WALDO — A sweet potato developed in Waldo more than 130 years ago is providing inspiration for a modern-day celebration of the small city’s agricultural past.
The second annual Waldo Sweet Potato Festival will be held Saturday, Sept. 12, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Waldo City Square, bringing together food, vendors, family activities and local businesses.
Hosted by the Waldo Area Historical Society, the festival is relatively new. The history behind its namesake is not.
In 1891, Waldo grower T.K. Godbey developed a variety of sweet potato known as “Forty to a Hill,” according to historical records documenting the area’s agricultural economy.
Godbey was part of a much larger agricultural industry that flourished around Waldo during a period when the community was an important railroad center and locally grown products could be transported to markets far beyond Alachua County.
By the 1880s, Waldo’s population had reached about 1,000, making it the second-largest city in Alachua County, according to documentation for the Waldo Historic District’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Railroads helped shape the community’s growth. Waldo sat at the junction of two divisions of the Florida Railway and Navigation Co., and its economy included an ice and cold-storage plant, grist mill, cotton gin, sawmill, wagon factory and other businesses.
Agriculture was an important part of that economy.
Citrus groves produced crops around Waldo, while flowers and other agricultural products were shipped by rail. Godbey became one of the state’s successful flower growers, shipping carloads of gladiolus, iris and canna bulbs from Waldo.
The area’s transportation network extended beyond the railroad tracks.
In March 1881, a canal connecting Lake Alto and Lake Santa Fe was completed, allowing a steamboat to travel to farms around the lakes to collect produce. The crops were brought back to a railroad spur in Waldo and transferred to trains bound for northern markets.
Oranges were among the area’s major crops until a series of devastating freezes in the late 19th century destroyed much of the citrus industry.
Waldo’s prosperity during that era was not based on agriculture alone.
The railroad also brought tourists.
In the 1870s and 1880s, Waldo was promoted to northern travelers as a winter destination. Visitors arriving by train found resort hotels, theaters and an opera house, along with fishing, hunting, boating and baseball.
At its height, the community had several hotels, stores, churches, a newspaper and other businesses and institutions. Passenger trains regularly stopped in Waldo, while railroad workers and their families became an important part of the community.
A series of events eventually changed that trajectory.
The freezes damaged the horticultural economy. A major fire destroyed a number of wooden commercial buildings in 1893. Railroad operations and transportation patterns changed over time, diminishing Waldo’s role as a railroad center.
Today, much of that earlier Waldo survives primarily through historic buildings, photographs, documents and stories preserved by the community.
The Waldo Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001, recognizing a collection of buildings and sites associated with the city’s development.
The Waldo Area Historical Society has worked to preserve and share that history while using community events to bring attention to the city’s past.
The Sweet Potato Festival is part of that effort.
The historical society says proceeds from its annual events support preservation projects and future community events, with an emphasis on promoting local businesses while keeping Waldo’s history visible.
Saturday’s festival will be held in the back field at Waldo City Square, 14450 N.E. 148th Ave. Admission is free.
More than a century separates Godbey’s “Forty to a Hill” sweet potato from the festival that now bears the crop’s name.
But the connection is fitting for a city whose early prosperity was tied to what residents could grow, make and ship beyond the community.
This weekend, the sweet potato is serving a different purpose — bringing people back to Waldo
# # #
email editor@
alachuatoday.com
