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' When the temperature dropped
`e lobby Hotel lo to 17 degrees on Feb. 7,more than
U 1.1 y ' 90 percent of the fruit trees were
headquarters root s ems w some with large
met systems would survive once
the dead wood was cut away. Wit-
for despair messes said they heard what
sounded like pistol shots when
the sap froze and blew out the tree
bark.
FREEZE from K-1 Land values plummeted, and
growers with mortgages were
season's entire citrus crop while forced to sell at a loss. Because it
most of it still hung on the trees. took several years for new trees to
Karl Abbott,who was a youth at mature and bear fruit,people with
the time of the freeze, later re- money were able to scoop up large
corded his recollections of citrus tracts at bargain prices from those
growers and buyers gathering in who could not afford to wait.
the lobby of the San Juan Hotel, The freeze had cascading effects
which his parents ran,as the tern- on the rest of Orange County's
perature dropped on the day of economic landscape.
the first freeze: Peter Herdic gave up the Orlan-
"By 2 p.m.,the San Juan was in do water company he owned,leav-
an uproar. Prices had dropped to
'no sale.' Commission merchants
were frantically trying to get out ing it in the hands of attorney The citrus growers who replant-
of options, and heated debates John M. Cheney,who represented ed after the freeze needed plenty
and fistfights started in the lob- the stockholders. The waterworks of faith,patience—and money.A
by,"Bacon reported from Abbott's remained closed until Cheney grower had to buy and plant seed-
memoirs. emerged as the major stockholder lings and wait five to seven years
"About 9 that night, a fine-look- after some legal maneuvering and for them to bear fruit.
ing gray-haired man in a black reopened it in 1897. And — while he did something
frock coat and Stetson hat walked
up the street in front of the hotel The twin freezes dealt a much else in the meantime to support
and looked at the thermometer, more devastating blow to the his family— he had to hope and
groaned, 'Oh, my God!' and shot county's economy than did the pray that another freeze wouldn't
himself through the head." three crippling frosts of the 1980s come along before the crop came
Abbott continued, "For three because there was little diversifi- in to wipe out his investment
days the icy winds blew over a cation beyond agriculture back again.
dead world.The gloom in the San then,and citrus was the dominant Many mom-and-pop growers
Juan was something you could crop. The citrus industry in the could not afford to do that. Some
feel and touch."
lath 19th century was comprised packed up and moved away —
It was Florida's worst freeze mostly of individual growers who leaving behind property with
since 1835, historians say, and by had small groves. They spread mortgages m foreclosure. Others
far the worst in the generation from Oakland and Winter Garden raised cattle or grew vegetables
San-
during which its citrus had been east to Christmas and from San- that would not be in the ground
cultivated on a large scale. been ford south to Pine Castle, Conway during winter.
and Wind ermere.
mom-and-pop growers, who had But some hardy growers, of
course, did persevere — hoping
come to Orange County and in- Of the eight banks in the county that the twin killer freezes were
vested all their savings in groves, before the Great Freeze, only the an anomaly Many borrowed mon-
moved back North in discourage- First National Bank of Sanford ey to buy new seedlings, planted
ment. Most,however, dug in their survived. Many stores and pack- them,
heels and hoped the next year inghouses also closed.Some got a day job and crossed
grow- their fingers.
would just better. err diversified into explored vegetw And did ee County's
til citrus in-
But But just six weeks later, it bins, while others explored new be austry
1910 did recover. Still, it would
would only get worse. kinds of commerce. be 1910 before the county would
During a January that brought Never again would Orange again ship out as much citrus as it
warm, wet weather, trees pro- County be so reliant on one Indus- had in the last harvest before the
duced new growth. The layer of try for its survival. Great Freeze.
woody tissue just under the bark
filled with sap as the wounded
trees struggled to recover. The
. presence of so much liquid in the /?KO / C /
trees made them far more vulner- 7 ✓
able to a second freeze.