Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins

Yulee Sugar Mill Ruins Historic State Park is a Florida State Park located in Homosassa, off U.S. 19. It contains the ruins of a sugar plantation owned by David Levy Yulee. Yulee was a delegate of the Florida Territorial Legislative Council. After Florida became a state, he was elected by the legislature in 1845 to the US Senate, becoming the first American of Jewish heritage to serve there. After Florida seceded from the Union, Yulee served in the Confederate Congress. He is credited with having developed a network of railroads that tremendously boosted the state's economy.

At Homosassa, Yulee established a sugarcane plantation, which was destroyed during the American Civil War. The original plantation covered more than 5,000 acres, and was worked by approximately 1,000 enslaved African Americans. They raised sugarcane, citrus, and cotton.