Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Historic State Park
Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Historic State Park is a Florida State Park located in Homosassa, off U.S. 19. It contains the ruins of a sugar plantation owned by David Levy Yulee. Yulee was a delegate of the Florida Territorial Legislative Council. After Florida became a state, he was elected by the legislature in 1845 to the United States Senate, becoming the first American of Jewish heritage to serve there. After Florida seceded from the Union, Yulee served in the Confederate Congress. He is credited with having developed a network of railroads that tremendously boosted the state's economy.
At Homosassa, Yulee established a sugarcane plantation, which was destroyed during the American Civil War. The original plantation covered more than, and was worked by approximately 1,000 enslaved African Americans. They raised sugarcane, citrus, and cotton. The large mill ran from 1851 to 1864. It produced sugar, syrup and molasses, the latter used in making rum.
At the park, the stonework of the mill, iron gears, a cane press, and some of the other machinery remain. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 12, 1970.
