Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1923-12-06
COnnOr's Highway In Florida
A Record In Road Building
New York Publisher Visions
Transportation Needs and Push
es Highway Thru Swamps.
Written Specially for The Leader
BY ROBERT FULLER
Thru Autocaster Service

New York, Nov 28-"Everybody
said if | was fool enough to go ahead
and do it, then let me shoot" said w.
]. Connors, the millionaire newspaper
owener of Buffalo, n. Y, recently dis
cussing the building OF the Connors
Highway in Florida, perhaps the most
gigantic road buinlding and engineer
ing enterprise every conceived by a
private individual
The road, fifty miles long, one foot
wider than the Dixie Highway, twelve
feet deep in hard rock. with a four
foot shoulder on each side cement and
asphalt covered-will be finished next
year-ending the most rapid road con
struction known in this country 1t will
open for automobile traffic by the end
of January. The toll is to be fixed by
the State legislature, but whatever it
is, according to Mr.. Connors, it will
be saving of time and money to the
people-150 miles of distance saved.
which means wee bit less gasoline
and roadway of fifty miles as smooth
as billiard table.
The road extends from a point in
! the Florida Everglades around the
east side OF Lake Okeechobee to the
town OF Okeechobce City. Connors
bought 5000 of the $500 lots of the
original Okeechobee City development
! to connect his roadway which will
have twenty miles of lake front
Thru Rich Farm Lands
The road passes thru what Connors
! describes as the greatest land i'll the
world-the Custer apple land-land
that grows from Is to 100 tons of SUI
gar cane to the acre-the most Won
dcrful truck farming territory, accord
| ing to Mr.. Connors.
The farmers can grow three crops
a year" said the Buffalo man. and
| practically produce from $500 to ST.
600 an acre. Several farmers have ac-
tually done this In the pas. however,
it has been impossible to get trans
portation. Now the East Coast Raj :
way development in conjunction with
the Connors Highway affords an op-
portuni.y for anyone to get the pro-
ducts to the market.
The road forms a connection that
! Florida people of the east and west
! have longed for for years. As soon as
the road is opened there will be a thou
| sand passenger pleasure cars travel
over it every day from the cas- and a
! thousand more from the west" /,
| The great enterprise first took form
when Connors bought 5000 acres of
Florida muck land i'll the Everglades.
! Now he is said to be the largest rich
land owner in the state When he got
the Everglade tract he conceived it
to be the finest potential farm land in
| the United States. The plan for the
| great road way came at the suggestion
of small town newspaper publisher
who suggested to the Buffalo man that
| he get from the state right of en-
inent domain to build the causcway,
just as a railroad would procure such
grant
How the Connors Highway Was Built
There was little adverse criticism
when this was first brooted, but when
the magnitude of the enterprise was
realized and its benefits to the state
were figured out, the opposition retir-
ed and the grant was allowed
Seven drag lines and four dredgcs
have been at work on the undertaking
all summer and 1000 men have been
employed on the Job, men in all capa-
cities, carpenters, engineers, iron work
ers, machinistS, cement mixers, math-
ematical experts, surveyors and the
accompanying necessary clerical staffs.
Connors is publisher of the Buffalo
Courier and the Buffalo Enquirer, the
two leading newspapers in Erie county
New York. His son, recently gradu-
ated from Yale, is now in charge of
these newspaper properties.