Sebring not your typical sun and fun landscape
By Dorothy Smiljanich/Tampa Tribune

Highlands Hammock
Tips for the Trip

If all the tourists had left Florida, if all the magic kingdoms had closed, if all the beach umbrellas had folded, this regal, dusky Brahman bull would still graze in this pasture, this orange tree would still blossom in this grove, and a local resident, nodding at a departing foreign tourist, would still observe, ``He weren't one of us'ns.''

Driving this road trip along the Cracker Trail from Bradenton through Zolfo Springs and then leaving the trail to head north into Sebring, even the most casual traveler recognizes that this is not the typical sun and fun landscape.

For while the beaches and amusement parks eat, drink and make merry, these groves and pastures, ranches and fields tote that barge and lift that bale.

If tourism is Florida's lifeblood, citrus and cattle are its sinew and muscle.

And every once in a while, it does the soul of even the most timid city slicker good to get out there in the country and appreciate the groves and the cattle, even if it's from a car rolling slowly along.

THE CRACKER TRAIL
Just about due east of Bradenton, Exit 42 entices travelers off Interstate 75 and east onto State Road 64, which is part of The Cracker Trail.

The name derives from a time - as recently as the 1950s, by the way - when cowboys cracked whips over the cattle as they moved vast herds from interior ranches to coastal ports.

In 1986, the entire 150-mile trail, which stretches from Bradenton and the Gulf of Mexico to Fort Pierce and the Atlantic Ocean, was designated a historic trail by the Florida Legislature.

Sufficient for many travelers may be the 42 miles of State Road 64, a country two-laner running from the interstate exit to Zolfo Springs, deep in the heart of cow country.

The road passes dairy farms, cattle ranches, the 556-acre Lake Manatee State Recreation Center, the DeSoto Speedway, a Division of Forestry fire tower, mines, groves and several wooden buildings in the middle of a field with a sign that says simply ``Cracker Trail Farm.''

It crosses several creeks and rivers, including the Myakka, and it pushes by a grove that bears the name of Ben Hill Griffin, a name synonymous with citrus in Florida and with philanthropy at the University of Florida.

It rolls past abandoned homesteads, a golf course, a few mobile home parks and a subdivision or two, then it delivers wayfarers into Zolfo Springs in Hardee County. There, at its intersection with U.S. Highway 17, they will find: PIONEER PARK
Most visitors to the park and its Cracker Trail Museum will, upon arrival, find themselves drawn first to a complex of animal cages, nestled beneath the widespread branches of an old oak. On the day we visited, the animals included a bobcat, fox squirrel, skunk, several deer and even what appeared to be an albino raccoon.

Pioneer Park is operated by Hardee County and will celebrate its 25th annual Pioneer Park Days with a flea market, entertainment and exhibitions in March. In the museum, which recently has been expanded, the displays include treasures, relics and castoffs from Florida's past. Among them are furniture, clothing, utensils, machinery, manuscripts and a series of prints by artist Frederic Remington (1861-1909), who apparently left the Wild West long enough to immortalize Cracker Florida and its cowboys.

Outside the museum and scattered about the grounds are a number of wooden structures moved here from throughout the region, including cabins and a blacksmith shop that may or may not be open on any given day. Even if the buildings are closed, visitors may wander the grounds and enjoy other outdoor exhibitions, including an old train engine and an adjacent marker in memory of Bone Mizelle, a legendary two-fisted Cracker.

Several pleasant hours could be spent at this museum and park, especially if a picnic lunch has been packed. Campsites are available, but some travelers may want to press on along State Road 66 to the thriving metropolis, relatively speaking, of: SEBRING
Perched 160 feet atop the Florida ridge, this city of some 10,000 people is one of the state's oldest. Founded in 1912 by visionary developer George Sebring, it initially was organized around a ``circle'' of downtown shops. But the place has grown and now seems divided almost neatly into two parts by handsome, wide Lake Jackson, a civic and geographic centerpiece. Much of ``old'' Sebring, with its reviving historic downtown, nestles on or near the lake's east side; while much of ``new'' Sebring is located among the shopping malls and developments proliferating along busy U.S. Highway 27 on the west.

An exception to the ``Lake Jackson divide theory'' is venerable Harder Hall, a 63-year-old, 132-room winter resort that sits on the bustling west side. Now closed but full of promise, the distinguished Mediterranean-style building dates to the boom-time 1920s.

Well-to-do patrons, many of them from New York City, came faithfully year after year to pass the winter amid the exotic splendor of Central Florida, enjoying tennis, golf, fishing, hunting and the white-gloved service of an attentive staff. Once a showplace in Highlands County, where Sebring is the county seat, Harder Hall was closed in 1986, but, even so, is worth an appreciative look.

On the east side of the lake is another venerable resort, the Kenilworth Lodge, which was built in 1916, about the same time the railroads began the extension of service from Sebring to Miami. Renovated and open, it offers guests a choice of accommodations from hotel rooms and efficiencies to poolside villas, as well as a restaurant, serpentine swimming pool and other amenities.

Near the Kenilworth and on the shores of Lake Jackson, visitors will find a civic cultural complex including an art museum, historical society, community theater, library, landscaped park and a city pier extending out over the lake, where a lowered water level - endemic throughout Florida - troubles some residents and visitors alike. Small shops and restaurants also dot the lakeshore.

Visitors should also wander downtown, where ``The Circle'' of shops and galleries, several of them antique stores, ring the center of town, just as George Sebring planned. Sebring is, by the way, still a seasonal resort of sorts - its population is said to double in the winter - and several shops were closed when we visited in August.

A block or two off The Circle, visitors will find the Children's Museum of the Highlands, a non-profit operation that is a strikingly innovative feather in the civic cap. There, hands-on exhibitions and programs entertain and educate youngsters. Play areas include a mock grocery store, where children can shop amid stocked shelves, and a ``note nook,'' where they can test assorted instruments.

Of course, the town's greatest claim to fame is the annual Grand Prix auto endurance race, ``The 12 Hours of Sebring,'' which is held each spring and attracts as many as 50,000 visitors from throughout the world.

While little can compete with the energy and excitement of that international event, Sebring is also home to a year-round, open-air showcase with its own measure of energy and excitement: HIGHLANDS HAMMOCK

One of Florida's oldest state parks, Highlands Hammock State Park occupies a 3,800-acre wilderness. Created in 1935, when a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was established here to develop facilities, the park preserves a variety of natural habitats, including a virgin hardwood forest, a cypress swamp and a sand pine scrub.

Park ranger Andy Anders, 44, has been associated with the park for almost 20 years and occasionally leads tram tours of it. Of the park's several trails, he says the Big Oak Trail and the Cypress Swamp Trail are among the most popular. The former leads by an oak said to have a circumference of 36 feet at one point and estimated to be more than 1,000 years old (that's 500 years old when Christopher Columbus arrived); while the latter features a wooden boardwalk that meanders over the silent, deep beauty of a swamp.

As Anders walks along a section of the boardwalk that is only four boards wide and lacks a handrail on one side, he says the swamp trail is the oldest nature trail in the Florida park system.

``In 1931, portions of this trail were already here,'' he explains, ``and we don't even know who made it.''

Much of the park and its facilities are the creation of corps workers, however, and a small exhibition at the Interpretive Center, one of the buildings the corps erected, explains the historical connection. Anders says plans are under way to develop a corps state museum at the park and that the park celebrates its past with a ``CCC Reunion Festival'' each year on the first Saturday in November.

The insights into nature's ways that Anders shares have been gleaned from a lifetime spent in Florida's outdoors, and they make a visit especially interesting. But even the casual visitor who does no more than drive through the park or who takes only the Cypress Swamp Trail cannot miss the profound and pristine beauty of the place.

As one Sebring resident notes, ``It does the soul good just to get out there and stare.''

A final thought: This road trip to Sebring and back can be made in a single day; from Tampa it's about two hours in each direction. But it would be far better to tarry along the way, perhaps spending a night or two in Sebring and savoring the lovely region at leisure.

Travelers who want to see the heart of Florida while it is still beating had best make their plans before it is stilled by the weight of people and concrete.

TIPS FOR THE TRIP
HOW TO GET THERE
Located in the center of the state almost due east of Bradenton, Sebring is 100 miles or so from Tampa. The accompanying story explains one way to get there, but a glance at a map will indicate others.

WHERE TO DINE
Sebring offers many choices, including fast-food emporiums, restaurants, cafes and hotel dining rooms. We ate lunch at the Magnolia Village and Tea Room, 143 S.E. Lakeview Drive. The food was good, the price was reasonable, and the setting on the shores of Lake Jackson was picturesque. The telephone number is (813) 385-6713.

WHERE TO STAY
Motels, hotels, resorts and inns abound in the region. We stayed with friends, but among the most interesting lodgings we saw were:

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