Gopher Racing Capital Hudson, Florida

Pasco County, Florida

The story of Hudson

Everything below is a single verifiable claim with a citation attached. Where the record is a local legend rather than a document, it says so.

Blinker Light at Old Dixie Highway & Clark Street; Hudson Beach
Blinker Light at Old Dixie Highway & Clark Street; Hudson Beach DanTD · CC BY-SA 3.0
  1. 1878Isaac Hudson arrives
  2. 1912Fivay Company fails
  3. 1930Fishing employs half the men
  4. 1950Canals dug for houses
Lumber to collapse to fishing to canals - four economies in seventy years.

founding

How it started

  • 1878

    Isaac Hudson moved his family into the uninhabited brush of coastal Pasco County in 1878 and let a post office run out of his house.

    Hudson, Florida

etymology

How it got its name

  • The settlement carries the name of Isaac Hudson, who established it.

    Hudson, Florida

industry

What it lived on

  • 1912

    Lumber first: the Fivay Company cut timber here and shipped it by rail to Tampa. When Fivay failed in 1912 the town stalled, and the water took over - shrimping and fishing employed about half the working men from the 1930s through the 1950s.

    Hudson, Florida

claim to fame

What it is known for

  • Hudson once proclaimed itself the gopher racing capital of the world.

    Hudson, Florida

landmark

What still stands

  • Robert J. Strickland Memorial Park, built in the 1960s and still the community's beach.

    Hudson, Florida

  • 1950

    The Port of Hudson neighbourhood, made in 1950 when W.L. Hendry and his sons dug inlets from the coast around Hudson Springs and used the fill to raise dry ground for houses.

    Hudson, Florida