AS PROMISED PART TWO OF THE CENTRAL FLORIDA TOUR:
You’ll cross a modern little bridge–this area use to belong to a Major Thomas Starke. The major had a ferry boat here, the crossing was called Starke’s Ferry and still is.
Tom Starke was a secessionist and following the Civil War his home became a hide out for the Confederate Secretary of War, John C. Breckinridge, it was a very risky thing to do but the secretary eventually escaped to Cuba without Starke’s involvement being found out.
It was this period following the war that very shallow draft Her are scenic vistas and you may even see some of the remains of the once large scale orange groves that were once common to the area.
turn right/north on SR 25/Ocala Rd. (this was originally 441 before the new one was built 3 miles west of here)
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SR 25 recalls the day when travel was slower and roads went around not through things in the landscape.
Wierdale: another tiny town. The town was named for the Lake which SR 25 transverse the East borders—Nathaniel W-A-R-E, but with an incorrect spelling.
This area around Lake Weir was the site of many pre-Civil War plantations.
Col. Adam Summer raised prize cattle on the west site of the lake around the town that now bares his name Summerfield. The Colonel owned a mansion there and after the war he also helped that same confederate government member Breckinridge prior to his movement to Starke’s land. Breckinridge reportedly even swam in the lake during his visit.
Lake Weir became popular in the 1880’s when the rail road arrived and several small Tourist hotels (some even built second homes) were built along the beautiful lake with its sandy bottom.
By the 1920s a developer arrived with plans for the northeast shore for a fashionable hotel, country club, even a golf course…along with canals from the lake allowing sailing to other lakes in the area…but the depression struck first and nothing came of it.
SR 25 turns west/left above Lake Wier
OKLAWAHA
is really a very famous town…back in the depression times the popularity of the region had lost its glow and in November 1934 this area was still attractive but now a bit isolated…and it came to the attention of one Kate Barker better known in crime circles as “Ma” and her son, Freddie as well as several other less than honest citizens. The group called “The Barker Gang” had a history of robbing banks and along with that came shooting people.
But the most recent crime was more of a problem…they had kidnapped one of the Hamm Brewing family member, which brought them to national prominence and that mean the FBI had gotten involved. So it was time to lay low…so after splitting up the loot, they split up the gang and moved on. So Ma and Freddie rented a secluded cottage in the middle of the Florida nothingness.
At first the Barker were just normal neighbors, they seemed nice enough and Freddie tipped well but they began to complain when Freddie took his machine to the lake and shot the ducks. Eventually even these remote villagers began to realize something was quite right with the new occupants. So someone reported their odd behavior to the law and they started to look into the Blackburns whom they found to be dead ringers for Ma and Freddie Barker.
On January 16, 1935, 14 heavily armed FBI agents surrounded the residence. When they called for the two to surrender, Ma and Freddie answered with gunfire instead. The Feds replied in kind riddling the house with bullets for 45 minutes, then with intermittent fire for another 5 hrs. When they finally entered the two outlaws were well riddled corpses.
The house still stands today, having had the 1,500 bullet holes fixed and pounds of lead removed and remodeled and resold. Today you can’t tell it from the others which is how the owners want it, but as you drive down SR 25 past the community building look to you left along the northern shores of Lake Weir you’ll see the houses set back from the road, just imagion which one you think looks the most wounded.
Once past Lake Weir SR 25 has been modernized and is rather uninteresting with boring landscape, scrubby pines and auto repair shops.
BELLEVIEW: This area was once a favorite place for the Seminoles to meet and was called Nile Mile Pond. During a lull in the Seminole War they actually had officers from Ft. King here to attend a feast. But hostalities soon resumed.
In 1982 the town had a major pollution disaster when underground fuel storage tanks leaked polluting all their wells and taking 8 months to clean up while they had to have water brought in from Ocala. This resulted in Florida making laws about metal storage tanks taking decades and thousands of dollars to correct.
Turn right/north on US 27/301/441
This highway follows the route of the old Ft. King military road which at one time was a narrow dirt path, wandering through dense forest in the heart of Seminole Country–no more.
In three miles the highway splits near the village of Santos as it goes around a forested area.
this was originally designed to be a temporary bypass until the completion of a bridge over the never-completed Cross Florida Barge Canal….some thing very few Floridians know anything about.
An idea goes back as far at the Spanish Colonist, then the newly formed US (including John Quincy Adams…then Andrew Jackson, Calvin Collidge and Herbert Hoover). Roosevelt (Franklin in 1933) had access to 28 surveys and even a route selected River and exiting near Dunellon into the Gulf. All in an effort to save shipping time and avoid treacherous seas. Roosevelt added it to his Depression Work programs and a team started erecting a supply depot near Ocala.
The state called it “one of the greatest events…happen to the….state.” Some churches called it “a holy enterprise.” Everyone thought it heralded a new boom. Things rolled on for awhile but then businessmen from Miami and Tampa started complaining on why Jacksonville should gain so much from this…Citrus farmers feared the digging and draining would damage their crops. Towns became concerned of salt water coming in thru the locks and contaminating water. The debate and preparations went until 1936 when new appropriations were defeated and the work places were deserted (the ones for the original camp were used by the University for police courses.)
The idea was kicked around during WWII but was never considered due to man power issues and in 1956 with one of the pushing points that the reduced travel would save beer consumers 42% per case. And again in 1964 the work was resumed under LBJ with construction on both ends…a 150′ wide canal dug for 10 miles to Inglis Locks completed in 1970. On the St. Johns, a dam was built at Rodman to create a navigable reservoir.
But now it was environmentalist that rose to stop it all with concerns of killed wildlife, saltwater seepage into the acquifer and the fact that seemly should have been mentioned years ago: that most shippers would not use it. Both Ford and Carter said no and it was finally dead.
But here the gateway remains a mute and mysterious reminder of yesterday and maybe a warning of tomorrow.
WE’LL HAVE MORE OF THE TOUR SOON….IT TAKES LONGER TO WRITE THAN IT DOES TO DO—HONEST.
This picture and the main one are both from Edinburgh
so it this one: