By Peek Hames – As Published in the 2008 Founder’s Review Magazine
In the spring of 1888, the passenger steamboat “White Wing” was launched from the Ropella Lumber Company at Lake Weir. The boat was nearly 150 feet long and could accommodate nearly 200 passengers. The boat was towed on its excursions by a tug for about a year before the steam engines were installed. The passenger ship was built by a Captain Hart, who had riverboats that traveled between Silver Springs and Jacksonville.
With a large hotel called “The Lakeside Hotel” on the south side of Lake Weir and the train bringing people from far and near, there was an ample supply of passengers ready for an excursion around the 25-mile shoreline of the beautiful lake. They would pass tall timbers along the lakeshore, from which the lumber had been cut and towed to the yards of Ropella Lumber Company, where the boat was built and launched. The Ropella Lumber Company was later to become Legion Beach and is now Kiwanis Beach.
On the northwest corner of the lake, they would find Orange Island and see a wild natural orange grove, and then ride around Bird Island before arriving at the Lakeside Hotel for a gala evening. Afterwards, they set sail back to the Ropella dock with the gentle breezes and an everlasting memory. Not just the tourists rode the steamer, but many of the locals would be among the passengers.
During this period, there were many steamers working the Ocklawaha River, and Lake Weir also had some towing the fruit to a nearby railhead. Two of the steamer tugs were the “Maggie” and the popular “Red Wing.” For towing the heavy yellow pine logs to their mill, the Ropella brought in a 60-foot tug and named it “Ropella.” After the financial crash of 1895, this craft was discarded and left to decay in the same fashion as the lumber mill.
As better roads and automobiles became accessible, the glamour and romance of traveling by steamship disappeared. The hull of the “White Wing” was burned at Legion Beach in 1910.
