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Grossman Hammock

By Jeff Blakley Did you ever go out to Grossman’s Hammock before it became part of Everglades National Park to see the sulphur spring? Did you ever wonder where it got its name? Did you wonder if perhaps the name was somehow a corruption or misspelling of the Gossman surname? The first time I visited…

Mapping Homesteads in South Dade

By Jeff Blakley When I started researching the early settlers of Florida City and Homestead in April of 2015, I soon wanted to know exactly where they had claimed their homesteads. The links on the sidebar entitled BLM Tract books and Homesteading Records/BLM provide written information on where the homesteads were located, but maps are…

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A Very Short History of Florida City

By Jeff Blakley At the turn of the 20th century, Florida City (originally known as Detroit) was marketed by its developer, the Miami Land & Development Company, as a planned agricultural community. While Homestead, to the north, had its roots in 160 acre quarter-sections of land homesteaded by individual settlers, Detroit had its roots in…