AVON PARK FLORIDAAvon Park Florida is in Highlands County Florida on US-27 a few miles north of Sebring. The population of the town is about 9,000. The first settler in the area was Oliver Crosby who moved down from New England in 1884 to study the wildlife. A couple of years later the folks in the area named the town Lake Forest. An English settler convinced Crosby that the area reminded her of Stratford-Upon-Avon, her home town in England, and so the name was changed to Avon Park. I first visited Avon Park Florida more than 40 years ago and was scared out of my wits one night. After having a few happy hour drinks in the basement lounge of the Hotel Jacaranda one afternoon, I left to go have dinner in one of the restaurants out along US-27 toward Sebring. While driving back to the hotel well after sunset, the night sky was suddenly illuminated as if it were high noon.
Burning flares were all over the sky like a million flaming stars. I wondered if we were suddenly under nuclear attack. It was then I remembered the existence of the nearby Avon Park Bombing Range. During World War Two this bombing range was operated by the Army Air Force, and sprawled over 218,000 acres. The huge acreage has been partially sold off over the years, but it still has more than 100,000 acres. A lot of the acreage is open to the public for hiking and nature watching. When I last went through Avon Park in January 2012, the old Hotel Jacaranda still looks pretty much like it does on the postcard. Downtown Avon Park is built along a grassy boulevard mall, and quite a few of the old buildings have been nicely maintained or restored. THINGS TO DO IN CENTRAL FLORIDA NEAR AVON PARK Return From Avon Park Florida To Florida Towns
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