At one time, Bertha Palmer owned almost a fourth of what is now Sarasota County. She was a socialist in Chicago, but bought land in Florida - a lot of land. 140,000 acres of it. The land she purchased was a lot of marshland and undeveloped. She invested in technology to cutdown trees, root stumps and by the end of the process created hundreds of square miles of land that she can now flip and sell. She also started a cattle and hog ranch on the Myakka River. Yep, a female cattle rancher in the earlier 1900s. To ship her cattle and hogs, she needed to bring the railroad through her land. It was the Venice Extension Railroad which today had been converted into a walking and bicycle trail.
For more on the history Bertha Palmer watch the video below: