Signs of the Times

of theignsS S Times

Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway

FBy Key HowardH

Leading up to the turn of the 20th century, the year 1900 brought significant accomplishments in many areas: Helen Barbey was the first female to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games; a rigid airship designed by Ferdinand von Zeppelin made its first flight; and the first hamburger sandwich was created and served at Louis’ Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut.

But for a family in Kissimmee, Florida, probably the most momentous event was the birth of Irlo Overstreet Bronson, thereby creating an enviable fourth generation of Bronson cattlemen on a ranch established in the late 1860s.

Bronson was an excellent student and entered a military academy in Georgia, which led to a brief service in the Army. Completing his service in 1921, he joined the family business, spending many hours “in the saddle,” sometimes herding anywhere from 600 to an astonishing 10,000 head of cattle.

He graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park, where he majored in business administration. He married Flora Belle Bass in 1924 and sired two children, Evelyn and Irlo Jr. (Bud).

To say that Bronson was an overachiever during his 73-year tenure on this planet would be a classic understatement. He threw his cap into the political arena at an early age, and his accomplishments over the next five decades are legend.

His sobriquet, “Mr. Florida Cattleman,” was unofficially bestowed after he established the Florida Cattlemen’s Association and then presided over it from 1946-1950. He served in the Florida House of Representatives for 10 years and was elected to the Florida Senate in 1952, serving for 14 years, including a year as president pro tempore. His list of civic involvement goes on and on. His son would go on to serve in the Florida House from 1982 to 2000, switching from Democrat to Republican in his final year in office.

The senior Bronson, following in the footsteps of his ranching peers, held vast holdings of land purchased midcentury at prices as low as $1 per acre. His father, the third-generation cattleman of the Bronson family, thought his son had “fallen out of the saddle” paying that enormous amount of money for dirt. That opinion changed some years later when he sold the majority of his holdings in the deal for which he is probably best known — selling land at $100 per acre to Walt Disney for what would become Walt Disney World.

Following Bronson’s death, a major section of U.S. Highway 192 that passes through his former land and leads to the gateway to Walt Disney World was named Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in recognition of his many contributions to not only Florida’s cattle industry, but the creation of more diversified employment opportunities in the state.

With his passing in 1973, Florida lost a great innovator, but memories and tales of his exploits will forever be emblazoned in the history books and the hearts of all Floridians who prosper today from his efforts on their behalf.

Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway (U.S. Highway 192) runs from U.S. Highway 441 in Kissimmee west to U.S. Highway 27. The eastern portion of U.S. 192 continues east from U.S. 441 to State Road A1A in Melbourne and is known as Space Coast Parkway, indicating its final destination. Ɏ A young Irlo Bronson