Florida Friday; Deep Lake and the Harrisburg to Everglades City Railroad

Back in 2013 I checked out a ghost town in Collier County on Florida State Road 29 which along the Harrisburg to Everglades City Railroad.

The name Deep Lake refers to a 90 foot sink hole on the eastern side of FL 29 which apparently is the largest south of Lake Okeechobee. Deep Lake is located in the middle of the Big Cypress Swamp and was part of Lee County until Collier County split away in 1923. Deep Lake was originally settled in 1900 by investors looking to built grapefruit ranch. The investors built a small railroad line to transport the grapefruit from Deep Lake south to Everglades City. Said railroad line can be seen on the 1916 Lee County map.

1916 Lee County Map

By 1928 the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad purchased the rails between Everglades and Deep Lake. The ACL expanded the line north to Harrisburg which was a rail siding located near Palmdale and the current junction of US 27/FL 29. The expanded line can be seen on the 1932 Collier County Map.

1932 Collier County Map

The Everglades City to Harrisburg line was partially abandoned in 1957 between Everglades City north to Sunniland with the rest of the line sometime in the 1980s according to abandonedrails.com.

Everglades City to Harrisburg Railroad

At some point a prison complex was built in Deep Lake. The prison ended up being a FDOT maintenance facility which was abandoned in 2002. The prison complex is located being a fence line which can be seen from FL 29.

Comments

Trimmer Springs Road (Fresno County)

Trimmer Springs Road is an approximately forty-mile rural highway located in Fresno County. The corridor begins near in California State Route 180 in Centerville and extends to Blackrock Road at the Kings River in the Sierra Nevada range near the Pacific Gas & Electric Company town of Balch Camp. The roadway is named after the former Trimmer Springs Resort and was originally constructed to facilitate access to the Sanger Log Flume. Trimmer Springs Road was heavily modified and elongated after construction of Pine Flat Dam broke ground in 1947. Part 1; the history of Trimmer Springs Road Much of the original alignment of Trimmer Springs Road was constructed to facilitate access to the Sanger Log Flume. The Kings River Lumber Company had been established in 1888 in the form of a 30,000-acre purchase of forest lands in Converse Basin. This purchase lied immediately west of Grant Grove and came to be known as "Millwood." The co...

When was Ventura Avenue east of downtown Fresno renamed to Kings Canyon Road? (California State Route 180)

California State Route 180 was one of the original Sign State Routes designated in August 1934. The highway east of Fresno originally utilized what was Ventura Avenue and Dunlap Road to reach what was then General Grant National Park. By late year 1939 the highway was extended through the Kings River Canyon to Cedar Grove. In 1940 General Grant National Park would be expanded and rebranded as Kings Canyon National Park. The Kings Canyon Road designation first appeared in publications circa 1941 when the California State Route 180 bypass of Dunlap was completed. Kings Canyon Road ultimately would replace the designation of Dunlap Road from Dunlap to Centerville and Ventura Avenue west to 1st Street in Fresno. The Kings Canyon Road would remain largely intact until March 2023 when the Fresno Council designated Cesar Chavez Boulevard. Cesar Chavez Boulevard was designated over a ten-mile corridor over what was Kings Canyon Road, remaini...

Interstate 99 at 30

When it comes to the entirety of the Interstate Highway System, Interstate 99, when fully completed, is nothing more than 161 miles of a roughly 48,000-mile system (0.3% of total length). Yet, to more than just a handful of people, the number '99' rubs them the wrong way. Interstate 99 follows the path of two US Highway Routes - US 220 from the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bedford north to Interstate 80 and then to US 15/Interstate 180 in Williamsport. It then follows US 15 from Williamsport north to Interstate 86 in Corning, New York. Interstate 99 runs with US 220 through much of Central Pennsylvania. (Doug Kerr) US 220 from Cumberland, Maryland to Interstate 80 and US 15 north of Williamsport were designated part of the Appalachian Highway System in 1965. Construction to upgrade both corridors progressed steadily but slowly. In 1991, the two corridors were included as a National High Priority Corridor. The route from Cumberland to Corning consisted of High P...

Gribblenation

Search This Blog