Sebring

Book excerpt: In 1911, Ohio entrepreneur George E. Sebring was drawn to the raw south-central Florida peninsular wilderness, known for bountiful fishing and game. After cofounding Sebring, Ohio, in 1898, he envisaged another eponymous town that would attract new residents to this largely unsettled area located 30 miles from the nearest railroad depot. The businessman purchased 9,000 acres on the shore of Lake Jackson, and his new town was designed and surveyed between October 1911 and April 1912. By virtue of its location along the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, the community of Sebring emerged as a novel tourist and golfing destination and was established as the seat of newly formed Highlands County in 1921. Cultural and technological advances have transformed the once-rural community into a thriving modern city that today retains its small-town atmosphere as the City on the Circle.