The History of Boot Ranch and Safety Harbor

On Monday, May 20^th 2013 the Safety Harbor City Commission had the honor of recognizing Sylvia Garcia and, as your Mayor, I had the privilege of proclaiming the day as Sylvia Garcia Day due to her generosity in lending our museum many items from the Boot Ranch days. Sylvia’s father was Al Boyd, who started working on the Boot Ranch as a child along with his father Jesse Boyd. Not only did Al own the property but he also worked on it as a cattle rancher, expanding the property to up to 16,000 acres while gaining worldwide recognition for his Brahman cattle until his death at age 84 in 1998.

The Boot Ranch is not only an important part of Pinellas County’s history, but also an important part of Safety Harbor’s history as Al Boyd was born right here in Safety Harbor in 1913, which was one year after Pinellas County broke off from Hillsborough County and four years before Safety Harbor became a City. Al had a very interesting life which is chronicled in the book, “It’s No Bull!” by Arthur F Olds. Not only does this book give insight to the life of Al Boyd but it also gives a very interesting perspective and history of Pinellas County. There are great stories that shed light on how various cities in the area came to be, including Oldsmar, Dunedin, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs and Safety Harbor. It even goes into detail about how Safety Harbor was once called Green Springs, the origins of the Safety Harbor Spa and provides early stories about the Pier and its role in ferrying people back and forth to Tampa!

So given the rich history of Pinellas County and the role Al Boyd played in it, we are very thankful to be able to display many historical items such as a horse whip and old leather saddle that Al Boyd personally made. In fact, Al gained so much recognition for his skills as a leather craftsman that while he was a soldier in World War II General Patton asked him to make leather holsters for his personal revolvers! The exhibit that displays these items is currently located in City Hall but will be returned to our museum shortly.

I should also mention that we have all these cool and interesting items displayed here in Safety Harbor to enjoy is the result of the persistent efforts of Sharon Philyaw, who convinced Sylvia Garcia to loan them to us. So please stop by City Hall or the Safety Harbor Museum and Cultural center to check out an important part of Safety Harbor’s history!