Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: During the early 1900s, this area’s long leaf and slash pine forests were home to several small turpentine and timber communities. One such town was Sumica, located approximately two miles south of this location. The name “Sumica” is an acronym for the French company, the Société Universelle des Mines, Industrie, Commerce et Agriculture, which built the town’s sawmill and turpentine plant. A post office was established at Sumica on March 19, 1917, and the town later grew to include approximately 50 houses, a commissary, church, and school. The Seaboard Airline Railway completed a branch line, the Kissimmee River Railway, in December 1917, to connect Sumica with the turpentine communities of Walinwa on Lake Weohyakapka and Nalaca in Highlands County. By 1922, the sawmill at Sumica had extended 4 miles of logging rails into surrounding woodlands, and was producing 35,000 feet of lumber per day. Following depletion of the region’s timber, the town’s post office closed in June 1927 and Sumica was abandoned. Today, all that remains of Sumica are foundations that mark the location of the town’s former sawmill and residences.