Originally posted October 11, 2021
Updated July 25, 2023

The St. Cloud and Sugar Belt Railway, built in 1888 by Hamilton Disston to serve his $350,000 sugar mill transported sugar, vegetables and citrus as well as passengers between Kissimmee and St. Cloud. It was built as a 3' narrow gauge railroad, but converted to standard gauge around the turn of the century.

Kissimmee station June 28, 1901. The St. Cloud and Sugar Belt track diverged to the right near the top of the photo. CFRHS Collection.

The route traveled from the Kissimmee station, where it connected with the South Florida Railroad and Florida Midland Railroad, east along today's Neptune Road before passing through downtown St. Cloud, a distance of 9 miles. The route grew another 4.34 miles when it was extended to Narcoossee, where a locomotive turntable was built for reversing the engines.

SCSB Route from Open Railway Map. Route in yellow. Spur in blue. Turntable in green. Click to enlarge.

Route Map in 1917. Personal collection.

St. Cloud Flyer, Sugar Belt RR, Kissimmee, FL. Florida Memory Photo.

ACL 4-4-0 #532 at the St. Cloud Depot, c. 1910, Ex-SF&W #223 and SFRR #23, Baldwin 1890. Florida Memory Photo.

Sugar Belt tracks departing Kissimmee and headed east (left) toward St. Cloud, circa 1925. Personal collection.

Sugar Belt tracks departing Kissimmee and headed east (right) toward St. Cloud. Personal collection.

Trestle east of Kissimmee with Idora Park in distance. Neptune Road now parallels this former line. Personal collection.

ACL Timetable Kissimmee to Narcoossee, 01MAY1916. CFRHS Collection.

 

Camp Idora Motor Court with Sugar Belt Railway in foreground. Road is now known as Neptune Road. Fisk collection.

Dual gauge Sugar Belt Railway, photo believed to be at St. Cloud during conversion from narrow gauge to standard gauge around 1896. Fisk collection.

At the St. Cloud Canal, located between Kissimmee and St. Cloud was Hamilton Disston's sugar mill. A spur line from Peghorn Junction (also known as St. Cloud Junction) to the mill provided rail access to move the sugar to Kissimmee and northern markets.

St. Cloud Sugar Mill in operation. Note railcars in distance. CFRHS collection.

SCSB 1889 Tariff. CFRHS Collection.

The line operated as the St. Cloud and Sugar Belt Railway Company from 1888 to 1892, when it was leased to the South Florida Railroad Company before being merged into the company in 1893. It was sold to the Plant Investment Company that same year.

In 1902, it was sold to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, which owned the line until it was abandoned in 1942 and scrapped shortly thereafter. The Bill Johnston Memorial Trail, which parallels Neptune Road follows some of the roadbed of the former rail line.

St. Cloud depot with ACL train car. CFRHS collection

In Narcoossee, the locomotive could be turned on a hand-pushed turntable, the remnants of which remain today behind the feed store on private property. There was also a station and water tower at the end of the line. The photo below shows the locomotive pulling the train in reverse direction, giving the impression that the turntable was either not utilized or out of service at the time of this photo.

Narcoossee Station 1902. Personal collection.

With decreasing passenger and freight, the final Atlantic Coast Line train traversed the line on September 29, 1941. The Veterans of the Foreign Wars Post 3227 purchased the building to use as their post headquarters in 1943, and remains their post to this day.

Last train to operate on the line was on September 29, 1941. Pictured at St. Cloud. Florida Memory photo.

St. Cloud Depot VFW Post 3227. VFW Post 3227 Photo.

St. Cloud Sugar Mill ruins. Personal collection.

There are few signs of the St. Cloud and Sugar Belt today, however three items remain; the St. Cloud Depot, ruins of the sugar mill located along the St. Cloud Canal, and the concrete base of the turntable in Narcoossee. My family was involved with the Disston operation, and used the Sugar Belt for shipping. I'll post those stories at another time.

If you have photos or information on the St. Cloud and Sugar Belt Railroad or Hamilton Disston, I'd like to hear from you. Leave a comment below and I'll be in touch. Thanks for reading!

Sources:
Personal collection
Central Florida Railway Historical Society (CFRHS)
Fisk Collection
Florida Memory
VFW Post 3227
Open Railway Map

Riverboats were a lifeline to commerce and travel in the pioneer days of Florida, and anywhere there was a river, you could find a captain piloting his boat to the next town or landing. The Kissimmee River was no exception. From the headwaters of the Florida Everglades, Reedy Creek, Shingle Creek, Boggy Creek and others supplied Lake Tohopekaliga with a constant flow of water that meandered a slow and winding path all the way to the southern tip of Florida.

During the 1880's, riverboat builders, including my maternal great-grandfather, Addison Starr Gilbert, along with three of his brothers, began building boats on the shore of Lake Toho in Kissimmee. This post includes the only three photographs I know to exist of the Gilbert Brothers riverboats.

The Kissimmee River is a winding and shallow river that required a low draft boat, and smaller in size than the boats of the St. Johns or Oklawaha Rivers.

Scenic view of the Kissimmee River c.1920 - Florida Memory

My great grandfather made a weekly trip between Kissimmee and Okeechobee with a stop in Bassinger and twenty other spots along the way. Places with colorful names like Turkey Hammock, Rattlesnake Hammock, Cabbage Bluff, Alligator Bluff and Orange Hammock. By land, the trip from Kissimmee to Bassinger was about 80 miles. The winding Kissimmee River turned it into nearly 160 miles.

I like to think the quote below, from an 1899 article in the Kissimmee Valley Gazette, could have been written after a trip on one of his boats.

"There is no more pleasant way of spending a week than to take the trip to Bassinger. Birds of all kinds are in sight the whole way: flocks of ducks, coots, herons, cranes, limpkins, curlews, plume birds and water turkeys without end; also alligators, rabbits and water snakes, and plenty of fish, too.

In its narrowness, in the rampant growth of water plants along its low banks, in the unbroken flatness of the landscape, in the labyrinth of by channels and cut-offs and above all in the appalling, incredible, bewildering crookedness of its serpentine body, it is indeed an extraordinary river." 

Kissimmee River near Fort Basinger Station Florida. May 1919. Florida Memory

The Gilbert Brothers who built boats included Sam, Jim, George and Addison. They named one of their boats Tallulah, after their sister. The family, which had seven brothers and one sister in total, moved to Kissimmee in 1886 from Leesburg, GA. Addison would become mayor of Kissimmee in the 1920s.

City of Athens Riverboat on the Kissimmee River. Florida Memory

The steamboats supplied the settlers with needed food, goods and even livestock. The photo above shows firewood stored near the landing, used to replenish the fuel for the wood-burning steamboat.

Bassinger Steamboat on her Maiden Voyage. Florida Memory

Bassinger steamboat docked in Kissimmee. Personal Collection

87 year old A. S. Gilbert at the Kissimmee River boat-a-cade in 1951. Florida Memory

Gilbert Brothers Article in Orlando Sentinel. Personal Collection

I found this flyer online, produced by the South Florida Water Management District, which quotes my great grandfather at the bottom.

Kissimmee River History Brochure - SFWMD. Personal Collection

Old Florida was, for a time, a haven for boats built by local entrepreneurs to ply the rivers near their home. Their success could be tied to the size of their fleet, the towns and outposts they served, and the people and goods they carried. Navigating the Kissimmee River was a skill that a captain also needed to possess, for it could be unforgiving if you ran aground.

As the Orlando Sentinel article states, my great grandfather saw the writing on the wall for steamboats, and opened Kissimmee's first gas station. While he passed away before I was born, I remember the old gas station on North Main Street stood for many years before it was demolished.

There are online articles detailing the history, and the operators, of the Kissimmee River steamboats, including those owned by Captain Clay Johnson and Captain Rufus Rose, both residents of Kissimmee. It's a fascinating part of Central Florida history.

If you have photos or information to share about the Kissimmee River steamboats, please leave a comment below and I'll be in touch. Thank you!

Sources:
Personal collection
Florida Memory
Orlando Sentinel
South Florida Water Management District
Reminiscing in the Valley of the Tohopekaliga

This brochure, from my collection, advertised the SST Aviation Center, which was located between Kissimmee and St. Cloud on Aeronautical Blvd, not far from the southbound exit of Florida's Turnpike. The building still exists as a church, and for many years had the SST inside before the model was sold and removed. I visited a few times, and drove by the museum frequently before it closed in 1981.

SST Museum Brochure Page One

SST Museum Brochure Page Two

Interior of SST Museum

If you visited or have information about the SST Aviation Center in Kissimmee, please leave a comment below and I'll be in touch. Thank you!

Sources:
Personal collection

This video features plenty of old Kissimmee, from the Seaboard Coast Line depot on Dakin Avenue, to scenes of Broadway, but my favorite is the interview with Irlo Bronson, Sr., one of the few recordings of him that I've seen. While I grew up with his son's family, I never met the elder Mr. Bronson. Anyway, a great look at Kissimmee, Lake Buena Vista and Windermere in the months prior to the opening of Walt Disney World.

If you remember Central Florida towns before Disney of saw something that brought back memories in this video, please leave a comment below. Thank you!

Source:
YouTube