Photo (from collected writings of Joni Maschek) showing Lewis Symmes and two other men building first bridge across Bullfrog Creek. The exact location of this bridge is not clear, and most likely would have been across the creek closer to the Symmes' properties near present day Big Bend Road. The road that would eventually become US 41 would have had to span a much larger body of water.

Black and white photograph of a craft exhibit with quilts and jarred goods at the 1930 Ruskin Tomato Festival. Recommended citation from USF Scholar Commons: Robertson and Fresh Collection of Tampa Photographs. Image 1516.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/robertson_and_fresh/1516

During the 1940s, and America's entry into WW2, getting farm labor was very difficult, particularly during the harvest season when so many workers were required. Paul Dickman wanted to continue his relied on supply of white migrant workers from the American South, so ensured housing, meals, and as shown here, day care for the children of migrant workers.

Photo of very early Ruskin farming. This taken in 1911 and shows harvesting of cabbage.

This is an early photo of Priscillar Lauther and Emmit Bejano, who were known by various professional side show names through their long career in the carnival industry: most frequently The Monkey Girl and the Alligator Skinned Man. They met in the 1930s and eloped to become married in 1938. They had one son, who died at an early age, and a second son that they adopted in the 1960s. They, like many carnival workers moved to Gibsonton in the 1950s, bought a one acre plot of land and a mobile home and called Gibsonton home for the rest of their lives. Emmit died in 1995 and Priscilla died in 2001. A feature article on the couple can be found at this web site: https://showmensmuseum.org/carnival-sideshows/percilla-the-monkey-girl/.

Photo of original bridge at Lillibridge. This bridge was torn downed replaced with a more modern bridge.

Del Webb was the developer of Sun City Center based on very successful town models he had created in Arizona and in California. He was also the principal owner of the New York Yankees from 1945 - 1964, a period of amazing success for the Yankees. Here he is pictured with one of the most famous Yankees to play during his ownership, Joe DiMaggio.

Earliest known photo of the Ruskin Vegetable Coopertive built in what was then known as North Ruskin. (Now Apollo Beach). This cooperative was headed by Paul Dickman and 13 (approximately) other farmers who banded together to market their vegetable products. The cooperative was very successful in creating the Ruskin Brand of vegetables.

Paul Dickman was an inventor of machinery to aid in his farming business. The cultivation and spraying of tomato crops was difficult because they were staked well off the ground. To overcome this issue he elevated another machine he had in his possession and created a spraying machine with arms on both sides and jacked up the chassis quite high to ride easily over the staked tomatoes. This is a photo of that machine

Mechanical Cultivator. Preparation of fields for crops. One of the first jobs required in the farm process