Florida National Cemetery

Story

Florida National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located near the city of Bushnell in Sumter County, Florida. Administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, it encompasses, and began interments in 1988.HistoryFlorida National Cemetery is located in the Withlacoochee State Forest, approximately 50mi north of Tampa. The forest was acquired by the federal government from private landowners between 1936 and 1939 under the provisions of the U.S. Land Resettlement Administration. The United States Forest Service managed the property until a lease-purchase agreement transferred it to the Florida Board of Forestry in 1958. Currently, Withlacoochee State Forest is the second-largest state forest in Florida, divided into eight distinct tracts of land.In 1842, Congress encouraged settlement here by establishing the Armed Occupation Act. The law granted a patent for 160acre to any man who kept a gun and ammunition, built a house, cultivated 5acre of the land and remained there for at least five years. Settlers moved in to take advantage of the generous offer. The area contained abundant timber and suitable farmland, appealing attributes to frontiersmen. In 1845 Florida was granted statehood.During the Civil War, a sugar mill on the Homosassa River supplied sugar to the Confederacy. A robust citrus-growing industry developed in the eastern part of the area and became a focus of intense economic expansion soon after the war.