Hollinswood Ranch Oral History Project

Hollinswood Ranch, a 20,000-acre cattle ranch in Citrus County, FL, acquired by Dixie Martin Hollins, the first Superintendent of Pinellas County Schools, and his son, Maurice L. Hollins, in 1942. The ranch showcases a disappearing entity in Florida; a family-owned and operated ranch. Hollins sold several thousand acres of the Hollinswood Ranch to Florida Power Corporation for construction of the nuclear power facility in Citrus County. The now-defunct Cross Florida Barge Canal severed the remaining ranch lands, preventing uninterrupted access from north to south by the landowner without exiting the property. President Nixon halted the canal construction in 1972, but not in time to protect Hollinswood from the damaging effects of the construction.

Interviewees discuss these and other impacts to the ranch over six decades until the Hollins family sold most of the ranch, preserving a significant portion for the public through a sale to the State of Florida Conservation and Recreation Lands Program. Speakers discuss the turpentine industry that existed on the ranch, and Hollin's emphasis on safe and responsible hunting.