Editing Punta Rassa, Florida (section)

===Cattle port===
[[File:Punta rassa barracks.jpg|thumb|Pre-1906 photo of the "Barracks", also known as the Tarpon House, at Punta Rassa, Florida]]
Punta Rassa became a thriving cattle shipping town in the later 1800s. The first [[cattle drive]] to Punta Rassa had been in 1833, when P. B. Prior purchased ten cattle and some calves from Seminoles living near the Peace River in what is now [[Hardee County, Florida|Hardee County]], and drove them to Punta Rassa, possibly for transport to [[Sanibel Island]]. Florida cattlemen began shipping cattle to Cuba after the end of the [[Third Seminole War]]. Shipments at first were made from Tampa, and then from [[Fort Ogden, Florida|Fort Ogden]] and [[Punta Gorda, Florida|Punta Gorda]] on the Peace River. Cattle shipments to Cuba were curtailed, but not completely stopped, by the Union blockade of Florida during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. After the war ended, shipments of cattle from the Peace River ports resumed to Cuba, to [[Savannah, Georgia]], and to [[Charleston, South Carolina]]. Some of the cattle shipments to Cuba were made out of Punta Rassa starting in 1869, and by 1872, 18,000 out of a little more than 21,000 cattle shipped from Florida to Cuba went through Punta Rassa.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Florida's Peace River Frontier|last=Brown|first=Canter Jr.|publisher=University of Central Florida Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-8130-1037-3|location=Orlando, Florida|pages=35–35, 146–50, 198–99}}</ref>

Most cattle drives in Florida were relatively small and short. Three or four hundred steers would be driven by three to five cowboys for {{convert|100|mi}} or so from the open range of central Florida to Punta Rassa.<ref name=mizell>{{Cite book|title=Florida Cow Hunter: The Life and Times of Bone Mizell|last=Tinsley|first=Jim Bob|publisher=University of Central Florida Press|year=1990|isbn=978-0-8130-0985-8|location=Orlando, Florida|pages=47–48}}</ref> A few cattle drives were larger, up to 1,500 cattle moved by ten or so cowboys. The longest drives were {{convert|300|mi}}, from [[Fernandina Beach, Florida|Fernandina]], by the Georgia border, to Punta Rassa.<ref name=Akerman>{{Cite book|title=Florida Cowman|last=Akerman|first=Joe A.|publisher=Florida Cattlemen's Association|year=1976|location=Kissimmee, Florida}}</ref>{{rp|55}} Water was a problem; too much during the wet season, not enough in the dry season. In the dry season, the cowboys might have to rope alligators to pull them out of water holes so that the cattle could safely drink.<ref name=mizell/>

The International Ocean Telegraph Company controlled the wharf that had been part of Fort Dulaney, and for many years, charged 15 cents a head for cattle loaded on ships from the wharf.<ref name="Brown 1989"/>{{rp|157–8}} [[Francis A. Hendry]] later built pens and a wharf at Punta Rassa and charged 10 cents a head for cattle shipped from his wharf. Another cattleman, [[Jacob Summerlin|Jake Summerlin]], who had owned holding pens at Punta Rassa since 1868, built a hotel (the Summerlin House) in 1874. When the hotel was full, cowboys would camp out under the building. Summerlin bought Hendry's pens and wharf for $10,000 in 1878.<ref name=Akerman/>{{rp|107–108, 159}}

Cattle would be loaded at the port onto ships destined for Cuba. It was one of the home bases for the "King of the [[Florida cracker|Cracker]] Cowboys" Jake Summerlin, who by the time he was 40, was one of the wealthiest of the Florida cattle barons. The town of Punta Rassa was lined with wooden buildings, including a hotel and several bars, which were frequented by the many merchants and cattle sellers.<ref name=floridamemory/>