The Fruitland Park Casino

Casino, is an interesting word. It conjures up images of the lavish, pretentious and luxurious gambling emporiums in places like Monaco or Las Vegas but it can also mean a place for social activities.

The Fruitland Park Casino

The Fruitland Park Casino was of the latter variety and was built in 1914 by George Clark on the property of his Gardenia Hotel. The wood frame building had a metal roof, a long wide porch, low eaves, and a breezeway. Inside it had a large stage, and ladies' and men's dressing rooms, each with their own bathroom. The Casino also featured amenities such as running water, electric lights, and steam heat. Many dances, plays and other social events were held there and it also served as a meeting place for clubs and civic organizations like the Fruitland Park Chamber of Commerce. During the World Wars, women and school children met there to knit mufflers, sweaters, and socks for servicemen.

Original walls and windows in the lobby of the new library

Activities continued, and The Casino was declared a Florida Heritage site in 2015 but in 2017 the ancient structure was deemed unsound and it was razed to the ground. The City of Fruitland Park has now built a new library on the site where windows and parts of the exterior walls and flooring from The Casino were used in the construction of the entrance lobby.

The new Fruitland Park library

George Clark may have been ahead of his time if we consider The Fruitland Park Casino to be an omen for The Villages of the future. It had a recreation center - The Casino - and many social and cultural activities for 100 years prior to The Villages providing similar amenities in the adjacent Village of Pine Ridge in Fruitland Park.

Click here for Strava route information

Floral City - Boom to Bust and Back Again

Around 1800, Seminole Indians were settled in the area we now know as Floral City. But following the Seminole Wars the 1842 Armed Occupation Act gave 160 acres to any man who lived on it, kept a gun and ammunition, and farmed 5 acres for 5 years. The legislation effectively encouraged settlers to move in and the Seminoles to move out.

Picking Oranges - Ferris Groves circa 1900

By the late 1800's, Floral City was exporting citrus, sugar cane and timber. Harvests were shipped to northern markets by steamboat via the 5 mile long Orange State Canal which was dug in 1884 and connected Lake Tsala Apopka to the Withlacoochee river.

Steamer on the Orange State Canal circa 1890

In 1893 the railroad arrived and with it phosphate deposits were found causing a boom which by 1900 had attracted around 10,000 miners. It made Floral City one of the largest towns in Florida with hotels and an infrastructure to support the community. But things slowed down with the great winter freezes of 1894/95.The citrus industry wouldn't recover for 20 years. Another setback followed when the phosphate mines went south - to Bartow.

Ferris Groves on Hwy 41 1955

Citrus recovered when "Doc" Ferris, who had bought Duval Island during the land boom planted orange trees instead of building the golf course he had originally planned. He covered 350 acres with 31,000 trees, built a packing house, and nearly everyone in Floral City worked for him through the great depression and the war years. All went well until the Christmas deep freeze of 1989 which wiped out the groves for the last time.

The Shamrock Inn 2024

Today, the railroad is gone and the old road bed is now the Withlacoochee State Trail which we ride on. East Orange Avenue, Floral City's main street, has many beautiful old homes and the Shamrock Inn is always good for lunch. Continue east on East Orange and you will cross the Orange State Canal when you ride over the bridge to Duval Island.

For route information and more pictures click here

Bugg Spring

Legend has it that around the year 1900 nine year old Billy Bugg, his mule and wagon fell into this spring one morning while he was getting water. Billy drowned but his name lives on.

Bugg Spring 1929 - photo: Florida Memory

Bugg Spring lies between Lake Denham and Hwy 470 about a mile east of Dabney Recreation Center. It's a second category spring producing about 5.5 million gallons of water per day and flows into Lake Denham near Helena Run. It has a large 400 feet wide steep sided pool and is very deep at 175 feet.

Bugg Spring

It would be a wonderful club ride destination if the the Naval Undersea Warfare Center hadn't purchased the property in 2011. The springs huge volume of deep, quiet and still water has an ambient noise level below sea state zero and the navy uses it for the calibration of submarine noise and surface ship tactical towed sonar arrays. Among other things. 

Among other things? Well some time ago I was enjoying a coffee and donut at the Brownwood Dunkin while chatting to one of our members who it turned out was a submarine chaser when he was in the Navy. I mentioned Bugg Spring and he seemed to think that in quiet water like that they'd also be locating and listening to ships and submarines in the Atlantic. 

Bugg Spring Road

So, believe it or not, you can't just stop by and visit but you can get an authorization to see the facility here. Tell them you'd like to see the manatee and alligators, good luck.

While Bugg Spring is not a top secret naval facility, if you do not see me out on my bike for a while after the publication of this article you probably shouldn't ask too many questions.

For route information and more pictures click here

Why is it called Carney Island?

Being the unofficial SLBC resident historian I am often asked "why is Carney Island called Carney Island when there is no Island?" Well, it's proper name is Carney Island Recreation and Conservation Area. So think of it as an island recreation and conservation area named after John Carney. And, by the way, there are two islands.

Around 1870 Captain John L. Carney had seen that wild sour Seville oranges planted by Spanish explorers were still growing after a couple of centuries which led him to believe it would be a good location for citrus groves. In '74 he bought 400 acres of property on Lake Weir which consisted of most of Hammock Peninsula and two islands to the south, Orange Island and Lemon Island.

1883 map by T.M Shackleford showing peninsula and islands

Carney's business was successful and his groves on the Hammock Peninsula still exist but the island groves have long been abandoned. Over the years the Lake Weir water level has fallen and the islands now resemble hammocks in wetlands and maps no longer name them. However the southernmost tip of what today we'd call the peninsula is still identified as Lemon Point.

Peninsula and Islands - 1973 water levels

Where the road in the park ends there are trails which will give you access to Lemon Point and the two islands which are identifiable. I rode these trails after a dry period on 35mm gravel tires and while there can be areas of loose sand you can easily skirt them by riding on grass. It is well worth visiting.

For route info and more pictures click here.

Micanopy

The last time I rode up to Micanopy was before Covid with Hugh Caggiano. We started at the Fellowship Community Church on Hwy 27 where the church secretary said cyclists often start out and that she'd keep an eye on the car for us. Then we took an interesting 34 mile scenic route through horse farm country to Micanopy where we had lunch at Coffee & Cream.

The Old Florida Cafe

Named after the Seminole Chief Micanopy the town has an interesting history. In the late 1800's the adjacent 23,000 acre Payne's Prairie was flooded when the Alachua Sink became plugged following a storm. For about 20 years it was known as Lake Alachua and had regular steamboat service to local communities and Micanopy where you can see the anchor from the Chacala.

The Old Hotel and Saloon - banned on Saturday nights.

Since then its main commerce has been agricultural. The owner of the restaurant had lived in Micanopy all her life and she told me when she was a girl her parents wouldn't let her go "downtown" on Saturdays because many of the itinerant farm workers would be tearing it up at the local hotel and saloon.

More recently Micanopy is better known for being the location of the movie Doc Hollywood which starred Michael J. Fox as a doctor who crashed his car there and got sentenced to community service. Fortunately there was an attractive girl on hand - who'd have thought it?

The Flemington Country Store

On the way back we stopped at the historic and colorful Flemington Country Store - not to be missed!

For route information and more pictures: