Cultivating Orange Trees, Orange City, Florida.

Orange City was named for the abundant orange groves in the area. By the 1880s, there were over 170 orange groves, and one grower estimated that there were probably 4,000 acres of oranges throughout the town. What happened to those orange groves? The Big Freeze in 1894–1895 wiped them out. On December 29, 1894, the temperature reached 15 degrees, blackening the tree leaves and freezing the oranges, but the trees were still alive. In January, the weather was warm and the trees were growing. But February 8, 1895, saw the temperature drop to 16 degrees and the trees were frozen to the ground, resulting in their demise. Today, there are some orange trees in the area, mostly grown for family use.

This information was summarized from “Our Story of Orange City, Florida,” fifth edition, pages 106 -112.