The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1919-03-13
THE DIXIE HIGHWAY
UNDERGOING CHANGE
Grading Done Nearly to the VIII
low Pens
ARE NOW HARD sURFAcING
New Bridges Under Course of
Construction and Road Will
Soon be Credit to County-Fine
Truck Crops Seen En- Route.

OoOu Ue OIculG w OOuuty- AuC
Truck Crops Seen En- Route.
A white expanse of mari meets
the eye of the traveller on the Dix
lie Highway when he reaches the
bridge at Dick Windham 's-if he
is headed south. The highway is
being hardsurfaced and County
Commissioner Whitten is keeping
his promise as rapidly as funds
and labor will permit. There are
several good mari pits along this
route and most of those which
have been discovered are yielding
their contents for the building up
of this popular road.
The work of building two new
bridges has begun. These bridges
are between Rogers and the Will
low Pens. One has the excavat-
ing done and the side walls up
and materials have been placed on
the site of the other. These
bridges are at places where the
water accumulates in sufficient
quantities to overflow the old
grade.
The caterpillar" engine and
grading machine are busy at work
and the grade is being made high
er, broader, as well as smoother.
Near the Willow Pens there is a
long stretch of white sand that
makes travelling a torture to man,
beast and motor. The grade here
is now high and level, but the
sand is so soft that there are three
places where the travel must turn
off through the woods on this ac-
count. These three "turn- offs"
will aggregate about a mile each.
1t is evident to the traveller that
must be a surface of much depth
and quality placed on this strip of
the road.
When the work reaches Tuck
er's corner and the ditch to the
Caloosahatchee is finished, the
durability and possibility of. the
road will be greatly assisted by
better drainage.
Probably half the distance be-
tween Windham IS farm and Rog-
ers is now hard surfaced.
About the poorest land in south
DeSoto and north Lee counties
lies along the A. G. L. railroad, ex-
|cept for occasional fertile places.
About the best of their lands are
tapped by the Dixie Highway.
The only good land missed by it is
an occasional hammock, like the
Meadow still section and Ham
mock Pond.
Truck crops are fine towards
the Lee county line. George
Yobst has the finest beans, pep
pers and corn we have ever seen
in Florida or anywhere else. Mrs.
Agnes Hertzke, of the Willow
Pens has fine. Irish potatoes and a
dandy family garden. She is
farming new land, too.
Koon and Carrier are putting in
a new dipping vat on Telegraph
Creek and have their big pasture
fence nearly completed.
Col Halgrim, at Halgrim, on
the Caloosahatchee above Wood
row, has purchased the w. j. Col
son sugar cane and is putting in a
big sugar plantation. There are a
number of progressive and finan-
cially-able men in this section and
Col. Halgrim is one of them.
There has been more rain than
usual south of Punta Gorda and
sloughs and ponds are almost as
full as they should be in the rainy
season.
If you are interested in Florida,
do not go back north until you
take drive to Fort Myers along
the beautiful Dixie Highway. You
have not seen South Florida till