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Small Towns and Ghost Towns Collection

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Title: Adamsville
Abstract/Description: The small town of Adamsville, once stood just south of Gibsonton off US 41. Settled by the Adams family in the late 1800s, the small community, south of Bullfrog Creek, was a small farming community and also home to one of the largest tropical fish farms. Today, Adamsville is included in the town o...
Title: Balm
Abstract/Description: The small community of Balm, located on SR 37 in Southern Hillsborough County is, and remains, a small farming community.
Title: Fort Lonesome
Abstract/Description: Fort Lonesome, originally referred to as Boogerman's Corner, is in the extreme southeast corner of Southern Hillsborough County.
Title: Gulf City Collection
Abstract/Description: Items related to the history of Gulf City Florida one of South County's oldest communities. (Now incorporated into Ruskin 1921)
Title: Lillibridge
Abstract/Description: The small town of Lillibridge in SE Hillsborough County, near Picnic, no longer exists. If you travel East on Jameson Road off of SR 37, you'll cross a bridge over the South prong of the Alafia River. It was along these banks that Lillibridge was first settled in 1889 and fully established by 189...
Title: Morris Park
Abstract/Description: Photo of William Morris By 1911, the new town of Ruskin was a thriving, cooperative community, and founder George Miller sought to create a ‘twin town’ to the east. Through a complex series of land deals involving Wimauma Founder Captain C. H. Davis, Miller acquired development rights to land...
Title: Picnic
Abstract/Description: Picnic was never a town. Originally called Hurrah Creek, it is believed that the name came from the fact that two wooden bridges crossed the Hurrah Creek there and it was the community place for a picnic in 1900's. Today it is an undeveloped part of Hillsborough County on SR 37.
Title: Sun City
Abstract/Description: The small farming community of Sun City lies south of the Little Manatee River, along US 41. In the 1920's, fueled by the Great Florida Land Boom, Sun City was once planned to be a large movie colony, that some declared was to be the "Hollywood of the East".
Title: Willow
Abstract/Description: In 1923 or 1924, a mill was built at Willow by the McGowin-Foshee Lumber Company from Alabama. The company leased 54,000 acres of land for logging. James I. Robbins, Bruce Robbins and James A. Robbins bought it in 1926. The Robbinses also bought 40,000 acres of woodlands that ran south to where Stat...