>>This program is brough to you in part by the Paul B.

Hunter and Constance D. Hunter Charitable Foundation a proud partner of WUCF, and the Central Florid Community.

>>Up next on this episode of Florida Road Trip... >>People don't know until they get here how neat it is to feel like you step back in time.

>>We hit the road to explore a part of the state preserving Old Florida.

Plus... >>Who wants to throw their garbage away in just a little round garbage can when you can have butterflies or you can have bees buzzing around you?

>>We make a pit stop in a town that found an artistic way to bring visitors from around the country.

And... >>They had the base up and ready to go in 11 months.

>>A first of its kind B-17 training base shifting gears to become a one of a kind raceway.

Buckle up.

Florida Road Trip is back on the road and headed to Highlands County.

♪♪♪ Hello and welcome to this edition of Florida Road Trip.

I'm your host, Scott Fais.

This week, we make a pit stop here in Highlands County in the center of Florida.

This is a place where it feels like time has stood still.

And you can get a glimpse of Old Florida.

Highlands County is home to three captivating communities, each with its own distinct personality.

We start our history tour here in Lake Placid.

>>We go back to some of the original settlers in the area.

The first homesteader was Joshua and Louisa Lastinger.

Joshua and his five brothers after the Civil War started heading south, mainly because they just had the itch to go.

And as they migrated down through the state of Florida, they settle in a couple of different areas.

And as Joshua came over to this area, the Lake Placid area, he found how beautiful it was not just for beauty, but for the wildlife and the hunting.

Because back in the early days, we're talking in the 1890s, people still lived off of natural hunting.

>>Joshua Lastinger homesteaded 160 acres with his family and then he started growing citrus.

>>Orange groves became real popular at the time because of the mild temperatures and the lack of freezing.

So that really prompte a lot of people to move to this area to set up the groves.

Atlantic Coastline Railroad came down through this area, 1916 to 1919 is when they finished their line through here.

And we did have a lot of not just oranges and citrus, but also vegetables.

Some of our first vegetables out west of town in the muck land area, just south of Lake Istokpoga was celery.

We had another industry here that was lilies that were grown out in that area as well.

>>It wasn't originally named Lake Placid.

The town's first name was actually Wicco.

>>As the surveyors came into town and they actually platted out the area and homesteaded, that's where we ended up naming the town Lake Stearns.

The reason they named it Lake Stearns was the surveyors name was Stearns.

They knew that it had been just a little blip on the map as Wicco, but as it becoming a town itself, they decided that it needed to have a proper name.

>>The town's name changed again at the request of a visitor from Lake Placid, New York, Melvil Dewey.

>>He didn't have a big thing to do in this town by any means, but it was his vision.

His vision helped to turn Lake Placid into what it is today.

>>He wanted Atlantic Coastline Railroad to extend passenger service down here so that his friends from his gentlemen's club up in Lake Placid, New York, would have a place to winter and come down here.

>>There's a good chance that you've used his invention in your lifetime.

>>He developed the Dewey Decimal System for the libraries.

>>Yes.

The same Dewey who created the world's most widely used library organizational system.

Dewey also founded a winter club in Lake Placid, New York, that gained the reputation as America's first winter resort.

When he visited Lake Stearns, he envisioned recreating the same thing this time in Florida, which he did.

Dewey even convince town leaders to change the name of the town to Lake Placid.

That same charm that attracted Dewey so many years ago still exists today.

>>The biggest comment I get when people come here is this is such a lovely area and it's so peaceful that they want to move here.

♪♪♪ >>Public art plays a significant rol in the identity of a community.

>>Here in Lake Placid, they spent the past three decades creating an outdoor gallery of murals that beautifully depicts the town's history.

>>The early nineties is when Lake Placid kind of had a little slump in businesses.

We had empty storefronts, Bob and Harriet Porter were members of our community at that point, and they would go on bike rides, motorcycle rides on their three wheeled motorcycle all over the country.

>>One year we were headed for Alaska and we came across this beautiful little town in Vancouver, British Columbia, called Chemainus.

And we saw 32 larger than life murals depicting the history of their town.

As I said, we were heading for Alaska.

Bob and I looked at each other.

We said, We've got to do this for Lake Placid.

We never got to Alaska.

We turned around and we'd beelined it back to Lake Placid.

We started the Mural Society in 1992, and in 1993, we actually had our first, which was called South Winds.

>>The Porters envisioned that the murals would help bring tourists to their hometown, but they also knew it would help improve the appearance.

>>Most of the walls that we used for murals were filled with black mold and mildew and windows were cracked and so forth.

We wanted to see gift shops and ice cream shops and all kinds of nice things that the tourists would like.

>>We are from one side of 27 to downtown Lake Placid, and everywhere in between we have 52 murals.

So businesses have participated over the years and just decided that would be a great thing to draw tourist and visitors to their business.

So they put a mural on.

>>The murals attract thousands of visitors every year, and each one portrays a different moment in the town's history.

>>It has to have been here, live here, or have something to do with anything that pertains to Lake Placid we, we paint.

>>The largest one is "Cattle Drive," which stands 175 feet long by 30 feet tall.

>>It depicts a cattle drive as it ran through Lake Placid.

And it's very, very large.

We were standing in front of it one day and I said, "Wouldn't it be fun if those cows were mooing?"

So now the sound is on the cattle.

>>Some of the murals depict family members of current Lake Placid residents.

>>We had a mural on our building of Mother and Daddy taken back when the store was on Main Street.

Lake Placid had a doctor maybe in late 1930s, and that gentleman died.

I think of a heart attack.

But so my daddy took over as being the community doctor, even though he was a pharmacist.

>>My grandfather, Swaine Bowers, was born and raised in South Carolina, then moved to Lake Placid.

He opened up a gasoline station and service station.

He happened to be called out on a service call in the early 1930s.

Three men had broke down in their Model-T Ford outside of Lake Placid on Lake Anning.

So he got the men back on the road, and before he left, they introduced themselves and thanked him.

On that particular day, he met Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.

They were traveling together.

>>It's a lot of murals in town.

We have slowed down because people come and they say, oh, we had a wonderful time.

We enjoyed them immensely, but we couldn't see them all.

So we do have more than people can see in one day.

♪♪♪ >>North of Lake Placid is Avon Park, the oldest city in Highlands County.

>>It started with Oliver Crosby.

He worked in New York City for a publishing company making brochures and booklets for steamboats, railroads and resort hotels.

He had to travel the East Coast into Florida, getting ads for these booklets and brochures.

And he saw other guys starting a town, and it gave him an idea maybe I should do that.

And he bought 50,000 acres for $20,000.

Crosby was doing very well selling to northern retirees.

>>Crosby also recruite a husband and wife from England to move to central Florida, and the wife named the city.

>>She came from Stratford on Avon.

She was homesick.

And she said it reminded her of her home.

That's Shakespeare's birthplace.

She named the town and she lived the rest of her life here.

>>When Florida citrus suffered the freezes of 1894 and 1895, many of the new residents lost their means to make money and left the state, including Crosby.

>>Several years later, he came back when he was close to dying.

He asked if his body could be brought back here to be buried at Bougainvillea cemetery, and the city council agreed.

>>Some of what put Avon Park on the map in its earlier years can still be found and used today.

The Avon Park Army Airfield was built in 1942 to help train troops for World War Two.

It's still active today, but the name changed in 1956 to the Avon Park Air Force Range.

It's a lot of land, so pilots have plenty of space to train on bombing tactics.

>>Maybe it's really a lot of military.

Thousands of soldiers here in the forties.

>>One of those soldiers is credited with one of our favorite dinnertime pastries.

>>Joe Gregor had been stationed at the bombing range and then he got discharged and he'd liked Avon Park so much that he and his wife decided that they would stay and open a bakery.

So they did.

So the women would come and look at all his pastries and cookies.

And they didn't want that.

They wanted hot dinner rolls.

And he couldn't do that.

>>When he wasn't at the pastry shop, Gregor was a volunteer firefighter.

>>He's taking his rolls, he just put them in the oven and they were there for a while.

And then suddenly the town sirens went off and he had to go to the fire.

So he had to pull those rules out, turn off the oven.

He went to the fire.

When it came back, he decide he could have thrown them away.

He decided to bake them and he baked them and only took 7 minutes.

So they started selling these things where you buy them, they're half baked.

You take them home, the household would take them home and bake them for 7 minutes and you have hot dinner rolls and that's it.

And General Mills loved it and they bought it.

>>Avon Park became famous not only for the birthplace of Brown and Serve Rolls, but also for its connection to America's favorite pastime.

>>Baseball was big here.

You know, I want to say it's a baseball town because I'll tell you the high schools do so well in baseball.

And if you're driving around Avon, there is a pretty good chance you're going to find yourself on a road named after a baseball star like Hal McRae Boulevard or Ruth Street.

While cruising, take in the small town charm that Avon Park has to offer.

♪♪♪ Highlands County citrus heritage is still alive here at Maxwell's Grove.

This is Javier Castillo.

You are the current owner.

Tell us a little bit about some of the things that folks can do that are rooted in history right here.

>>Well, I'll tell you a lot of things haven't changed since the Maxwells had it.

We try to keep the legacy alive, try to keep keep doing the same things.

One thing you can do here is come and order your fruit.

You can order fruit and send it up north to all your friends and families.

And that's one thing that people still continue to do to this day.

One other thing that people love, coming to Maxwell is the same thing that's been going on for generations is our orange ice cream.

Everybody loves our orange ice cream.

We have jams, jellies, marmalade, local citrus wines.

One thing that people love just come up on the porch.

Get that whole Florida feeling is, you know, you, Mr. Maxwell used to say, you know, people think we're in the country, we're one block away from the city.

>>And you can still take a walk out back and see all the packing equipment that is still used today.

>>It is.

We are the last citrus packing house in Highlands County, still operational.

We're still licensed.

We still operate this packing house like a packing house.

People get to come and watch it through the window, watch it operate see the fruit run through here.

And everybody's astonished about this old equipment and how it's still run.

>>And then you can tak some of the food home with you.

You can pack it here yourself.

>>Yes.

>>And take that with you as well as let's be honest, you're known for your orange juice.

You can take some of this home with us, too.

>>Most definitely.

Fresh squeezed orange juice.

Make it every day or every other day, and it sells as quick as we can make it.

>>There you go.

A little taste of Highlands County still today, almost 100 years after Maxwell's began.

>>One other thing we are starting to do is mak this more of a historical site.

Been around since 1935, the Maxwell's working with the chamber, the community.

Starting to have food events, food nights, getting people to come out here.

You know, we have people that don't even know that we're here and been around since 1935.

But a lot of the people that do come here are generations of families that do know that we are here.

>>Javier congratulations, keeping that Florida history alive.

>>Thank you so much.

>>Sandwiched between Lake Placid and Avon Park is the city of Sebring.

Now, it may feel a little bit like the middle child.

However, it's the largest of the three and the county seat for Highlands County.

>>The citrus and the cattle and the tourism has been a mainstay for Sebring and Highlands County, particularly Sebring because we had two large resort hotels that was built, one in 1916 by George Sebring, and the other one was Harder Hall.

>>As you can tell, it's named by this early settler.

Sebring, Ohio and Sebring, Florida are the only two towns in the United States that were founded by the same family bearing the name Sebring.

>>George Sebring was a wealthy pottery manufacturer.

He and his brothers had founded Sebring, Ohio.

He said he wasn't in the best of health.

>>So he handed ove his business to his oldest son, left Ohio and then headed south to Florida.

>>Mr.

Sebring really liked the area.

He liked the the hills, what we call the ridge.

He liked the lakes.

We have over 100 in Highlands County.

He just liked everything about it.

So he did what any millionaire would do.

You'd probably do the same thing.

He told Mr. Smith, I want to buy 10,000 acres.

I'm going to build the town.

>>When Sebring planned the city, he let his extensive travels influence his design, which is also the reason it's nicknamed City on the Circle.

>>They looked up from the lake, and where the circle is was a high point and they said, that' where the circle's going to be.

And they laid that out.

And then laid the town out and six streets from that and then had spokes and then have all the roads going around that in circles.

>>But at the center of the circle wasn't the first thing built.

>>Believe it or not, people laugh when I tell them this, that the first thing they built in Sebring was a pier.

They felt they neede to have a pier for two reasons.

Everybody didn't have boats so they could fish.

So there was also a place for recreation and things, even when they were still living in tents.

And before Mr. Sebrin brought his family from Daytona Beach, they built that pier and got it laid out.

>>The first lots were sold in 1911, and Sebring was incorporated in 1912.

George Sebring built the Kenilworth Lodge in 1916 and it stayed open until the time it closed in 2016.

>>It was a large place.

They were only open from about January 1st until probably the 1st of May, and then the hotels closed.

It was a winter tourist hotel.

>>The second large tourist hotel was Harder Hall, which opened in 1928.

It brought tourists, but also played a large part in naming the first state park in Highlands County.

>>Those wealthy people that had their limousines down here, they didn't want to ride on dirt and clay roads.

And so they felt if the park was going to be successful they had to get those roads paved.

It was a great place to go and get out there in the wild.

They enjoyed picnicking and doing the things that you would do in a park that was all just a natural part.

>>The roads for the tourists made the park more accessible to everyone and gained the attention of the state.

>>In 1935, the state of Florida decided that they were going to create a state park system and since they started from scratch was really difficult.

But they had this one par in Florida that they knew about that was really great and that was being well run.

So they came down here, talked to the people at the association that owned the park.

It was privately owned and they agreed that they would donate their park to the state.

>>That park is now known as Highlands Hammock State Park.

You can't explore the history or the park without talking about Carol Beck, who is the first chief naturalist for the Florida Park Service.

She played a key role in building the foundation for state park policies and promoting a deeper understanding of conservation.

>>She was the first lady that was hired by the Parks Department in the State of Florida, and she was sent to Highlands County, she was a botanist.

And she was given two tasks when she came.

Number one, that was to identify all the different plants and things that were there, and then also to find ways for the park to become more self-sufficient financially, identify the plants and wrote a book.

And she also is credited with starting the tram program which is still operating today.

>>Sebring continues to honor its history while still growing.

>>I say Sebring is the perfect town to live in because we've got everything.

There's a new Sebring over on the west side of Lake Jackson and the old Sebring is on the east side.

♪♪♪ >>The back roads of Highlands County are lined with miles of orange groves, a living piece of old Florida.

>>Nestled amongst the groves in Sebring, you'll find a high octane experience that attracts folks ♪♪♪ from around the world.

>>Sebring International Raceway is a now 74 year old facility that hosts one of the three largest sports car races in the world.

An endurance race here at Sebring is 12 hours.

So we start this race at 10:10 a.m.

It ends at 10:10 p.m.

So it's not about a distanc traveled as much as it is time.

What endurance racing does is it really taxes the car and the driver.

>>During those 12 hours a team of drivers will take turns driving much like you may do on a road trip.

>>It's a full 12 hour event.

It is just as hard on the car as it is the driver and things break and it is truly endurance racing.

>>Racers first started circling this track more than 70 years ago.

>>The first race was December 31st, 1950, it was only a six hour race.

>>Two years later, they said, hey, this has got great potential.

Let's run a 12 hour race.

So the first 12 hours of Sebring took place in 1952, and it's operated every year since, with the exception of 1974 during the energy crisis.

>>But the history of this location starts well before it became a race track.

>>So in the 1940s, during World War II this place was hastily thrown together by the Army Corps of Engineers as a training base for B-17 bombers.

>>They had the base up and ready to go in 11 months, which was really a lot because they had to fill in a lot of land and everything 'cause it was low out there.

Just about the time they were packing up all of their bulldozers, their drag lines and all the stuff to move on to another base, word came that they'd been selected to be a B-17 training school.

That sounded really impressive.

Just one thing that came to mind, if I'm talking about it, is no one had ever had a B-17 training school.

They'd never had a B-17 before.

They certainly didn't know what a training school for that was going to be.

So they had to go back and widen the runways from 150 feet to 300 feet wide and made it a little bit longer.

January of 1942, the base commander and his engineer landed the first B-17 out there at midnight.

It was always know as Hendricks, named after Laird Hendricks, who was born i Ocala, grew up in Jacksonville.

He was a Army Air Corps person and was assigned to the RAF in England, and he died in a crash in England.

And so he was the first Floridian killed during World War II.

And they made the base after him.

>>Today, Sebring Regional Airport and the raceway share the property of Hendricks Army Airfield, where you can still find som of the landmarks from the base.

>>One is a flagpole is probably the most famous landmark on the property.

The flagpole is original to its location.

We've done some recent refurbishment of the area.

It's a real fan favorite.

It's a gathering spot during the race.

The flagpole was here on the base in 1942 when it was built.

The original tower on the flight line still exists, although I'm told it's not in its exact same the location that it was back in and in wartime.

And then we have one building that sits over here that is was a barracks.

This particular spot has seen better days, but we're getting ready to refurbish it and turn it into an officer's club that we will allow fans to go in and enjoy the race.

♪♪♪ >>One of the things the raceway is known for?

Its uneven pavement.

Some of that concrete used to be parts of a runway.

>>The bumps at Sebring are legendary and a lot of teams, a lot of manufacturers will come here and test cars.

This concrete's been here for 75 years.

One concrete slab may may settle this way and the other one settles this way and it creates a ridge on top.

Instead of fixing those ridges, we embrace them.

The drivers love it.

It really separates the great drivers from the good drivers.

You can avoid them, you can hit them.

You can use them to help turn the car.

It's pretty fascinating to listen to a professional driver talk about how they use the bumps or avoid the bumps.

And many people who frankly aren't in the know will say, well, why don't you fix it?

Why don't you pave the place?

If we were to pave Sebring, it would be just another racetrack.

There would be no magic to it any longer.

So the drivers beg us, don't ever touch this place.

In fact, the hashtag #RespectTheBumps has become a real marketing moniker for the racetrack.

>>These bumps earned the track its global recognition.

>>The little town of Sebring will attract, hopefully, ticket buyers from every state in the Union, and we typically bring in ticket buyers from more than 20 countries around the world.

It's not uncommon to find that more people in, say, France or Belgium or England know about the 12 hours of Sebring in the city of Sebring more than, say, people, even in Lakeland, which is just an hour up the road.

The three top races are 24 hours Le Mans, the 24 hours of Daytona and the 12 hours of Sebring.

If there was a Triple Crown, a la horse racing, that would be it.

The future of racing here at Sebring is bright.

We only see it getting better and better every year.

>>Where else can you find old Florida, International Racing, and a town covered in murals but right here in Highlands County, the heartland of the state.

Thanks for joining us for this edition of Florida Road Trip.

I'm Scott Fais.

Join us again next time as we continue our ride through Florida's history.

Until then, safe travels, everyone.

♪♪♪ >>This program is brough to you in part by the Paul B.

Hunter and Constance D. Hunter Charitable Foundation a proud partner of WUCF, and th Central Florida community.