Think of a Florida that no longer exists, a place where pastureland had to be cleared, where pioneering families cut timber from their land to build their houses and sold the lumber to buy cattle or seeds.

That's the Florida that few people remember, but that's also the Florida the students who attended the Tasmania school know and loved.

Tasmania students attended a one room schoolhouse where one teacher instructed students in first through eighth grades.

The school, which closed in 1939, proved to be a significant influence to the many students who attended the almost 20 years of it's operation.

More that 75 (Submitter's note: 40) former students and their families gathered Sunday, July 28, at the Venus Community Building for a first ever reunion of Tasmania school students.

The reunion, which is scheduled to become an annual affair, drew former students from Moore Haven, Palmdale, LaBelle, Clewiston and both coasts of Florida.

Gene Harn, who organized the event, said that through the years a reunion had been discussed many times, but this was the first one ever held.

Tasmania, which took its name in 1916 after settlers voted to open a post office, is located in a remote area of northwestern Glades County.

Although once the site of many ranches, farms and lumber mills, the area is primairly owned by Lykes Bros. Inc., although the Farabee family still has holdings in the community.

The area was given its name on the suggestion of an old sea captain who traveled around the world and retired to what originally was called Fisheating Creek.

In addition to former students, two teachers also attended the reunion. Ethal Newsom and Ruby Jackson, who taught at different times in the 1920s, were on hand, as was C.C. Curry, who moved to Tasmania from North LaBelle and served on the Glades County School Board from 1936-42.