BRADENTON, Fla. — Before citrus was king in Florida, one local expert says longleaf pine soared — not just in height, but in worth.

“Maybe this is where humans discovered this resource inside the tree,” said Matt Woodside, pointing out a protruding ball of slow-dripping sap on a longleaf pine tree.

What You Need To Know

  •  Manatee Village Historical Park is offering a "Living off the Land" exhibit

  •  Its focus on turpentine camps where enslaved people and prisoners — some of whom were wrongfully convicted — did free, labor intensive work

  •  The park focuses on pioneering days in Florida, from 1840 to 1918

  • A turpentine camp is located on site from the Manatee/Sarasota Country area

Woodside is the Curator at the Manatee Village Historical Park, and he’s standing in the middle of the area’s pioneer-era buildings on their Bradenton site.

He says sap byproducts like pine tar was a major component in the booming naval industry.

Woodside created an exhibition “Living off the Land,” devoted to early Florida industries — like turpentine camps — built on the backs of enslaved people and prisoners, some of whom were wrongfully convicted.

“The economic impact was second only to the cattle industry for a time in Florida,” said Woodside. “So before citrus and other vegetables, the railroads that could get those products out to northern market, cattle and turpentine were really the economic engines in Florida.”

Woodside has an example of a turpentine still at the village as well — it’s the bottom part of a metal container where pine tar gathers.

“We believe that this still was used locally at one of our local turpentine mills here," he said. "We had dotted four, five or six in the Manatee and Sarasota regions.”

Woodside says the artifact, and the entire historical village, is here to show how hard people toiled to live in Florida during the days of the pioneers.

“Just to appreciate what it took for to get to the point where all the things we have today were based on people coming and taking advantage of the natural resources here to build their lives,” said Woodside.

The exhibition “Living off the Land” is open through November of 2024.

Woodside said the turpentine industry eventually changed and modernized, which caused the turpentine camps to shut down.

Longleaf pine populations are estimated at about 10% of their original footprint in the southeastern region of the United States.

The Manatee Village Historical Park focuses on the pioneering time in Florida, from about 1840 to 1918.