Searching In A Rain Storm For The Forgotten Man Who Sold Walt The Florida Land To Build Disney World
Irlo Bronson and Walt Disney History
Transcript
0:00
welcome everyone adam the woo here
0:03
today's adventure begins with wearing
0:06
an appropriate t-shirt wdw
0:10
walt disney world there's mickey
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and the reason i bring up walt disney
0:14
world is not not just because the fact
0:16
that
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i am in the vicinity of that theme park
0:21
the walt disney created here on the east
0:24
coast
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there's a whole backstory to that on how
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he in a lot of ways
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secretively purchased
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a lot of the land around here well maybe
0:35
secretively is not the
0:37
the best word to describe it but
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definitely purchase land without
0:41
most people realizing what let's call it
0:44
secretively he purchased
0:45
a lot of land around here there is kind
0:48
of an
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un an unsung name
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that you can pepper into that creation
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of that
0:56
the selling of land that walt
0:59
bought right here in this vicinity where
1:02
i am standing now
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i am next to the water tower that holds
1:05
no water i don't think there's any water
1:07
in there i think it's just for decor
1:09
celebration florida i have a place back
1:11
in there
1:12
i have a residence that i live at down
1:15
and there as well there's some
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dragonflies there are some dragonflies
1:20
right here along there's a dragonfly
1:22
going by
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and the lynx bust now this is the corner
1:26
of celebration ave and
1:28
bronson highway etch
1:31
that name in your head bronson
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highway i recall because i have been
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around these parts for quite some time
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my family moved here in 91 even though i
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travel a lot bounced around lived
1:43
coast to coast i recall this road
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always being referred to as erlo bronson
1:50
memorial highway and now i'm looking at
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the sign and it just says
1:54
bronson highway and after
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careening up and down highway 192 vine
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street which are other names for
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bronson highway i cannot find any
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street signs that now currently
2:10
june of 2021 say erlo bronson
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memorial highway very peculiar by the
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way i'm inviting you
2:18
to join me as i go on a little bit of a
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a mission of sorts to describe
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and i'm gonna head down
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that direction so 192 heads from
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the coast melbourne florida all the way
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to highway 27
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past walt disney world this is all uh i
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said wearing an appropriate t-shirt
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because
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walt disney world is celebrating the
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50th anniversary on october 1st
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magic kingdom opened its doors 1971 so
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august 1st
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of 2020 uh october not august
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october 1st that's got a little
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misleading october 1st
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a herocopter that's right come on
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come on there man come on up there that
3:05
was a that was not a good arnold
3:07
this has been a long take for an intro
3:09
someone is honking
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let's go find out who er where erlo
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bronson
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senior
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i want to find his final resting place
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as well as just kind of give a little
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little history
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and an homage to the man that without
3:29
him
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more on that in a minute as i as i go
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down erlo bronson memorial highway
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towards the fairgrounds osceola county
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fairgrounds
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there is a little place there that i'm
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going to end up at i'm inviting you to
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join me boy this is a long intro it is
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hot you get back in my car turn the ac
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on and head that way
3:48
join me shall you now there were a lot
3:52
of other landowners that sold walt
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land after mr bronson did but they asked
3:57
a lot more money than erlo was asking in
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fact he sold
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between eight and nine thousand acres
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to walt disney's company for only a
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hundred dollars an
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acre at the disappointment of erlo
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bronson's family they thought that he
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was not selling it for enough but he had
4:17
different motives
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onto why he wanted to sell it for that
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price
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in a way he really supported what was
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going to be happening and supported
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others it wasn't all about the money to
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have and besides the disney tie-in he
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had a lot to do with
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florida history especially osceola
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county
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served on the florida house of
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representatives
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in the late 40s well in the mid-40s and
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his son
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which also shared his first name
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known as bud erlo bud bronson
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who according to this sign is the
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managing
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partner of the bronson partnership
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which if i remember correctly now i've
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slept since then and forget
5:02
a lot of things but this building as i
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recall was the florida cattlemen's
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association
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before it moved closer to the osceola
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fairgrounds now bud his son
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passed away a few years ago his name's
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still
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inscribed on the side of the signage
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here on highway 192.
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erlo bronson memorial highway
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and does it look as if this is being
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utilized
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for anything at the moment
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side note years ago i got in a car
5:57
accident
5:58
right over there in front of that little
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shopping center mall
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next to the former taco bell that is now
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uses another business
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on the other side of the road heading
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heading the other way
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kind of right about there and that
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wasn't a good day
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that was a long time ago now erlo senior
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passed away in 73 and that is when this
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road
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was named in his honor erlo bronson
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memorial
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highway okay heading back to the car now
6:27
kind of walking along through the shrubs
6:30
here
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a little side note wanted to show this
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this uh establishment that was owned by
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the family
6:37
possibly still is erlo senior was also
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in the florida state senate and
6:45
founded the cattlemen's association
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erlos senior
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was the one that sold the land to walt
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for a hundred dollars an acre
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there's a lot of acreage here as well
6:55
that wasn't sold the walt
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still sitting here in fact all this land
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is owned by the bronsons or was
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this is around just turning off of
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highway 192 the road in question and
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kind of taking a little
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little shortcut around the back yeah
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look at all this property here
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here's kind of a deep cut in a lot of
7:17
ways kind of a throwback that's really
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only going to apply
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to anyone who has lived in this area
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i know a lot of people watching or have
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never been to this area
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but if you happen to recall here on the
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corner of
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den john lane and erlo bronson highway
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this used to be a consistent green
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it was a green forward arrow the other
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lanes would go yellow and red
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but what i just drove through was always
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green if you remember that
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then you have a good memory the current
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location
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of the florida cattlemen's association
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is right here next to osceola heritage
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park
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take a look at the sign there east
7:58
bronson highway
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as i stay there they don't call it erlo
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bronson memorial highway anymore which
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is peculiar
8:06
to me this is the new building the one i
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was at
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a few minutes ago up the way closer
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to downtown kissimmee
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see if there's any clues in here if you
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ever heard of erlo bronson senior
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you've heard the tales that's true
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he was the first one to sell walt walt
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disney
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oh you know donald okay so you're
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familiar with
8:40
your disney world disneyland was walt's
8:43
original magic kingdom
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out in anaheim but
8:54
more of a more into daffy okay
8:54
i feel you as stated right there
8:58
erlo bronson building so they named the
9:01
florida cattlemen association
9:03
the new structure after erlo himself
9:09
erlo bronson building also home of the
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florida beef council
9:15
that's an air conditioner unit right
9:16
there on the far end of the screen
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right over here is the silver spurs
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arena
9:22
located where they have the fair and the
9:25
houston astros used to spring train on
9:27
the back side of this building
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now i also recall way back in the early
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90s
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this building did not exist they had an
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open air
9:38
stadium for the rodeo one of the biggest
9:42
rodeos in the u.s
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silver spurs takes place right here
9:47
next to the cattlemen's association that
9:49
erler bronson founded
9:52
and also in this vicinity is the next
9:55
spot i'm stopping at
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rose hill established 1883
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city of kissimmee parks and recreation
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department
10:10
it's like someone has skidded out in
10:10
very they're hitting the brakes or
10:12
peeling out
10:15
now this is going to be pretty tough
10:18
didn't research too much but did a
10:20
little bit
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and did not have a plot number
10:25
or a section and as a recording of this
10:28
it is
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sunday office is not open
10:33
but i'm up for a challenge be all too
10:36
easy to
10:37
all too easy
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to just look something up or have it
10:44
kind of hand it handed to you
10:51
sometimes it's more rewarding to spend
10:51
some time attempting to find
10:54
a spot i did find a photo however
10:59
of what the headstone looks like so i'm
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gonna have to
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have to get out and do some walking this
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is a very expansive property
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and there are a lot of bronson's
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in osceola county florida a lot
11:28
also pardons parton is another very
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common family name around these parts
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parton the partons and the bronsons
11:50
another one pardons over streets
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bronson's
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very common names and big families
11:56
so oh that's thunder that is thunder
11:58
over there
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might get rained out all right i gotta
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this is a photograph of erlo bronson
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of what he looked like back in the day
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and
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this is what this is really the only
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clue
12:39
looks to be there is another another
12:42
headstone
12:44
and piece of concrete behind this one
12:47
and not not the best photograph
12:51
but i'm looking for something that looks
12:53
about
12:54
well something that looks exactly like
12:56
this
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where i don't know somewhere on this
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property
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smartest thing to do would be to start
13:04
on the far end over here and work my way
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up towards the front
13:09
now there's also another property
13:11
totally separate entity
13:13
separated by a fence over there so i
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won't be going into that section because
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it is located
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here in this section even though it's
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very vast
13:41
i might get lucky with seeing a grouping
13:41
of bronson's
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i would imagine he's near a lot of his
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other family
13:48
just to guess some of the dates on here
13:51
71
13:52
72 looking for
13:55
73 so it wouldn't make sense it could be
14:00
could be back in here
14:24
now this one has a inscription of a car
14:24
on it a sports car
14:28
see it there right there on the
14:31
on the stone
14:49
not the one i'm looking for however
14:49
quite a few over streets in fact
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probably
14:53
a half a dozen or more overstreet was
14:56
his middle name
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so is a family correlation to the over
15:03
streets also
15:14
could be in here more of the partins
15:14
one there another part
15:25
still no sign of what i'm looking for
15:25
this is quite a challenge
15:34
it's thundering pretty good now very
15:34
overcast
15:35
the sun is well behind the clouds at
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this point
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most likely gonna rain
15:49
the overcastness is really adding some
15:49
ambiance to this for sure
16:13
nothing is giving me any clues
16:13
none of these look precisely what i'm
16:15
looking for
16:22
okay these over here look a little more
16:22
similar in style
16:45
as the thunder very prominent there is a
16:45
hitchcock right here
16:57
had to roll the window up now there is a
16:57
bronson right there
17:00
i see a bronson which looks very similar
17:03
oh my gosh this okay there is a bronson
17:08
right there you can hard to see could
17:10
that be it that might be
17:12
i think i might have found it and i'm
17:15
just realizing i forgot my umbrella at
17:17
home
17:18
oh my gosh i forgot my umbrella okay
17:21
who's this here
17:23
there we go george c
17:26
okay that's not the bronson i'm looking
17:28
for but very similar
17:32
ah gotta get back to the car this isn't
17:34
it this isn't it well maybe this is it
17:37
oh okay that's davis
17:41
oh i forgot my umbrella
17:46
it was pretty close even the same
17:46
inscriptions on the stone there
17:49
but it was not the same one boy it is
17:52
well it's not wanting to fo there it
17:53
goes it's going into focus it's not
17:55
wanting to flare gus
17:56
right over there so it might be in this
17:58
general vicinity i cannot believe i
18:00
forgot
18:01
lightning forgot my umbrella
18:04
ah all part of the experience
18:08
seems i am in the right area though
18:10
there's another bronson here
18:13
i'm seeing a couple bronsons
18:16
through this section
18:38
not quite ready to give up yet but it's
18:38
not looking good
19:10
closest one i found was oh it is dark
19:10
during that storm part of this branch
19:12
fell out of the tree here
19:23
even though it is a sunday and there's
19:23
probably no one here
19:25
i am going to walk up to the office here
19:28
and see if there's any
19:29
sort of directory
20:07
very expansive property
20:07
hmm
20:46
oh there we go it says print about and
20:46
help
21:03
is that working here on the window is a
21:03
piece of paper taped to the glass
21:05
there's a qr code and i have gone to the
21:10
the website that has the search and it
21:12
says that there is
21:14
an issue logging into the portal
21:18
so no go on the search
21:26
it also says you can use the kiosk to
21:26
the
21:27
side of the bench
21:31
okay there's the bench there's the kiosk
21:34
i'll try it again
21:35
didn't let me search oh what's in here
21:38
maybe that's just the
21:40
maybe just a mailbox or where you would
21:42
insert stuff you want to leave for the
21:44
office
21:45
see this isn't working either i can't
21:47
expand this
21:52
and when i type that it doesn't let me
21:52
type anything in
21:54
all right i found another site
21:57
not the one that's recommended here but
21:59
did a did a little searching and
22:02
found this particular spot
22:06
rose hill i was called rose hill rose
22:09
hill
22:10
and just look how many bronson's there
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are starting
22:15
with charles mrs charles mrs charles
22:19
probably no relation to chuck bronson
22:23
who that wasn't even charles brunson the
22:25
actor that wasn't even his real last
22:26
name he changed it
22:29
that's a whole other story he had a
22:30
different real last name
22:32
nonetheless we kind of scroll through
22:34
all the bronson's now
22:36
flora bell is in the same section
22:39
section one
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block 103 lot one flora
22:43
bell so let's go down to erlo bronson
22:46
right there he's listed
22:54
section one block 103 lot one space
22:54
g all right glad i did not get
22:58
distracted by the rain
23:00
i am now going to search for that
23:02
section
23:05
we might have some success it's still
23:07
sprinkling a little now looking at the
23:09
overview again there is nothing that
23:10
says section one on this
23:12
color code however right up here it
23:15
looks like section one is close to the
23:18
roundabout
23:19
right there in the middle so section one
23:21
in the middle and then we got section
23:23
five over to the other side so i'm gonna
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kind of go near the roundabout
23:26
and see if i can see any sections that
23:29
are posted along the ground maybe with a
23:33
some sort of marker the roundabout is
23:35
behind me
23:37
having the section number doesn't help
23:39
much
23:40
considerably considering the fact that
23:42
there's no markers
23:44
for the sections or or anything along
23:47
the side of the road
23:50
anywhere the only
23:53
marker of any sort is where it says
23:56
cherry ave and daisy drive
24:11
bronson there oh you know what i could
24:11
do
24:12
i could look at
24:17
what section this would be that's what
24:18
i'll do
24:18
i'll look at what section this is in
24:21
comparison
24:30
okay john alec
24:30
section one block one one five i'm
24:33
looking at the page
24:34
so john alec bronson section one
24:37
block one what did i say
24:41
105 one one five
24:44
and erlo is in block 103. so this is
24:48
okay that's good to know oh my goodness
24:52
i have backtracked just a bit
24:55
when it was pouring rain a bit ago i was
24:58
one
24:59
headstone off from what i was looking
25:02
for
25:02
right here erlo o
25:05
bronson and flora bell
25:15
september of 71 for her and
25:16
march 3rd of 1973
25:24
for him as you recall spicy
25:24
bronson right over here and george c
25:28
so i was parked over there it was
25:30
storming very badly
25:32
it has subsided for a moment thankfully
25:34
i showed this
25:36
and then i didn't see a name on this
25:38
side
25:39
if i would have just paid more attention
25:41
i had to watch the footage back maybe i
25:42
did show it just didn't notice
25:44
right there erlo o bronson
25:47
1900 to 1973
25:51
the man we have to thank for selling
25:54
walt disney over 8 000
25:58
acres the original the first person to
26:00
sell
26:01
all that acreage many more after the
26:04
fact for a much higher price
26:07
so in a roundabout way we have him to
26:09
thank for what is now walt disney world
26:21
so if you want to pay your respects to
26:21
mr bronson
26:24
he's located over in this section
26:26
underneath
26:27
this very impressive tree looks like
26:30
there's a structure over there possibly
26:32
a
26:33
a bank or a business of some sort you
26:36
can kind of get the
26:37
general layout of the land it's located
26:40
on the far
26:40
end over here next to davis
26:45
and if you look up that way
26:48
there is the office so if you turn into
26:51
the office
26:52
you can kind of use that as a point of
26:54
reference
26:56
for mr erlo bronson the street named
26:58
after him erlo bronson memorial highway
27:02
senator house of representatives and the
27:05
founder
27:06
of the cattlemen's association here in
27:07
florida
27:09
and also a friend
27:12
of walt disney
27:48
no i never met the man obviously i was
27:48
born in 1974
27:50
however seems like he had a pretty good
27:53
head on his shoulders
27:54
in fact could also thank him because he
27:56
was part of the
27:58
the government system here in florida
28:00
for setting up the fact that wdw could
28:02
have their own
28:03
government system and the way things
28:05
operate on property
28:07
all that was thanks to him
28:11
that's going to do it for today and also
28:14
side note
28:15
it wasn't all about money he was only
28:16
selling the acreage for
28:19
100 a share after that some of the other
28:21
areas
28:22
were thousands of dollars not per share
28:24
but per acre
28:26
so he really was not in it to try to
28:28
make a buck
28:30
or two and not to put not to put words
28:33
in his mouth or quote him to paraphrase
28:35
some of the interviews that i have seen
28:37
online
28:38
written about him he wanted to do it for
28:40
the future of the youth
28:42
and for the area and for the state
28:44
itself
28:45
he knew it was going to be a good thing
28:47
he was right
28:48
walt was right and he was right and now
28:50
we have walt disney world to thank
28:52
for both of them that's why i was
28:54
wearing this appropriate t-shirt i'll
28:56
see you in the next video
28:58
the vlog is over