This is the little-known story of how Homosassa won (and lost) a contract to host a Major League Baseball team.

Dissatisfied Dodgers

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Florida had already been established as an ideal Spring training location for many baseball teams by 1926. The players and coaches looked forward to exchanging the harsh wind and snow of the North for the balmy breezes, golf courses and palm trees of Florida. The Brooklyn Dodgers, led by their President/Manager Wilbert “Uncle Robbie” Robinson, set up camp as usual at the Green Field/Clearwater Athletic Field. The Clearwater baseball facilities were adequate, but the hotel and living accommodations were sorely lacking when compared to other teams, such as their cross-town rival Yankees. One sports writer joked:

“Two years ago, this reporter, benighted in Clearwater, blundered into the Brooklyn Dodgers hotel and asked for a room with a bath … and when he came back today the room clerk was still hysterical. ‘Har, har, har,” cried the room clerk, ‘here’s the guy who wanted the room with a bath.”

Wilbert “Uncle Robbie” Robinson was a baseball legend and beloved Dodger Manager who was respected by his players and fans alike. As a player, he once hit 7-for-7 in a single game – a major league record that stood for many years. He also holds a special place in the hearts of Florida baseball fans.

Ruth Law was a pioneering woman pilot who purchased her first airplane from Orville Wright. In 1915, the Dodgers invited her to drop a baseball from over 500 feet in the air as part of a Spring Training advertising promotion. Robinson, the team Manager and a former catcher, volunteered to snatch the ball before it hit the ground. Reportedly, Law discovered that she had forgotten to bring a baseball before takeoff, but then noticed a large Florida grapefruit in the cockpit and decided to use that for the show. (Or Dodger prankster Casey Stengel had replaced the baseball with a grapefruit. You could look it up). The grapefruit hurtled toward Robinson’s outstretched mitt – and promptly smashed and exploded all over his body. He was momentarily blinded by the grapefruit juice and started screaming that he was going to die, much to the amusement of his teammates. Legend has it that this is the origin of the term “Grapefruit League” for the Florida Spring Training games.

A hard-luck team

The Dodgers run of misfortune was legendary in 1925. Their owner, Charles Ebbets, had passed away at the conclusion of 1925 Spring Training season. His successor, Ed McKeever, contracted pneumonia at Ebbets’ funeral and was dead within a week. Robinson was designated as team President as well as Manager. His players looked to “Uncle Robbie” for some good news to motivate them.

Robinson’s roster for the 1926 season did not look promising. In spite of ace pitcher Dazzy Vance’s 22-9 record in 1925, the team had a terrible 68-85 record that year and had ended the season in sixth place (of eight teams). Sportswriters shook their heads and predicted similar doom and gloom for the Dodgers in 1926.

Major League Baseball comes to Homosassa

The leaders of the Florida West Coast Development Company sensed an opportunity. They hired the popular former Brooklyn Dodger pitcher (and the late Charles Ebbets’ son-in-law) Leon Cadora to design a baseball field in their new Homosassa development. Cadora was worshiped by the Brooklyn fans for his 26-inning complete game against the Boston Braves in 1920. He later joked that “if Uncle Robbie had tried to take me out of the game, I think I would have strangled him.”

Cadora contacted his old manager and convinced him to travel to the new development in Homosassa and view their plans for a new ball park, hotel and extensive accommodations. Robinson was sold – literally. He bought property in Homosassa and foresaw the brand-new ballfield and hotels as the boost his team needed.

Florida law at that time forbade baseball games, movies and other entertainment on Sunday. On Sunday, March 7, 1926, Robinson took the “off day” opportunity to load the Brooklyn Dodgers team onto buses so they could check out their possible new Spring Training home in Citrus County. While some like Dazzy Vance purchased property, the other players were interested but decided to defer any purchases until the deal was formalized.

On March 26, 1926, the Dodgers announced to the world that they were planning to sign a contract with the Homosassa developers and were moving their Spring Training activities to Citrus County. Needless to say, Clearwater officials adopted a stoic stance and prepared to accept the inevitable. 1926 was to be the Dodgers last year in Pinellas County and the new Homosassa facilities were planned to be ready in time for the 1927 Spring Training season.

Homosassa bobbles the ball

Unfortunately, Bruce Hoover and the Florida West Coast Development company ran into financial difficulties. When Dodger management toured Homosassa to check progress in October 1926, they found that most of the promised facilities had not been completed and many had not been started yet. Since the Homosassa developers could not meet the terms of their contact with the Dodgers by 1927 Spring Training, the team elected to remain in Clearwater. The Pinellas officials breathed a sigh of relief and promised the team better living quarters and entertainment facilities.

What could have been

For a brief moment in time, Homosassa was going to become the future site of “Dodgertown” – entertaining the likes of the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and many other major league teams during the Springtime. Sportswriters and fans would have traveled to the new community and told their friends and families about the hidden gem on the Gulf Coast. However, ambitious promises did not meet the expectations of actual delivery, so the “Homosassa Dodgers” are just a distant memory of what could have been in Citrus County history.

Ken Marotte writes for the Citrus County Historical Society.

From volunteer to Park Ranger and Animal Enrichment Coordinator, Makenzie Shaw has spent nearly half her life caring for the animals at Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park – and she’s only 21.

She began volunteering at the park when she was 12 years old, making her the youngest to ever volunteer there at the time.

Volunteers are not, however, immune to any of the daily poop-scooping or exhibit cleaning. Shaw doesn’t mind that at all, though, because every day is different, she said.

“That’s the nice thing about a job like this, every day is different. You could be working the same shift for seven days in a row and it could still be different every single day because you never know what’s going to happen and it makes it really exciting,” Shaw said.

She’s always had a passion for wildlife and the natural world. In middle school, she was able to attend Busch Gardens and Sea World summer camps where she got to work with the keepers at each park and it was a “major turning point” for her.

“I was like ‘I could do this every day for the rest of my life,’” Shaw said. “We’re picking up kangaroo poop at Busch Gardens and I was like ‘this is amazing, I love it.’”

Now Shaw is working on her degree online while working full time at the park, having been promoted to a full-time park ranger position in August 2022. She’s currently getting her bachelor’s in environmental science and policy from the University of South Florida.

As a park ranger, her daily duties typically depend on whether she has the opening or closing shift at the park, but generally they consist of cleaning the exhibits and feeding the animals at certain times throughout the day.

On an opening shift, she takes care of Lu the Hippopotamus, cleaning off his beach and feeding him in the mornings. Then she feeds the birds in the shorebird aviary, aka the pelicans and flamingos.

Then she cleans the night houses for the birds, which is where they stay during the night to keep them safe from potential predators since most birds at the park have wing injuries making them unable to fly. Once all that is done, she’ll do some exhibit maintenance, such as changing perching around for the birds or cleaning up exhibits.

On a closing shift, she cleans up the deer yard and feeds them, changes their hay and does some enrichment with them.

“We might do a puzzle feeder for the deer and give them produce every day,” Shaw said. “Their favorite currently is pumpkin, so we might have a PVC puzzle feeder and put pieces of pumpkin in it, so they have to work at it through the day.”

As Animal Enrichment Coordinator, an extra duty she earned recently, she and her team of volunteers try to do enrichment at least twice a day with all of the animals.

“So in the mornings when we’re letting the animals out, we’re putting things in exhibits like different spices, or a new ball or scratching post, or even fecal material from another species to kind of get them excited and giving them something new every day and encourage their natural behaviors,” Shaw said.

For example, they’ll put deer feces in the panther exhibit and make a trail with it to encourage the natural tracking behavior of the panthers. For the bears, they like to give them something new each day in their night houses, such as bamboo or palm fronds.

In the past, Shaw has been such an outstanding volunteer that not only was she nominated by the park, but she was also awarded the Florida’s Youth Volunteer of the Year award in 2017, when she was 16 years old.

“It was a really awesome opportunity to represent this park in a way that most other facilities aren’t able to because I had been here for so long and I was so young,” she said.

Outside of her years at the park, Shaw has done some other stand-out things that made her who she is today.

While she was at Citrus High School, she did Youth Leadership Citrus and participated in the monthly field trips around the county, making her appreciate this county she grew up in even more.

When she was 14 years old, she was selected to appear in the Outsiders Club, an Emmy Award-winning television show about kids who explore the outdoors and promote a healthier, more active and environmentally-conscious lifestyle.

“It was their first season, first episode, and they were doing it on the Junior Ranger Program that state parks have. So kids can come and do scavenger hunts and they get a little badge that says they’re a junior ranger,” Shaw said. “So I got to go to Tomoka State Park and film for a day to be on this show. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for sure.”

She also was working on raising a guide dog – a yellow lab lovingly named Nicholas John – during her freshman year of college in 2019 for Southeastern Guide Dogs while at USF in St. Petersburg. However, once COVID-19 began in 2020, the training was cut short as the program could no longer meet in person and 90 dogs were released from the program.

However, she was given the option whether to adopt out her dog or keep him, so he was job class changed to a pet and she kept him.

“Now he is my chunky little lab instead of my very smart service dog,” said Shaw. “It was definitely a super cool experience and I’m wanting to get back into doing it, probably after college and if I’m able to balance it with my full time job, because it is so rewarding.”

On top of all this, she was also selected by her professors at USF to study abroad in the Galapagos Islands for two weeks.

She got to do tracking on the Galapagos tortoises with the preserve security and collected field data on the tortoises for their record keeping. She also got to do snorkeling with sharks and swimming with wild sea lions off the island.

“It was the experience of a lifetime, I would suggest visiting to everyone. It was the coolest place I’ve ever been,” said Shaw.

As of now, she’s not planning on leaving the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park any time soon now that she essentially has her dream job already.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen after I graduate necessarily, but I have no plans to leave this park,” Shaw said. “It’s been a big part of my life for almost my entire life. But I’m definitely not opposed to learning and experiencing new things, so if the opportunity presents itself, I could see myself trying out working at a different facility. But I’m kind of just vibing where I’m at, and I’m really grateful for what I have here.”

Contact Chronicle Reporter Georgia Sullivan at 352-564-2929.

Large cities and metropolitan areas have long been hubs of economic activity and prosperity in the United States. Large employers that can pay enough to attract top talent from around the country often have operations in places like Austin, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco. As a result, these cities, and many others like them, have a high concentration of high-income residents. But while some American cities stand out for the economic opportunity they offer, many others are notable for the opposite reason.

There are 384 metropolitan areas in the United States, and in dozens of them, incomes are far lower than average, and serious financial hardship is widespread.

The typical household in the Homosassa Springs metro area in Florida earns $47,197 a year - the 15th lowest among the 384 U.S. metropolitan areas with available data, and about $22,520 less than the national median household income of $69,717.

Homosassa Springs also has a higher-than-average poverty rate. An estimated 16.1% of the metro area population live below the poverty line, compared to 12.8% of all Americans nationwide.

Across broad populations, incomes tend to rise with educational attainment, and in the Homosassa Springs area, only 20.8% of adults 25 and older have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to 35.0% of all Americans in the same age group.

All data in this story is based on one-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2021 American Community Survey.

With service-related jobs topping employment gains, Florida’s unemployment rate dipped slightly as 2023 began.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity on Monday released a report showing the January jobless rate at 2.6 percent, down from a revised rate of 2.7 percent in December and down from 3.5 percent in January 2022. An estimated 286,000 Floridians qualified as out of work in January from a workforce of 10.855 million.

The workforce grew by 15,000 from December and by 259,000 from January 2022.

Jimmy Heckman, the department’s chief of workforce statistics and economic research, said Florida’s market for finding jobs remains “very strong,” though the overall number of positions advertised has decreased.

“People that are unemployed typically have a very, very quick turnaround for finding jobs,” Heckman said.

The state has about 620,000 recorded job openings, a 7.9 percent reduction from a year ago. But Heckman said current postings are “elevated” over 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the economy.

The numbers released Monday reflect annual U.S. Department of Labor revisions that are considered more accurate than most other monthly estimates.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said the data showed “the continued strength and success of Florida’s economy.”

“Florida is number one in net migration, tourism and new business formations because we have bucked the elites and forged our own path forward towards success,” DeSantis said in a prepared statement. “We will continue to prioritize policies that support Florida families as they continue to face persistent inflation and national economic headwinds.”

The U.S. Department of Labor reported last week the national unemployment rate ticked up from 3.4 percent in January to an estimated 3.6 percent in February. The increase was due to nearly half a million people rejoining the labor force, while 311,000 positions added to payrolls in February topped expectations.

The Department of Economic Opportunity will release a February rate for Florida on March 24.

Florida was among 15 states and the District of Columbia that saw jobless rates decrease from January 2022 to January 2023, according to Department of Labor numbers released Monday.

New Mexico had the largest percentage-point drop, from 5.4 percent to 3.5 percent. New Jersey went down 1.7 percentage points to 3.4 percent, New York was down 0.9 percentage points to 4.2 percent, California went down 1.0 percentage point to 4.2 percent, and Texas decreased 0.4 percentage points to 3.9 percent.

Among 11 states that swung the other way, Oregon, at 4.8 percent, had the highest increase over the past year, up 1 percentage point.

Most of the recent job gains in Florida and across the nation continue to center on lower-paying retail and hospitality jobs.

From January 2022 to January 2023, leisure and hospitality jobs in Florida led other major sectors. increasing by 101,900 positions, with 16,100 added in the January report.

Next highest year-over-year were in professional and business services, with 80,400 jobs added, and education and health services, up 79,400 jobs.

Construction jobs were up 23,600 from a year earlier but shed 2,400 positions in January amid signs of a slowing housing market.

Among the major metro areas, the January unemployment rate in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach statistical area was 2.3 percent, the lowest in the state.

The rate was 2.5 percent in the Jacksonville area, and 2.6 percent in the Orlando, Pensacola and Tampa-St. Petersburg regions.

The highest rates were found in The Villages, Sebring and Homosassa Springs regions, each at 3.9 percent.

The statewide unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted, while the metropolitan statistical area rates are not.

Monkey Island: A unique, historical fixture of Homosassa

These monkeys have their own private island in the middle of the Homosassa River. Monkey Island has been around since the 1960s -- starting out as a pile of rocks. Today, it still stands. The monkey residents are cared for by nearby resort owners.

HOMOSASSA, Fla. - In the middle of the Homosassa River sits an island of monkeys.

Florida's own version of Alcatraz started out as a pile of submerged rocks in the 1960s and has transformed into a quirky historical fixture. It's an old tale – a story that is told numerous times by the locals and remains an attraction that both surprises and delights visitors far and wide.

The story of Monkey Island started when a well-known developer sought to fix two seemingly simple problems. Little did he know, he would create an iconic part of the Nature Coast's identity that will stick around decades later.

A lighthouse, wooden hut, swinging ropes, and palm trees sit on top of that pile of sand and rocks. Over the years, several monkeys have called it home.

The first problem

A Citrus County developer, G.A. Furgason – nicknamed "Furgy" – was involved in establishing the areas around Homosassa River back in the 1950s and 1960s, explained Marie Straight, secretary of the Historic Monkey Island board. He worked for 36 years until his retirement in 1983.

Furgy put together land deals and even created an animals and plants attraction, known today as the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. It's located about 2.5 miles – by road – from Monkey Island.

During the 60s, he also worked with Norris Cattle Company, which owned land in the area, Straight said. At one point, the company was about to send Furgy away for business.

"Before Furgy left," Straight explained, "he kept hearing of a pile of rocks in the middle of the river and it was causing trouble for the fisherman."

Those rocks were shallow enough for boats to run into, and deep enough where fisherman couldn't spot them with the naked eye. So, Furgy and Norris – the owner of the company he worked for – directed one of his dragline operators to pile some dirt around the rocks for boaters to spot them and avoid a collision.

"So, what happened then – how Monkey Island came to be – is these dragline operators got a little bit carried away," Straight explained, "and put a lot of dirt on these rocks. Thereby, they created the small island in the river which is just outside the Riverside resort today."

When Furgy returned, he noticed the "island" wasn't very attractive.

"It was just a bunch of dirt in the middle of the river so he enhanced it by building a lighthouse on the island," Straight said.

That lighthouse still stands on Monkey Island today.

The second problem

Meanwhile, the monkeys that would eventually call that manmade island their home were brought to America by a naturalist, John Hamlet.

Furgason ran into Hamlet in South Dakota and convinced him to come to Florida to work with him. The naturalist brought along monkeys too.

READ: Meet the primate residents of Florida's Monkey Island: Ralph, Emily, and Ebony

Straight said the monkeys' purpose was to perfect the polio vaccine back in the 1950s.

"The idea was that the monkeys would do like most Floridians – retire – after their purpose was satisfied with the polio vaccine and then they would be retired to the Homosassa State Wildlife Park," she explained.

But, like in the movies, the monkeys were quite mischievous, escaping their cages.

"They would get in [visitors'] cars. They would steal candy. They would even bite some of the tourists," Straight said. "So, now we have a problem. The way the legend goes, it says that he had often thought of sending them to Alcatraz."

But then Furgy realized, he had his own little Alcatraz right in Homosassa River. So, the primates – three spider monkeys and two squirrel monkeys – moved in and the Monkey Island we know today was established.

The permanent solution, decades later

Today, Monkey Island remains one of the most unique sites along Florida's Nature Coast. The original group of monkeys lasted for 12 years before they began dying. They were replaced with younger monkeys over the years.

MORE: Monkey Island in Homosassa is getting a major overhaul in 2022

Now, only a handful of spider monkeys remain.

Blake Lowman and his family took over the resort in late 2019 and, no, he never thought he would ever own an island of monkeys.

"We’re from the area. We’re from Hernando County," he explained. "We’re only 30 minutes away and my family is involved in multiple businesses and just saw an opportunity. It sounded like a pretty cool thing to try and get into so, yeah, we purchased it."

With that ownership, the Lowman family and community made big plans to maintain Monkey Island. He said he wants to make sure it can last another few decades for future generations of monkeys to live and for the community and visitors to enjoy.

Owning Monkey Island comes with guidelines in order to maintain an ownership license. Unlike decades ago, there are now regulations and rules to follow set by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission that the owners must follow.

To start: food. The monkeys are fed twice a day. Their diet includes fruit, vegetables, and a USDA-approved "monkey chow" with a blend of nutrients they are required to consume.

But the fun part is how they are fed. The marina staff employees – who are cross-trained to feed the primate residents – pile into a boat and depart for Monkey Island.

While they are out there, employees circle the island, looking for any hazards or trash.

"Then we throw out the food to them. We try to scatter around so they kind of have to dig, and play, and search for their food," Lowman explained. "Usually, at least once a week we try to get on the island to do any repairs, try to clean up any trash or anything that might be hazardous to them. Basically, people kind of throw things on the island so we have to go clean that up. It’s just sad. Very sad."

He said every day is different. His family meets people from every state, every country – all walks of life.

"They’re pretty shocked if they’ve never been here before and they see an island right off of our property with monkeys on it," Lowman said. "You always explain the story of how they got there and the history behind it."

He said the best way to see Monkey Island is from the Florida Cracker Monkey Bar on the resort property, which is about 30 to 40 yards away.

To learn more about conserving Monkey Island, head over to the Historic Monkey Island website or the Florida Cracker Riverside Resort website.