Going from the buttoned-up Chicago boardrooms of Northern Trust to the fields and forests of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch (SMR) required a wardrobe adjustment for banker Mary Fran Carroll.
Rex Jensen, Mary Fran Carroll and John Clarke, from left, led the effort to develop Lakewood
When the bank suggested that she represent a member of Milwaukee's Uihlein family, and a major Northern Trust client, on the SMR board of directors in 1976, she worried that Northern Trust's strict dress code wouldn't sit well in laid-back Manatee County.
So she showed up in Florida for a meeting wearing flat shoes, a cotton skirt and no stockings.
At one point in the meeting, recalls Carroll, "Rob Uihlein, who had been shy about saying anything, looked at me and said, 'This outfit has to go! We've got snakes, we've got red ants. You've got to get some boots, for God's sake,'" recalls Carroll.
She returned to Chicago and bought some boots. A good footwear choice, as soon she became chairman of SMR, leading its transition from a vast and remote farming, ranching and mining operation to the site of one of the state's best-known master-planned communities.
SMR's 8,500-acre Lakewood Ranch, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary this month, now has more than 15,000 residents in seven villages, 1,200 businesses, three golf courses, several schools and colleges, a hospital, a number of churches and a well-known polo club. About 24,000 acres remain for agribusiness (SMR Farms and SMR Aggregates), but clearly Schroeder-Manatee Ranch is best-known for growing houses, neighborhoods and office buildings.
When you go to the listed coords you will find yourself on a bridge at the plaque from 2004 dedicating this bridge to Mary Fran Carroll.
Above the bridge on the upper rail is a Manatee County Historical Marker.
Between these two is a six digit number painted on the bridge wall. Take note of this number, you will need it to find the cache and keep in mind, it's highly visible from your car. Use the first three digits as FIRST and use the last three digits as LAST and get out your calculator, cell phone, paper and pencil, abacus, however you do your math, and work out the coords :
N27 25.(228 -minus FIRST) W82 23.(871 +plus LAST)
Now that you've learned some local history head off to make the find. And this is a small container and has no pen so be sure to bring your own.
Enjoy!
iMPG
Historical article from Herald-Tribune - Harold Bubil - October 10, 2010