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“We already have a few important pieces in our collection neighborhood, and later moved north of Carnestown.
— such as moving company founder Cleveland Bass’ hand In the 1920s and 1930s, she says, the logging was mostly
truck and scale recently donated by his family — that would be pine, “and it was common to disassemble and move a mill
perfect to display in the car,” Townsend says. and the camps when an area had been depleted of timber.
She targets a total budget of $600,000-$650,000. Dwight
“In the 1940s and 1950s, with more access and heavier
says initial grants of $400,000 from the state plus $50,000 from
equipment, cypress began to be logged out of more remote
the city of Naples, plus donations of $55,000, are in hand. The
areas. More permanent mills were established at Copeland
county, he says, has yet to be approached.
and Jerome. Narrow-gauge railroad spurs were run into the
While lacking a firm deadline, Townsend hopes to open
Big Cypress to extract the timber and transport it to the
as soon as possible with semi-permanent displays, then work
mill.
on collecting more stories and artifacts, then more permanent
exhibits. “It will be wonderful to let it evolve with the “Both Copeland and Jerome had segregated housing
community's input,” she says. for Black workers and their families.”
Townsend reflects on how much of early Black history Looking ahead, she believes the history project will
took place out of the public eye, in places that were in the make history of its own. “I don’t know of any other
wilderness and barely exist today. For example, she says Barron community,” she says, “that has specifically used
Collier’s lumber mill was in DuPont, Everglades City’s Black a train car for a Black history exhibit.”

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