Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "rules" to see a copy of the trail rules, print it, and then click where indicated at the end of the 3-page rules and patch order form to get back to the list of Florida trails.
3....If you want a hand-drawn map showing the locations of all of the sites, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Steve Rajtar, 1614 Bimini Dr., Orlando 32806.
4....Hike the trail and order whatever patches you like (optional).
WARNING - This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood. Drugs and other inappropriate items have been found by hikers in some neighborhoods. It is suggested that you drive the hike routes first to see if you will feel comfortable walking them and, if you don't think it's a good place for you walk, you might want to consider (1) traveling with a large group, (2) doing the route on bicycles, or (3) choosing another hike route. The degree of comfort will vary with the individual and with the time and season of the hike, so you need to make the determination using your best judgment. If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
This section of road was a part of the Dixie Highway, which was the dream of Carl Fisher of Indianapolis. He had made his fortune in the new auto industry, and wanted to build a highway from Chicago to Miami. When news got out, many communities formed associations to lobby for inclusion on the route.
The Dixie Highway Association met in Chattanooga and chose a route pasing through Tallahassee and Jacksonville, and proceeding south along the east coast. Frenzied lobbying also produced an inland route passing through Gainesville, Ocala, Winter Park, Orlando, Kissimmee, Bartow and Arcadia, rejoining the coastal route at Palm Beach.
In 1915, Fisher led an auto cavalcade from the Midwest to Miami, popularizing auto trips to Florida. The Dixie Highway was officially open for traffic in October of 1925 from the Canadian border at the northern tip of Michigan to Miami.
In 1886, John Thomas Pirie came from Lake Forest, Illinois, to Florida seeking relief for his wife's asthma. By 1892, he was spending his winters here. He bought 1000 acres here, and named it "Errol Farm" after his hometown in Scotland. He built many homes here for guests and members of his family.
The estate, which included thoroughbred horses, registered Devon cattle and Berkshire hogs, Plymouth Rock chickens, Bronze turkeys, and 600 rugged range cattle, was run by William Edwards. Pirie died here in 1940.
This is the last remaining Pirie building from the 1890s, used as a winter residence of one of his unmarried daughters because it had a downstairs bedroom. It was located on the southeast side of Lake Winonah, which is now known as Lake Francis.
C.W. and H.E. Smith opened a store in Plymouth in the late 1880s, and also had the Lake Standish Hotel built in about 1887. It was open for winter residents from December to April. During World War I, it was successfully operated by Alice M. Sweet and Mrs. M. Bradford.
This is the approximate site of the original wooden railroad depot of the Tavares, Orlando and Atlantic Railroad Company (TO&A).
Merrimack was founded in late 1875 by James M. Campbell, George C. Campbell, and Frederick H. Perry, who came from Manchester, located on the Merrimack River in New Hampshire. Each of them bought 160 acres for orange groves. Others moved from Apopka and Bay Ridge.
From 1884 to 1889, John H. Haynes served as storekeeper and postmaster. The post office moved to Plymouth in 1902. A school was built in 1882 at a cost of $500, and had a good enough reputation for some Apopka residents to send their children there. The 1894-95 freezes essentially wiped out the settlement, and what little is left is located near the intersection of Plymouth-Sorrento and Ponkan Rds.
Also along Plymouth-Sorrento Rd. and what is now known as Kelly Park Rd. was the settlement of Bay Ridge. In 1885-86, about 30 families arrived there from New England, Texas and Kansas, and nearly all planted citrus groves. Also grown by some were LeConte and Kieffer pears, scuppernong grapes, strawberries and vegetables.
Starch was manufactured by Thampson and Mayer. John W. Anderson from Indiana lived in an octagon-shaped house and owned a saw and shingle mill. E.S. and Wesley Poore operated the Bay Ridge Nursery, where one could buy grapes, oranges and plums. One store was operated by postmaster C.K. Slonegar. The other had general merchandise sold by Burley and Lyford.
The Bay Ridge Literary and Musical Improvement Society met in its own building, which also served as a school and church. The Bay Ridge Methodist Episcopal Church organized on April 14, 1888. The Oak Hill Cemetery Association was formed in January of 1886.
In the mid-1880s, E.C. Swan helped establish a small community near here with the name of Orange Heights. He operated a business of tending groves year-round for $20/acre. C.W. and H.E. Smith opened a store in Orange Heights in the 1880s.
In about 1902, Swan discovered that there already existed an Orange Heights, Florida, and decided to change the name. At the urging of a neighbor, C.W. Smith, the name was changed to Plymouth.
To make containers for processed products, American Can Company bought this site in 1952 from Sue Chapman Simpson and erected their plant. In the 1960s, facing problems with a labor union, American Can closed the plant. In 1969, General Electric Company bought the site and began to manufacture lighting fixtures and Christmas lights.
Later, it became the home of Weyerhaeuser's Customer Service Center.
The educational facility now located here was founded on September 1, 1963, and met in a building in Orlando, just off Kaley St. The buildings here were erected in 1983. More than 14,000 students have studied here in nine degree programs.
This complex is located on a 40-acre site, and has an international outreach with representatives in 75 countries. Future plans include construction of a gymnasium, classroom/office complex, library, softball field, and other recreation areas.
Part of the complex is the Campus Church, which had its first informal service on August 14, 1994.
This home, dating from the 1890s, is about all that is left from the settlement of McDonald.
The first settler, Andrew A. McDonald, arrived from Virginia in about 1873. His eldest son, Dr. M.G. McDonald, began practicing medicine here in the 1880s. Marion Fitzhugh McDonald became a charter member of the Plymouth Citrus Growers Association, which organized in 1909.
Percival McDonald operated a general store. He also operated a packing house with S.W. Eldredge of Apopka, but it closed after the 1894-95 freezes. Percival and two of his brothers then moved to Mexico, and he didn't return to Plymouth until he retired thirty years later.
Rev. J.T. Leonard formed a Presbyterian congregtion which grew to about 100 members by 1889. McDonald also had its own school.
Near this spot was the post office for McDonald. Arthur Fuller served as the postmaster, until he moved to Altamonte Springs at about the turn of the century.
The community was decimated by the freezes of 1894 and 1895.
At approximately this spot was the railroad station built to serve Merrimack. After a while, McDonald Station grew into a separate community.
In November of 1877, Judge Speer and others living near the south shore of this lake petitioned the Internal Improvement Fund for ownership of the swamps and overflowed lands north of the lake. Their request was granted in 1879, contingent on their draining the lake and digging a canal to connect it to Lake Dora.
The Apopka Canal Company began immediately and completed the canal in 1887. That project allowed oranges to be loaded on a boat at the Oakland dock and be shipped solely by water through lakes and the St. Johns River to Jacksonville and Savannah.
Zellwood Florida Farms applied for and obtained permission to lower the level of Lake Apopka to develop the Zellwood mucklands. In May of 1915, 135 truck farmers met at Tildenville to try to halt the project. Orlando attorney Leroy B. Giles worked with L.W. Tilden in getting legislation adopted which prohibited a private party from lowering the level of any body of water of more than 2 square miles, without the written consent of all property owners abutting it. However, it was determined not to affect the Lake Apopka project, since the proposed lowering would not bring the level below the "low water mark" of 62 feet.
Anderson Pittman Fudge, the son of Apopka's first mayor, moved from Georgia to Florida in 1875. He settled in Maitland, then moved to Longwood, then in 1881 established his homestead here. At the time, there were only five or six other settlers in Plymouth.
The home remained in the family until 1948, when Anson Fudge sold it to C.P. Bateman.
This sanctuary was erected in 1946 while Rev. F.L. Curtis was the pastor.
From 1910 to 1912, a group met in a two-room building used for a school, to worship under the leadership of Rev. Z. Turk from the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Apopka. Rev. Turk would bring about twelve others by train for services twice a month.
This parcel of land was bought from charter member Mary Morgan in 1920. A wooden building was erected, and was replaced in 1946 by this stone structure while Rev. H.A. Washington was the pastor.
This is a recent cemetery, with the oldest marked graves dating to the mid-1960s. Most are from 1985 or later.
This concrete block station is the successor to the old wooden TO&A depot. It now serves the Florida Central Railroad, the Florida Northern Railroad and the Florida Midland Railroad.
In the mid-1940s, a $1,100,000 plant was built by the newly-formed Florida Foods, Inc., for the production of frozen concentrated orange juice. It later reorganized as Vacuum Foods, Inc., then Minute Maid Corporation, and then became a division of the Coca Cola Company. Later, it became the home of Mid-Florida Freezer Warehouses, Ltd.
In 1924, this church was reestablished by 22 members of Apopka First Baptist. Rev. E.M. McDowell of Eustis began preaching here twice a month in 1925, and Rev. George C. Case came from New York in 1927 to serve as pastor. The present sanctuary was built in 1966.
This road gets its name from the fact that it runs southward to Camp Wewa, owned by the Central Florida Council of the Boy Scouts of America from 1925 to 1950. It is currently owned and operated by the Central Florida YMCA, which paid $15,000 for it.
Boone's Florida Historical Markers & Sites, by Floyd Edward Boone (Rainbow Books 1988)
First Baptist Church of Apopka: Centennial Celebration 1880-1980, by Lucy Goolsby and Phyllis Hayes (1984)
Flashbacks: The Story of Central Florida's Past, by Jim Robison and Mark Andrews (The Orlando Sentinel 1995)
The History of Apopka, by Ralph Grassfield (Apopka Printing Company 1926)
History of Apopka and Northwest Orange County, Florida, by Jerrell H. Shofner (Rose Printing Company, Inc. 1982)
The History of Errol Estate and Country Club, by Harry J. Deck (1994)
History of Orange County, Florida, by William Fremont Blackman (The E.O. Painter Printing Co. 1927)
Oakland: The Early Years, by Eve Bacon (The Mickler House 1974)
Orlando: The City Beautiful, by Jerrell H. Shofner (Continental Heritage Press 1984)
Webb's Historical, Industrial and Biographical Florida, by Wanton S. Webb (W.S. Webb & Co. 1885)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.