Live Oak: Florida's Inland Railroad Hub

Live Oak was born in the early eighteen sixties on the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad, established as a fueling and supply stop in what had recently become Suwannee County. The county itself was created in eighteen fifty-eight, and the railroad arrived just five years later. By eighteen sixty-six a second rail line connected Live Oak to Valdosta, Georgia to the north.

The county seat shifted here in eighteen sixty-eight, and the town's importance kept growing. By the close of the nineteen oh five Florida state census, Live Oak had become the fifth-largest city in the state. Two of Florida's largest sawmills operated nearby, and the town served as a junction for multiple rail lines.

It was incorporated as a city in nineteen oh three. The Union Depot, built in nineteen oh three, now houses the Suwannee County Historical Museum.