This geocache is part of the County of Highlands Centennial GeoTrail. Visit the link below for the official GeoTrail passport to log the codewords for all GeoTrail caches, turn in and receive a set of 5 souvenir tags. Website https://visitsebring.com/sebring-area-geotour/ for more information about the Sebring Area GeoTour and the County of Highlands Centennial GeoTrail.
John A. Roebling II visited the area and attracted to it because his wife Margaret had tuberculosis and she had to leave New Jersey during winter. Roebling purchased 1,050 acres of forested land 8 miles south of Lake Placid in 1929 & 1930, where he intended to construct a winter home on the highest point of his new land, Red Hill, 213 feet about sea level. But first he wanted to construct a storehouse, and other support buildings, on a railroad siding along the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad that ran along the western boundary of the property. Thus the Red Hill Estate was conceived. Roebling hired a resident construction engineer, Alexander Blair (1877-1975). He considered the Red Hill Estate construction project as his own private WPA (Works Progress Administration) Project. He employed about 100 men and insisted that all work be done by hand, eschewing any mechanized labor-saving machinery wherever possible, so that he could employ as many men as possible.
The Roebling Storehouse was designed to store furniture and building material for the construction of the mansion (and did function as a furniture storage facility for some of the time). Two major hurricanes (Miami-1926, Lake Okeechobee-1928) swept over southern Florida during the late 1920s causing much destruction of property and human lives. Therefore building a hurricane-proof building was important. The warehouse, and other support buildings, were also built to test construction methods that might be used for building the mansion on Red Hill. In 1935, Roeblings son, Donald, of Clearwater, Florida, used the Red Hill Storehouse, and adjacent Lake Annie, for the first aquatic test-runs of his amphibious vehicle, The Alligator, which became the prototype of the WW2 landing-vehicles used by the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army . During the Roebling Era (1930-1941) much of the storehouse was empty. Unit 1 (units numbered from the north) was the machine shop. The north side of the storehouse had a ramp and folding door, so that vehicles could be moved into the machine shop for engine repair. Unit 3 possibly was a carpenter shop. Unit 7 was a tool-storage area. This left four storage units for the temporary storage of furniture from N.J., which was stored at Red Hill for a time. No evidence exists about other uses of these four storage units except for Donald Roebling’s temporary storage of the Alligator.
Archbold Biological Station founded. On July 28, 1941, John A. Roebling gave his Red Hill Estate to Richard Archbold (1907-1976), who founded the Archbold Biological Station on the site, using the well-constructed Roebling buildings as the core campus. Archbold and Donald Roebling were schoolboy friends with similar interests and who maintained radio contact when Archbold was exploring New Guinea during the 1930s. It was Donald who facilitated the gift of the Red Hill Estate to Richard Archbold.
Information obtained from Archbold Biological Station.