Page 130 - John Anderson

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expanding operations. Utley eventually bought up and cleared pine
and cypress from 32,000 acres of land in the Haw Creek region west
of Dupont, selling the lumber and planting potatoes on the cleared
land.
Timber was exported and also used locally for building railroads and
making the barrels that would take potatoes to market. Potato
farming grew in importance as rail transportation provided access to
markets to the north.
Several other short railroads were built on the west side of Volusia
County between 1881 and 1884. One of these was a mule-drawn
railroad, two miles long, and ran from Orange City to Blue Springs
Landing, and the other was built by E.W. Bond and ran from Deland to
the St. Johns River, a distance of about five miles.
By 1882 Buck's Stage Coach and Mail Line regularly brought travelers
and the mail from St. Augustine via the Old Kings Road three times a
week. The stage left St. Augustine at 5:00 p.m., and if all went well,
would arrive at Ormond almost twenty-four hours later. There was
also a stage line between the steamboat landing at Volusia on the St.
Johns River (opposite present-day Astor), and Daytona.

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