Communication Builds Our Community

October 3, 1923 Highlander

The Lake Wales area in 1923 was a bustle of activity as the Great Florida Land Boom took serious hold of the imaginations of investors from across the nation. Land speculation in the state was beginning to be a major driver of rising property values as properties were flipped from investor to investor without hesitation, always at a profit.

Locally, Roger Babson, a noted statistician, was laying the groundwork for his community of Babson Park, with plans afoot to build a new two-story building with a full basement to house his statistical laboratory.

Elsewhere in town, attention was directed to a local man named N. F. Gardner, a lineman for Western Union working along the Seaboard railroad line, who caught a four-and-a-half foot rattlesnake with his bare hands to prevent it biting him. He brought the live rattler to a local collector for exhibiting. List the big rattler alongside the deer which had been seen roaming around inside the narrow confines of the town.

Meanwhile the Lake Wales Woman's Club was participating in a County Federation meeting in Eagle Lake. Mrs. BK Bullard, wife of one of the founders of Lake Wales, was serving as vice president of the county group.

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 
Rendered 09/29/2024 20:18