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• 1860’s - Turpentine, Commercial Fishing, Timber and Cattle
• 1880’s - Canal dredging, steamboats and citrus crops, sugar production, and attempts made at wine production
• 1883 - Arrival of the Railroad, increased trade & shipping
• 1886-1887 - St. Cloud Sugar Plantation founded and Disston Land Company established
• 1894-1895 - Freeze of citrus crops prompted relocation further east & south
• By 1900, the Atlantic Coast Line provided passenger rail service to Osceola County that was part of a large
• rail system stretching from Tampa Bay, FL and Norfolk, VA
• 1915 - City of St. Cloud incorporated
• 1917 - First highways (Old Dixie Highway)
• Kissimmee Airport serves as an air base during WWII
• Early 1950’s - Owen Godwin, Sr. opens his Snake Village and Alligator Farm, later Gatorland (1954)
• 1952 - Flood event causes construction of major east-west canal; Deseret Ranches bought by LDS Church
• (290,000 acres over three counties); Early commercial corridor development along major roads; Sewage
• treatment outfall to Shingle Creek and Lake Toho
• Osceola County’s Population, at its first census in 1890, was 3,133; by 1960 it had grown to 19,029