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The Ruskin Planter was a weekly paper that began circulation c. 1940. The Collection houses a very few copies of the paper from 1959 and 1960 at this point, but if additional editions are found, they will be added to the collection. The Planter is a good mid century resource on the local issues, people and businesses in South County.

This collection highlights local newspapers that can help the reviewer understand local issues, local people and businesses. We will add to this collection over time as new issues become available. These are historical newspapers, no longer in print and not available through on line resources.

Journalist, and local historian, Aleta Jonie Maschek (1922-2018) was a frequent contributor to the News Observer on the history of Southern Hillsborough County. Her stories concentrated on the people of South County and she relied, heavily, on oral histories to present a unique view of life in the 20th Century for over 28 years. She covered all geographic sections of the county, and her accounts present a realistic view of the sometimes hardscrabble life of some of our earliest families. Some of her articles were collected into bound volumes entitled "A Piece of History" which was the title of her column in the News Observer in her later years. Originally a television reporter, she moved to the area in the 1950s. She continued on air as a TV reporter for several years on the local NBC afffiliate until her retirement when she turned her attention to print media.

Clarence Harding born in Brandon in January 1898, died in Manatee County in September 1974. Harding was a well known journalist, writing for both the local Observer News and the Bradenton Herald. His weekly column , "Hook, Line and Sinker" was widely read in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. An inveterate fisherman, he was thoroughly versed with life around the Little Manatee River and often wrote of the history of the area. Harding acknowledge that his memoirs were largely from personal memories as well as long one-on-one discussions with Paul B. Dickman. Taken as a whole, these articles, on life in south Hillsborough County, are some of the few sources on the everyday people of the region around Ruskin and the Little Manatee River

In 1923 or 1924, a mill was built at Willow by the McGowin-Foshee Lumber Company from Alabama. The company leased 54,000 acres of land for logging. James I. Robbins, Bruce Robbins and James A. Robbins bought it in 1926. The Robbinses also bought 40,000 acres of woodlands that ran south to where State Road 70 is today. The area is believed to have included a sawmill, turpentine still, a planer mill, a dry kiln, Robbins family home, general store (known as the commissary), 75 to 80 worker houses with garden plots, a house of prostitution located on the Little Manatee River, Snowden's filling station, a post office constructed in 1889, a railroad depot with a water tower and a church, school and juke joint located in the black section of town. There was a narrow gauge railroad which had 3 engines, a service car and about 30 logging cars equipped with no brakes. At its height, as much as 50,000 board feet a day was cut. There were around 250 workers. They were paid in scrips (small round tokens) that were to be spent in the commissary and were also accepted in the house of prostitution. Willow was separated into white and black sections. The white section was the south end and the black section was the north end. The black children went to the school in Willow and the white children went to school north in the town of Wimauma.

The town failed with the onset of the Great Depression as the price of lumber dropped and the business moved to Tampa in 1937. The business's steam engine from its sawmill is on display at the Robbins Manufacturing Co., located in Tampa on Nebraska Avenue.[1] A railroad single truss bridge crossing the Little Manatee River built in 1913 by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company remains, as do bare foundations of some of the old buildings.[1] The railroad bridge needs a significant amount of repair before it can be used again and some of the rails leading to it on the south side have been removed, so that trains can not currently travel across it. On the north side of the railroad bridge, at about Saffold Road, all of the rails have been removed from the rest of this route north to Durant. This abandonment occurred in 1986.

At Willow, there is a railroad spur that leads east off of the mainline to a Florida Power & Light Company plant. CSX Transportation provides current rail service to the plant.

As of 2009, the Florida Railroad Museum was expanding its facilities in Willow where restoration and repair work is conducted.[2] There is a new railroad depot now at Willow built by the Florida Railroad Museum. The Museum has put a fence around the depot and its maintenance facilities at Willow and has installed security cameras. On weekends, some of the museum’s volunteers who live in other distant towns will stay overnight in Willow in the restored passenger car sleepers on Friday and Saturday nights so they can work at the museum for the entire weekend.

Wikipedia contributors. (2017, February 27). Willow, Florida. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:21, December 5, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Willow,_Florida&oldid=767783473

The small community of Balm, located on SR 37 in Southern Hillsborough County is, and remains, a small farming community.

The small town of Adamsville, once stood just south of Gibsonton off US 41. Settled by the Adams family in the late 1800s, the small community, south of Bullfrog Creek, was a small farming community and also home to one of the largest tropical fish farms. Today, Adamsville is included in the town of Gibsonton.

This collection includes photographs of Wimauma history.

This collection includes written histories and memoirs of Wimauma FL