You may wonder why there are so many ghost towns in the area. A number of these ghost towns such as Mannfield, Croom and Oriole were created when the federal government relocated the people living in these towns to create the forest preserve known as the Withlacoochee State Forest.
The goal of the US Land Resettlement Administration (RA) was to resettle “struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government.” The RA was conceived by Rexford G. Tugwell, an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Columbia University professor. FDR established the RA by Executive Order and placed Tugwell at it’s head.
The RA obtained the land for what was to become the Withlacoochee State Forest from private landowners between 1936 and 1939 under the provisions of the U.S. Land Resettlement Administration. The preserve was then transferred from the federal government to the state via lease-purchase agreement in 1958.
The central planners at the RA decided to protect the sand hills and the Withlacoochee river. To accomplish this they forced people to move. Some of the families and towns had been in the area over 80 years, yet had to move from the place where their fathers and grandfathers had lived. The towns that were left behind became ghost towns. Many of these towns and homesteads also had cemeteries that can still be found in the forest.
The stories of towns like Mannfield, Croom and Oriole are still relevant today. The Hernando County Environmentally Sensitive Land Committee, although they no longer have the ability to purchase more lands for the county, can assist other organizations to do so such as the Southwest Florida Water Management District who has powers of eminent domain. Before the committee was dissolved and then reformed during the summer of 2015, the Environmentally Sensitive Lands (ESL) Committee was pursuing the purchase of private property in Ridge Manor to create a wildlife corridor.
The Little Withlacoochee Riverine Corridor project is one of four projects listed on the ESL website as “ranked by the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Committee for Acquisition.” It was explained to new members at the June 29th 2015 ESL Committee meeting that the project would serve to create a wildlife corridor between the Croom and Richloam areas with the goal of reaching the Green Swamp (the headwaters of several major rivers including the Withlacoochee River). The project area encompasses 2598 acres with 2133 parcels already platted in the Ridge Manor community and numerous homes. Should the corridor project become a reality it would displace many residents and make portions of Ridge Manor Hernando County’s newest ghost town.