Col. Zachary Taylor Trail & Causeway

Col. Zachary Taylor Trail and Causeway. . Col. Zachary Taylor, commanding the Army south of the Withlacoochee during the Second Seminole War. 1835-1842. received orders in November 1837 to penetrate into the interior of the state by opening a road from Tampa to the headwaters of Peace Creek and eastward to the Kissimmee River. Lt. Col. William Foster was dispatched from Fort Brooke in Tampa to Lake Hancock to build a stockade and supply depot, named Fort Fraser. A military bridge spanning Saddle Creek crossed near the opening into Lake Hancock, and a 300-foot raised dirt causeway was located further south on the west side of the creek. Army troops continued to construct bridges and causeways along military roads to reach the Seminoles near the Kissimmee River, culminating in the Battle of Okeechobee on Christmas Day 1837. The Saddle Creek military bridge was destroyed and the causeway was damaged during a hurricane in 1848. Their destruction prompted the establishment of Fort Meade in 1849, the same year Col. Zachary Taylor became the 12th President of the United States. The military road and elevated causeway were located approximately 1500 feet south of the Lake Hancock water control system operated by Southwest Florida Water Management District, and the wetlands mitigation site for Polk County Waste Resource Management Division. , A Polk County Heritage Site