Pemberton Ferry, later renamed Croom,
[A Short History of Florida Railroads]
by Gregg Turner pages 59, 62 is a ghost town in Central Florida near
Brooksville, Florida
Brooksville is a city in western Florida and the county seat of Hernando County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 7,719, up from 7,264 at the 2000 census. Brooksville is home to historic buildings and residence ...
and
Ridge Manor, Florida
Ridge Manor is a census-designated place (CDP) in Hernando County, Florida, Hernando County, Florida, United States. The population was 4,513 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census.
Geography
Ridge Manor is located in eastern Hernando Cou ...
. A rail line came to Pemberton Ferry in 1884.
[ It was a rail stop by the Withlacoochee River just north of where the I-75 bridge over Croom-Rital Road and ]Withlacoochee State Trail
Withlacoochee State Trail is a long paved, multi-use, non-motorized rail trail in Florida located in Citrus, Hernando and Pasco counties. It follows along the Withlacoochee River and passes through the Withlacoochee State Forest. It is the ...
is today.
The Croom Tract is part of the Withlacoochee State Forest
The Withlacoochee State Forest is in the western central part in the U.S. state of Florida, near Lecanto, Inverness, Floral City, Brooksville, Ridge Manor, and Dade City. The forest was named for the Withlacoochee River, which passes thr ...
, and is located just north of another ghost town called Oriole. There is also a 20,000 acre Croom Wildlife Management Area. Ruins in the area include 1900 Thomas House, old foundations, a brick vat, the remains of an iron railroad bridge, family cemeteries and pits from phosphate mining. The area once included a turpentine
Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...
still, sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
, sugar mill, railroad switch out, railroad bridge and ferry. The area is now popular for turkey hunting and single track mountain biking. Another settlement in the area was known as Oriole and an abandoned Oriole cemetery remains in existence.
History
In 1886 a project to clear the Withlacoochee River for navigation went as far as Pemberton Ferry.
A post office was located in the area from 1902 until 1935.
Croom was on the west coast route of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was a United States Class I railroad formed in 1900, though predecessor railroads had used the ACL brand since 1871. In 1967 it merged with long-time rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast L ...
to Tampa. A station and a branch line extended to Brooksville. The iron bridge was a trestle
ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), better known as Trestle, was a unique electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generation and testing apparatus built between 1972 and 1980 during the Cold War at Sandia National Laborato ...
for logging trains.
The South Florida Railroad
The South Florida Railroad was a railroad from Sanford, Florida, to Tampa, Florida, becoming part of the Plant System in 1893 and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902. It served as the southernmost segment of the Atlantic Coast Line's ma ...
finished the construction of the 57-mile Pemberton’s Ferry Branch in May 1886. It ran from Bartow to Lakeland, where it crossed the South Florida mainline, north to Pemberton’s Ferry, where it interchanged with the Florida Southern Railway
The Florida Southern Railway (later known as the Florida Southern Railroad) was a railroad that operated in Florida in the late 1800s. It was one of Florida's three notable narrow gauge railway when it was built along with the South Florida Rail ...
.
Another ghost town, Oriole, lies just south of Croom, also within Withlacoochee State Forest.[https://floridatrailblazer.com/2016/11/15/exploring-oriole-ghost-town-in-withlacoochee-state-forest/ Independent Florida-based explorer has documented his exploration of the ghost town of Oriole within Withlacoochee State Park]
References
External links
Withlacoochee River survey
from Morrison's Shoal to Pemberton's Ferry (far left). Survey made March 18, to May 22, 1897, under the direction of Lieut. Col. Wm. H. H. Benyaurd, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army.
Photos of Iron bridge railroad ruins
{{authority control
Unincorporated communities in Hernando County, Florida
Ghost towns in Florida
Unincorporated communities in Florida