WEST VOLUSIA AND THE ST. JOHNS RIVER
- A 15,000-YEAR LOVE AFFAIR -

     Most of the new residents came to the area hoping to strike it rich by citrus growing. But one of them, a Minnesota man named George Colby, was motivated by something else when he arrived in 1876.

     A Spiritualist, Colby said he was guided by spirits to get off a riverboat near Orange City and walk east. He said his spirit guides told him to stop near a Lake and build a house.  Within a few years, Colby had attracted other members of his faith. They named their settlement Cassadaga, after another Spiritualist community in New York.

     Also in 1876, a man named Henry DeLand decided to retire from manufacturing baking powder. He wanted to try his hand at citrus raising and land development. So, he moved from Fairport, N.Y. to some good grove land just to the north of Spring Hill.

     DeLand quickly became West Volusia’s most ardent booster. He bought up land and resold it to other investors. He advertised extensively in northern newspapers in hopes of luring new residents.

      People began calling the community DeLand. In 1882, voters decided to make the name official and incorporated into a city. Two years later, Henry DeLand and another New Yorker, Berlin Wright, decided to develop a small resort town on the shores of a lake between DeLand and Cassadaga. They called the both body of water and the community Lake Helen, after Henry’s daughter.

     Like many advertisers touting a project, DeLand promised money back guarantees to anybody who bought citrus land from him and was dissatisfied. Unlike many other advertisers, DeLand kept his promise.

     And, when a freeze struck the area’s citrus crop in January of 1886, DeLand was faced with dozens of dissatisfied investors who wanted their money back. Keeping his word financially ruined him, but DeLand paid back the investors and then had to return to the New York baking powder business.

     But, for most the area, the 1886 freeze was but a minor setback. A major economic boost came later that year, when the railroad reached Lake Beresford. That brought in still more residents.

     One of those attracted to the area by Henry DeLand’s advertisements was John B. Stetson, the millionaire hat manufacturer. He arrived in 1886, shortly after the freeze. He couldn’t have come at a better time as far as the city’s future was concerned. When the freeze wiped out Henry DeLand, it also stopped him from supporting the town’s small college, which at that time was called DeLand Academy.

     Stetson picked up where Henry DeLand left off and began supporting the college, which is now called Stetson University and is internationally known as one of the best small institutes of higher learning in the U.S.

     West Volusia entered the 20th Century with hopes of becoming a major resort area. Large hotels were built in Orange City, DeLand, Lake Helen and DeLeon Springs. Although the West Volusia hotels never reached the opulence of the coastal Florida digs of such moguls as John D. Rockefeller, middle and upper-middle class tourists strengthened the greater DeLand area’s economy.

     By the 1940s, the area also began attracting manufacturers. At first, defense contractors made up most of the industrial tax base. But, by the 1980s, electronic firms and other light industries had set up shop in West Volusia.

     The industries have given some stability to the area’ economy. West Volusia’s population and such economic indicators as its tax base have increased steadily throughout the 20 Century.

     Now, area business and political leaders are trying to keep that growth going. The leaders are trying to find out how to expand the three major industries -- agriculture, tourism and manufacturing -- without having them adversely affect each other or the environment.

     And, as always happens in West Volusia, that means focusing attention on the river -- protecting it from pollution; keeping such unique wildlife as the West Indian manatee safe within it; allowing sport and commercial fishing to use it responsibly and protecting it so it will remain the area’s backbone well into the 21st Century.