February 1895. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn96027724/1895-02-06/ed-1/?sp=1
- harpers-1895-novelty — Harper’s Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 2008. A Novelty Among Railroads. 15 June 1895. harpers-weekly-1895-novelty-among-railroads.md
- pineapple-1895-09 — W. E. Pabor and E. A. Pabor. Pabor Lake Pineapple, vol. 3 no. 10, September 1895, p. 145. 15 September 1895. https://ufdc.ufl.edu/aa00020306/00029
Related
- Finding: The 1895 wooden railroad route and extent of track
- Entity: Avon Park Transportation Company
- Entity: Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Haines City Branch
- Report: Burleigh’s steam engine and the Avon Park wooden railroad
- Report: Avon Park in The Florida Agriculturist, 1890-1910
Where this comes from
- Evidence
- corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
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- unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
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- society
Sources
- 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)
- Harper's Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 2008, A Novelty Among Railroads (1895)
- W. E. Pabor and E. A. Pabor, Pabor Lake Pineapple, vol. 3 no. 10, September 1895, p. 145 (1895)
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