The Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Canal and Railroad was the first steam railroad

Steam railroad

Steam railroad is a term used in the United States to distinguish conventional heavy railroads from street railways, interurban streetcar lines, and other light railways usually dedicated primarily to passenger transport....

 in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 and one of the first in the U.S., opening in 1836. It was soon abandoned, and is now mostly a state highway

State highway

State highway, state road or state route can refer to one of three related concepts, two of them related to a state or provincial government in a country that is divided into states or provinces :#A...

.

History

The Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Canal Company was chartered in 1835, and was renamed in 1838 to the Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Canal and Railroad Company. The first section, stretching 9 miles (14 km) from St. Joseph

St. Joseph, Florida

St. Joseph, Florida, was a boomtown that briefly became the largest community in Florida, before being destroyed only eight years after it was founded. St. Joseph was founded in 1835 on the shores of St. Joseph Bay, one of the finest natural harbors on the Gulf Coast of the United States. The...

 on the St. Joseph Bay

St. Joseph Bay

St. Joseph Bay is a bay on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida, located in Gulf County between Apalachicola and Panama City. Port St. Joe is located on St. Joseph Bay....

 to White City

White City, Florida

White City is a census-designated place in St. Lucie County, Florida, United States. The population was 4,221 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Port St...

 near Lake Wimico

Lake Wimico

Lake Wimico is a lake located near Port St. Joe in Gulf County, Florida, and connects through White City, Gulf County, Florida. The latitude and longitude coordinates for this lake are 29.8027, -85.1482 and the altitude is 0 feet ....

, opened on September 5, 1836. http://list.webengr.com/pipermail/fhstoday/2003-August/001098.html The rest of the road opened in stages from 1837 to 1839, eventually reaching Iola on the Apalachicola River

Apalachicola River

The Apalachicola River is a river, approximately 112 mi long in the State of Florida. This river's large watershed, known as the ACF River Basin for short, drains an area of approximately into the Gulf of Mexico. The distance to its farthest headstream in northeast Georgia is approximately 500...

. The company did good business hauling cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 to St. Joseph.

In 1841 yellow fever

Yellow fever

Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....

 struck St. Joseph, by that time a popular summer resort, and the city was abandoned. A reincorporation that year as the Iola and St. Joseph Canal and Railroad Company failed, and rails were removed soon after and shipped to Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

. http://www.waterfrontlivingmag.com/latesummer04/stepbackintime.shtml The West Florida and Alabama Railroad, incorporated in 1883, attempted to revive the roadbed, but it too failed. In the 1920s the portion of the roadbed between of Wewahitchka and White City in Gulf County, became part of the Beeline Highway, a national auto trail

National auto trail

The system of auto trails was an informal network of marked routes that existed in the United States and Canada in the early part of the 20th century. Marked with colored bands on telephone poles, the trails were intended to help travellers in the early days of the automobile.Auto trails were...

, and now part of State Road 71

Florida State Road 71

Florida State Road 71 is a road in western Florida that runs from the Alabama border through the panhandle of Florida to the Gulf Coast. Starting at the state line at the end of Alabama State Route 53 just south of Grangeburg, it runs south through the towns of Malone, Greenwood, Marianna, Altha,...

.http://web.archive.org/web/20041019125106/http://www.newsherald.com/LOCAL/WOM16.HTM