Three Books
There are not very many novels about Florida and its history. The three that follow events from the early 1800s to, in some cases, the 1940s are:
Bright Feather by Robert Wilder
I Take this Land by Richard Powell
A Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith
Of these, the one that has the most to do with Sanford, is, "I Take this Land." It follows a fictional Ward Campion's adventures on behalf of Henry Plant.
If you traveled west of Sanford before the 429 expressway was built, SR 46 paralleled the Sanford and Lake Eustis rail line. Along it and the railroad from Sanford to Jacksonville, are, or in some cases, were, pink, mostly pink with some white, flowers that bloomed in April and matured in May.
They are called phlox. A week ago, they were in full bloom along the rails in Seville, Florida where the Amtrak Auto Train was taking an afternoon nap, blocking the main east-west street in that fernery oriented town.
Plant's railroad holdings evolved into the Atlantic Coast Line.
The story goes that the wife of the Atlantic Coast Line longtime president, Champion McDowell Davis, would throw phlox seed from their private car at the end of the train, scattering it as you now see it, along the routes of Atlantic Coast Line passenger trains. It also showed up along 18th Street across from what is now Sanford Middle School.
Before Amtrak, the West Coast Champion was described as the "most popular train in America" as it ran from Washington through Sanford to Tampa.
