DID YOU KNOW? Exploring North Brevard History - Titusville, Florida Compiled by Michael Knight for our Facebook Page Dummitt Grove Douglas Dummitt established his grove, “Good Hope,” on a narrow strip of land between the Indian River and the Mosquito Lagoon. These warm protective waters provided the grove with a margin of safety from five to eight degrees of temperature from the frost. The root stock of his trees was from the sour orange trees left behind during the Spanish period of occupation. Onto the sour orange root stock, he budded in slips of stems from sweet orange trees and produced a sweet orange fruit that was from hardy frost-tolerant stock. He started producing market-worthy fruit in 1828 and shipped barrels of fruit to St Augustine in dugout canoes poled by Negros where it would be shipped north to market from there. Douglas Dummitt’s importance to Florida is that his Citrus grove, “Good Hope” established Florida’s sweet orange citrus industry and produced world renowned Indian River fruit. Dummitt Grove was the oldest citrus grove in Florida. BACK to the North Brevard Historical Society & Museum