PUNTA GORDA — All that remains of what was once a thriving little village called Acline is a road starting at U.S. 41 and ending at Taylor Road, just south of Punta Gorda.
Named from the Atlantic Coast Line — the ACL, or AC Line — railroad, the town was initially a home to workers in the lumber and turpentine operations and their families.
Around the end of the 19th century, turpentine was becoming a major industry in what was then DeSoto County. Vast forest operations drained sap from pines and distilled turpentine. Then, when the sap had all been drained from the trees, the sawmill people came in and cut the remains for lumber…