Tomato Hill Airport

Tomato Hill Airport Observation Tower

You've probably ridden up Tomato Hill and know that its summit is the highest point in Leesburg. What you probably don’t know is that it was also the site of Leesburg's first airport. In 1928 Fred Briles a WW1 aviation mechanic and the local Packard dealer cleared a strip of land on the east side of the road and bought an Ox-Winkle biplane. He said he had to gun the plane on the dirt but there was no trouble taking off if you could get to the top of the hill.

  

This is an Ox Winkle similar to Ed Briles’s powered by a Curtis V8 Ox engine. Piloted from the rear seat it carried two passengers in the front. In 1929 a flying circus came to the strip with two Wacos and a Ford Tri-motor and gave rides for 50 cents. Amelia Earhart is known to have flown in several times.

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A History of the Picciola Bridge in pictures

Most of you will have been over the Picciola Bridge which spans the Dead River and Lake Griffin on a ride out to the Methodist Camp on Picciola Island.

  Picciola Bridge 1953

(photo courtesy floridamemory.com)

 

Picciola Bridge 1953

(photo courtesy floridamemory.com)

 

Picciola Bridge 1955

(photo courtesy floridamemory.com)

 Picciola Bridge Today

 Picciola Bridge Today

 

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The Leesburg Fire Bell

This 400 pound bronze bell was purchased by the Leesburg Fire Department in 1880 from the Buckeye Foundry in Ohio and it was mounted in the bell tower of the fire house. It now has a place of honor at the current fire station on the corner of Magnolia and Canal Streets and it has a lanyard for anyone to ring – it has a nice tone.

The Leesburg Fire Department had its roots in the 1860's when volunteers formed bucket brigades.The photo shows the crew with a new fire truck in 1918.

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Belleview Grotto

I was riding up to Belleview to see Lake Lilian and the Belleview Grotto which I'd read about. To the east of Rte 441 in the older part of town the homes have been kept up and it is a pretty area close to Lake Lilian. Not the impression of Belleview you get when passing through on the highway.

 

A waterhole known as the Grotto provided Belleview with water for many years and it was once a natural wonder the city used in its promotional material. A pump at the top of the Grotto pumped water directly out of a spring fed by the Floridian aquifer to residents. Occasionally, heavy rains would wash the pump into the spring, leaving the town without water until another pump was installed. Since then the water supply has been replaced.
Today, the Grotto, in reality a deep sink hole is protected from intruders by a fence.

 

Climbing up on the fence and holding my camera as high as possible I managed to get this picture where you can see water at the bottom of the hole. I chatted to an elderly lady who was passing and she said when the water was flowing in the grotto you could still hear it if you were close by. She told me that the Seminole chief Osceola was believed to have hidden in the grotto and local caves during the Seminole Wars (circa 1830). She knew this to be true because she and Osceola had had a torrid affair. Then she laughed her ass off. You had to be there!

 

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Down in the Dumps

In the middle of The Villages just off Moyer Loop behind this golf course beyond the line of trees lies the Sumter County landfill facilities for the disposal of class A materials. 

The dump covers approximately 70 acres in the middle of The Villages – Wow!

It is used only for the disposal of clean fill which includes building materials and appliances. 

Inside the dump – you can ride your bike up there – just beyond the fence and trees you can see over Morse Boulevard to the Village of Captiva. 

Back on the outside, on the other side, guess what's up the hill and behind the trees? They did a nice job of concealing it. 

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