Pennichaw | |
|---|---|
  Pennichaw | |
| Coordinates: 28°47′56″N81°00′20″W / 28.79889°N 81.00556°W | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Florida |
| County | Volusia |
| Elevation | 16 ft (5 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
| enter ZIP code | 32764 |
| Area code | 386 |
| GNIS feature ID | 294885 [1] |
Pennichaw is a rural unincorporated community located in south Volusia County, Florida, United States. It located on Lake Harney Road, approximately 1.8 miles south of Maytown Road.
Pennichaw was one of several small settlements along the Kissimmee Valley Branch of the Florida East Coast Railway.
The first railroad to penetrate the virgin timberland east of the St. Johns River was the Atlantic Coast, St. Johns & Indian River Railway. Built from a connection with the Plant System near the steamboat landing in the village of Enterprise, southeasterly through Osteen and Maytown, eventually reaching the coastal town of Titusville in 1885. As railroad magnate Henry Flagler pushed his lines southward along the east coast he was obliged to absorb the A.C.ST.J & I R. making it a part of a network which became the Florida East Coast Railway. [2]
The years 1911-1929 saw the Florida East Coast Railway building what was advertised as a second complete mainline to Miami. Known as the Kissimmee Valley Branch and heading southwest from the busy railroad town of New Smyrna Beach, the new route passed through Maytown-PENNICHAW-Osceola-Geneva and was completed to Chuluota in 1912. The Chuluota-Bithlo-Holopaw-Okeechobee segment was completed in 1915. Finally wrapping around the big lake it terminated at Lake Harbor in 1929. Though it never achieved the status of 'a complete second mainline,' it did post some impressive freight tonnage records[ which? ].
The name Pennichaw comes from a Seminole word meaning "turkey gobbler". [3] At its peak, Pennichaw had a turpentine still and commissary.
The railroad through Pennichaw ceased operation in 1947 when a new cut-off opened between Fort Pierce and Port Mayaca. However, before it would be abandoned, the Peavy Wilson Lumber Company, operating a massive mill in Holopaw, leased the Holopaw-Pennichaw-Maytown trackage. So trains continued to roll through the little settlement until the lumber company quit in 1951. Tracks through Pennichaw were removed fairly quickly and the balance of the Maytown area trackage was abandoned in 1974. As the railroads and the commerce they brought disappeared, small communities such as Pennichaw declined. A few residential properties remain in the vicinity of Pennichaw.
The state of Florida has purchased the right of way that was formerly used for the New Smyrna (Edgewater)-Maytown and Benson Junction-Titusville segments of the nearby abandoned rail lines and partnered with Volusia County to construct a paved, multi-use trail from Lake Monroe to both Edgewater and Titusville. [4]
The East Central Regional Rail Trail corridor, which is more than 50 miles long, is managed by Volusia and Brevard counties. The first 5.7 miles opened in early 2011. None of the new trails utilize the old route through Pennichaw. [5]
Volusia County is located in the east-central part of the U.S. state of Florida between the St. Johns River and the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2020 census, the county was home to 553,543 people, an increase of 11.9% from the 2010 census. It was founded on December 29, 1854, from part of Orange County, and was named for the community of Volusia, located in northwestern Volusia County. Its first county seat was Enterprise. Since 1887, its county seat has been DeLand.
The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México.
U.S. Route 92 or U.S. Highway 92 is a 181-mile (291 km.) U.S. Route entirely in the U.S. state of Florida. The western terminus is at US 19 Alt. and SR 687 in downtown St. Petersburg. The eastern terminus is at SR A1A in Daytona Beach.
The Florida Midland Railway Company was incorporated under the general incorporation laws of Florida, and surveyed a line from Lake Jessup, in Orange County, to Leesburg, in Lake County.
The Florida Central Railroad Company is one of several short line railroads run by Regional Rail, LLC. It runs from downtown Orlando northwest to Apopka and Tavares with a branch from Toronto to Ocoee and Winter Garden and branches from Tavares to Umatilla and Sorrento. The Florida Central connects with the Central Florida Rail Corridor in downtown Orlando, Florida and has trackage rights on the CFRC from there south to Taft Yard where they interchange with CSX Transportation. The railroad is based out of the Plymouth freight station.
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 main line. The line remains in service today and is now part of the Central Florida Rail Corridor in the Orlando metro area. The rest of the line remains under the ownership of CSX Transportation as part of their A Line.
The South Central Florida Express, Inc. is a common carrier shortline railroad in southern Florida run by U.S. Sugar Corporation. Its trains operate from Sebring to Fort Pierce via Clewiston around the southern perimeter of Lake Okeechobee, and serves customers at 26 locations. With 171 miles (275 km) of track, the SCXF is the largest private agricultural railroad in the U.S.
The Seminole Gulf Railway is a short line freight and passenger excursion railroad headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida, that operates two former CSX Transportation railroad lines in Southwest Florida. The company's Fort Myers Division, which was previously the southernmost segment of CSX's Fort Myers Subdivision, runs from Arcadia south to North Naples via Punta Gorda, Fort Myers, Estero, and Bonita Springs. The company's other line, the Sarasota Division, runs from Oneco south through Sarasota. Seminole Gulf acquired the lines in November 1987 and operates its own equipment. The company's first train departed Fort Myers on November 14, 1987.
The San Joaquin Valley Railroad is one of several short line railroad companies and is part of the Western Region Division of Genesee & Wyoming Inc. It operates over about 371 miles (597 km) of owned or leased track primarily on several lines in California's Central Valley/San Joaquin Valley around Fresno and Bakersfield. The SJVR has trackage rights over Union Pacific between Fresno, Goshen, Famoso, Bakersfield and Algoso. The SJVR also operated for the Tulare Valley Railroad (TVRR) from Calwa to Corcoran and Famoso.
Holopaw is an unincorporated community in Osceola County, Florida, United States. It is located at the eastern end of the multiplex of highways US 192 and US 441. It has a population of fewer than 5,000 people and is part of the Orlando-Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area.
State Road 44 is an east–west state highway in the U.S. state of Florida. It runs from Crystal River on the Gulf of Mexico east to New Smyrna Beach on the Atlantic Ocean, passing through Inverness, Wildwood, Leesburg and DeLand.
Enterprise is an unincorporated community in Volusia County, in the U.S. state of Florida, and its former county seat. Situated on the northern shore of Lake Monroe, it is flanked by the cities of DeBary and Deltona. Enterprise was once the head of navigation on the St. Johns River and at various times, the county seat for three different counties: Mosquito, which was renamed as Orange; and lastly, for Volusia, which was formed from part of Orange County.
U.S. Highway 17 (US 17) in Florida is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs 317 miles (510 km) from the Punta Gorda, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area northeast to the Jacksonville metropolitan area.
The Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail is a rail trail in Pinellas County, Florida. It stretches from Tarpon Springs in the north to St. Petersburg in the south, passing through the towns of Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Belleair, Clearwater, Largo, Seminole, South Pasadena, and Gulfport. It is utilized for walking, jogging, and cycling. Some trail users are able to commute to work using the Pinellas Trail instead of a motor vehicle.
The Lehigh Gap or Lehigh Water Gap is a water gap located in the townships of Lehigh, Washington, Lower Towamensing, and East Penn in the Lehigh Valley and Coal Region regions of eastern Pennsylvania. It was formed by the Lehigh River, where it cuts through the Blue Mountain in Pennsylvania.
Maytown is an unincorporated community located in south Volusia County, Florida, United States. The community was the site of the crossing of the Enterprise Branch and Kissimmee Valley Branch of the Florida East Coast Railway. Today, both lines are rail trails.
The Orange Belt Railway was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad established in 1885 by Russian exile Peter Demens in Florida. It was one of the longest narrow gauge railroads in the United States at the time of its completion in 1888, with a mainline 152 miles (245 km) in length between Sanford and St. Petersburg. It carried citrus, vegetables, and passengers; and it interchanged with two standard gauge lines: the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway at Lake Monroe, and the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad at Lacoochee.
The Seaboard–All Florida Railway was a subsidiary of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad that oversaw two major extensions of the system in the early 1920s to southern Florida on each coast during the land boom. One line extended the Seaboard's tracks on the east coast from West Palm Beach down to Fort Lauderdale and Miami, while the other extension on the west coast extended the tracks from Fort Ogden south to Fort Myers and Naples, with branches from Fort Myers to LaBelle and Punta Rassa. These two extensions were heavily championed by Seaboard president S. Davies Warfield, and were constructed by Foley Brothers railroad contractors. Both extensions also allowed the Seaboard to better compete with the Florida East Coast Railway and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, who already served the lower east and west coasts of Florida respectively.
East Coast Regional Rail Trail is a planned 52-mile paved multi-use trail in Volusia County, Florida and Brevard County, Florida connecting from Enterprise, Florida to Edgewater, Florida with a 10-mile leg to Titusville, Florida. From the trailhead at Green Springs Park, other trailheads are at Osteen, Maytown, Edgewater and Titusville. It opened in March 2012 for use by walkers, joggers, in-line skaters, bicyclists, and people with disabilities. In September 2020, the trail is mostly completed with one 3-mile gap under construction. The trail includes portions of both the 250-mile Florida Coast-to-Coast Connector trail and 260-mile St. Johns River-to-Sea Loop.
The Sanford and Indian River Railroad was a historic railroad in Central Florida running from Sanford southeast to Oviedo and Lake Charm, a distance of 20 miles. The railroad dates back to the late 1800s and parts of it are still active today.
Municipalities and communities of Volusia County, Florida, United States | ||
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| Unincorporated communities | ||
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| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |