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A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

TURKEY PRAIRIE

There is a tract of land, well known to all of the old time residents of Columbia County, at the
Intersection of Interstate 10 and Interstate 75, known as Turkey Prairie. This tract has a small Lake on it,
and the entire tract is really quite beautiful. Traveling north on 1-75, as soon as you get past I-10, Turkey
Prairie lies on the left hand side of the Interstate for about a mile and a quarter. Traveling going west on
Interstate 10, as soon as they pass 1-75, the land will be on the right, or the north side of I-10, and
extends to the Suwannee County line, except for the westbound rest area which the State acquired
several years ago for westbound traffic on I-10.

When I first knew of the land, years ago, it was owned by Hugo Leslie, who ran the Coca-Cola Bottling
Plant in Lake City, and who had two daughters, Barbara and Carol, who played in my Columbia High
School Band. I tried to buy the tract of land from Mr. Leslie, but at that time he did not want to sell.

Later, and unknown to me for several years thereafter, he sold it to a man in Atlanta named Sharriff.

In 2006, just on a whim, I went to the Property Appraiser’s Office to get the name and address of the
present owner of Turkey Prairie, and I called him on the telephone.

To my surprise, he did indeed have an interest in selling the property, and we talked awhile and then I
told him that I would call him back.

I then went to the Title Company to see how quick they could get the Title Insurance Policy ready to
cover a loan, which I proposed to obtain from the Columbia County Bank, and I was able to persuade
them to get their paperwork done within a matter of a week. I then went to Robert Louis Green, the
President of the Columbia County Bank, and told him what I wanted to do, and surprisingly enough he
went along with it, and agreed to loan me two and half million dollars.

I then called Mr. Sharriff back and offered him $2,000.00 per acre for the 1045 acres involved, and
naturally he said he could not take that. I told him that was all that it was worth to me, but if he would
agree to take it I would guarantee to close and have the money in his hands within 10 days.

I could tell that caught his interest immediately, and later that day he called me back and told me he had
decided to take my offer. On a deal that size, I don’t ever remember getting involved prior to that time
without some sort of buy-sell-contract between us, but I simply had a Deed prepared from him to me,
and mailed it to him to be signed and notarized, with instructions for him to mail it directly to the Title
Company, who would guarantee not to deliver the Deed to me until they had guaranteed funds in their
hands to pay the purchase price in full to him, as a cash sale.

That is how we handled it, and I did indeed close within the 10 day period I had promised him.

I have always felt that the Lord led me into making that transaction, because within about 8 months of
the time I closed my purchase, a man popped into my office one day and inquired of me would 1 be
interested in selling Turkey Prairie. I told him under no circumstances would I sell it, since we planned
to cut it up into small tracts and sell it as a subdivision, over a period of the next two or three, or perhaps
four years, and that I was not interested in selling it off for a lump sum. He really was quite persistent,
but I did not weaken and he went back to South Florida to tell his investors, or partners, that the land
could not be bought.

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