GOOFY STUFF: STARCH AND POLISH — page 19
THE
Jan. 4 - 10, 2019 Volume V, Issue I
Hernando Sun Y O U R
A W A R D
W I N N I N G
W E E K LY
L O C A L
WINEMAKING The modern 13 way.....
1. This year will see the return of the famed Tangerine Drop on New Year’s Eve. It was a wonderful custom that had received national attention and only was abandoned in 2009. A 200-pound tangerine was dropped 40 feet at midnight. 2. The day to day leaders of our local branches of government lead a tenuous existence. At anytime,
a majority of the elected officials who oversee them can vote for their termination. In 2018, the Superintendent of Schools Lori Romano was fired. In 2017, it was Brooksville City Manager Jennene Norman-Vacha whose contract was not renewed. We are predicting that 2019 we will not see any of the leaders of the County, City, or School System replaced.
TOBY BENOIT Women on the 12 hunt
Arrival of the So. Ca. Dragoons at the Withlacoochee; South Carolina soldiers along the Withlacoochee River during the 2nd Seminole War, with some on horseback in river by ruins of bridge. The State Library and Archives of Florida cites as “Lithographs of events in the Seminole War in Florida in 1835. Issued by T.F. Gray and James of Charleston, S.C., in 1837.” by ROCCO MAGLIO Hernando Sun Writer
The Second Seminole War was very important to the United States as it opened up a large part of Florida for settlement. The U.S. Army recorded 1,466 deaths in the Second Seminole War, mostly from disease. It was the costliest American Indian War in United States history costing more than $30 million. The first part of the Second Seminole War was largely fought in the area around Hernando County. This was because the spoil islands of the Withlacoochee
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Brooksville, home to some of Florida’s oldest longleaf pines
See PREDICTIONS Page 2
Nature Coast was epicenter of Second Seminole War
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N E W S PA P E R
Our predictions for 2019 by ROCCO MAGLIO Hernando Sun Writer
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known as the Cove of the Withlacoochee and the surrounding area was the home to thousands of Seminoles. It was thought that river, swamps, islands, and forbidding terrain would protect the tribes from the soldiers. The area where the Seminoles lived was known as the Cove of the Withlacoochee which is now called Tsala Apopka Lake. It is actually a chain of lakes located within a bend in the Withlacoochee River in Citrus County. The Second Seminole started with a bang. On December 28, 1835 the Seminoles attacked on two fronts: a band of Seminoles
led by Osceola killed the Indian agent General Wiley Thompson and several others as they stepped outside Fort King in present day Ocala. Then another group of Seminoles ambushed and massacred Major Francis L. Dade and 107 US soldiers marching from Fort Brooke (present day Tampa) to Fort King (present day Ocala). Just three members of Dade’s party survived the attack, the soldier’s guide Louis Pacheco and two soldiers: Private Ransom Clark and Private Joseph Sprague. This ambush became known as the Dade Massacre. Three days after the Dade
See SEMINOLE Page 16
ARTICLE & PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALICE MARY HERDEN
“In ‘pine barrens’ most of the day. Low, level, sandy tracts; the pines wide apart; the sunny spaces between full of beautiful abounding grasses, liatris, long, wand-like solidago (goldenrod), saw palmettos, etc., covering the ground in garden style. Here I sauntered in delightful freedom, meeting none of the catclawed vines, or shrubs, of the alluvial bottoms.” -Naturalist John Muir The longleaf pine is known as the legendary southern yellow pine. The longleaf pine once covered over several million acres of the southeastern United States Coastal Plain, but 200 years of logging and land clearing substantially reduced its range. The USDA states that longleaf pines once covered 90 million acres in North America and by 2010 distribution had been reduced to 3.4 million acres. As the longleaf pine takes up to 150 years to become full size and may live up to 300 years old, reforestation methods are helping to revive longleaf pines. In 1904, Colonel Raymond Robins purchased a little over 2000 acres in Brooksville, which today is called Chinsegut and included 445 acres of old-growth longleaf pine. (http://myfwc.com/ chinsegut) This pristine place is called Big Pine and is managed by Matt Koenig, a Wildlife Biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. See PINES Page 7
S P O R T S
Former NCT running back Matt Breida ends season just short of 1,000 yards by ANDY VILLAMARZO Hernando Sun Sports Writer
INDEX LOCAL & STATE 2 OUT & ABOUT 7 SPORTS 11 BUSINESS & COMMUNITY 13 FUNNIES 18 OPINION 19 WEATHER: FRI
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In today’s National Football League, it’s no easy task running for over 1,000 yards in a regular season. It’s a whole other animal when not many expected you to even come close. That was the case for former Nature Coast running back Matt Breida, who is currently the starting tailback for the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers. The only problem for Breida at this point in the NFL campaign is he will fall just short of getting to the sacred mark of 1,000 yards
rushing for the season. The second-year running back suffered an ankle injury in the 49ers’ recent 14-9 loss to the Chicago Bears and will unlikely play in San Francisco’s season finale when they face the Los Angeles Rams on the road. It’s a tough break for Breida, who was at 814 yards rushing on the season, and was a long shot to reach 1,000 yards. ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke the news on Breida’s injury via Twitter and it ends a very successful second season for the former Georgia Southern product. Breida was able to total between rushing
See BREIDA, Page 11
Former Nature Coast running back Matt Breida during the San Francisco 49ers’ organized team activity at their training facility in Santa Clara, Calif. AP Photo/Jeff Chiu