October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
SEPTEMBER 30 - OCTOBER 6, 2022
VOLUME 3 ISSUE 39
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Mysterious Fort Drane Just before the start of the Second Seminole Indian War in 1885, the U.S. Army established an outpost on a 3,000-acre plantation north of Ocala, named Fort Drane. The location has been narrowed down, but remains an enigma. By Rosemarie Dowell rosemarie@ocalagazette.com
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hen Sabrina Jarema bought her rural northwest Marion County farm more than 25 years ago, she had no inkling it had played a vital role in Florida’s hellish Second Seminole Indian War. That soon changed. Shortly after the professional fantasy illustrator and author moved to her 40-acre spread, she started finding artifacts, some from several thousand years ago and others from the 1835-42 war period. “At first I started finding arrowheads and shards just lying on the ground in one of my pastures,” said Jarema. “Then I started finding various pieces of pottery, China, and old glass in another area.” A New York City native, Jarema also discovered musket balls and metal objects, including old axe handles, and remnants of bayonets or swords near a large
spring on yet another part of her land. One of her dogs even dug up an old horse bit while a good friend found old railroad spikes using a metal detector one day. “He kept getting hits all along my back fence and pulled out a few of them before he stopped digging,” said Jarema, awardingwinning author of the “Viking Lords” series of books from Kensington Publishing. She also found an old well, on the edge of a property line she shares with a local mining company, SCI Materials LLC, which leases the land from Palmer Resources, LLC, formerly Mid-Florida Mining. Talk about paydirt. Her farm, Jarema later learned, was once part of the massive Auld Lang Syne sugar mill plantation of Col. Duncan L. Clinch, a four-square mile swath of land nestled between presentday county roads 318, 225 and 329 near the hamlets of Fairfield and Irvine, north of Ocala. The site later would serve as a strategic outpost where Army
soldiers, Native Americans and others lived and, in many cases, died from wounds and sickness. The farmland, however, is shrouded in mystery as repeated efforts over time to locate the exact parameters of the military fort and the graves of those buried there have had mixed results. Today, the area, located in the county’s Farmland Preservation Area, is poised to undergo a transformation that could forever erase its history. In June, the Marion County Board of County Commissioners, in a 3-to-2 vote, approved plans to build the World Equestrian Center (WEC) Jockey Club development on nearby land, which was also part of the Auld Lang Syne plantation. In July, several neighbors of the property, along with local farmland conservation group Save Our Rural Lands, filed a lawsuit appealing the approval and requested a formal administrative hearing challenging the amendments to the county’s See Fort Drane, page A3
Sabrina Jarema holds a railroad spike, as she talks about an old ax head, horse yoke, a blade and other historical items she found on her property off County Road 329 north of Ocala on Sunday, July 24, 2022. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.
Sheriff restricts media access
Emergency management meeting convenes elected officials, businesspeople and others. officials and staff from the county, municipalities, and various businesses and organizations at the Emergency Operations Center, presumably to discuss storm preparations and readiness. Business leaders including the leaders of the World Equestrian Center and officials from nonprofits including Marion Humane Society, United Way, the Community Foundation were present for the hourlong session. Local media representatives, however, were restricted from attending. Woods told the Gazette he wanted everyone to be File photo: Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods talks at the Marion County Sheriff’s able to talk freely and was Office in Ocala on Tuesday, August 9, 2022. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022. worried that “sensitive By Jennifer Hunt Murty information” would be leaked to the jennifer@ocalagazette.com public and cause harm. The public information officers for the sheriff s Hurricane Ian advanced on indicated they would release to the media Florida on Tuesday, Marion what information the meeting attendees County Sheriff Billy Woods deemed ready for public dissemination, convened a morning meeting of elected but they did not provide a timeline, a
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curious decision when dealing with a public emergency where every hour of preparation counts. There was no media release following the meeting identifying any information that resulted from the meeting. The Gazette offered to clear whatever information it would report for accuracy and public safety with the public information office before publishing. Access to the meeting was still denied. The Gazette explained to Woods the newspaper wanted to witness the interactions among the different agencies so it could report about that collaborative process after the storm passed. The Gazette noted that the dissemination of important information regarding the storm thus far seemed “clunky” at best, without much apparent centralized decision-making. For example, a public notice about such things as sandbag locations was slow getting out at 4:40 p.m. only to close at 7 p.m. Also, a press conference about storm preparations called Monday by Marion County Commission Chair Carl Zalak inexplicably excluded newspapers, with only broadcast news stations invited. The session also was not streamed live online, again a missed opportunity to inform the public in real time.
Although the sheriff agreed with the Gazette’s initial observation, he still refused access at the pleading of his public information officer Valerie Strong who argued if the Gazette was allowed, other media persons would also have to be allowed. Strong told the Gazette, “It’s a private meeting.” Numerous local business leaders, directors from nonprofits and representatives from utility companies were in attendance. The sheriff indicated they were permitted because they were “partners.” When asked why a newspaper is not considered a “partner” during a state of emergency, Woods’ response was, “I’m sorry.” Following the meeting, some of those in attendance told the Gazette they did not recall any sensitive information being shared. A few indicated that the Director for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Preston Bowlin asked county officials, officials from all municipalities, the school district, the Florida Highway Patrol and fire and police agencies if they had any questions or concerns or needs to be filled. According to the sources in attendance, not one request or piece of feedback was provided by anyone at the meeting in response to the inquiry by Bowlin.
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