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SELLER: MRS . ROSE K. SMITH (Winter address: (Summer address: 15. MRS. ROSEK. SMITH -C (Possible addition to Kissimmee) 1807 N. SR 17, Sebring, Fla. 33870) P.O. Box 1583, Estes Park, Colo. 80517) LOCATION: Okeechobee County, Florida ACREAGE: 650 acres BACKGROUND: On 8/1/80 NAS acquired 6090 acres of Kissimmee Prairie--to be known as the Ordway-Wlli ttell Prairie Preserve--through grants of $2.6 million from the Estate of Katharine Ordway and $1 million from the Whittell Trust. UPDATE: A strong possibility existed that funds would be made available to NAS to purchase three additional contiguous sections on the south end of the prairie. On 4/3/81 Frosty Anderson wrote that a 650-acre tract located south of the Ordway-Whittell Prairie Preserve (see attached map) is now for sale. The owner, Mrs. Rose K. Smith, (recently widowed) must sell this property by August 1, 1981, if she is to receive any tax benefits for this year. Our present assistant warden, Harvey Thomas, has leased this section for several years and has first refusal. The price to him would be $450,000 (in cash or installments); he would be glad to buy it and sell to us at his cost, but if we can get the same offer, he says we should purchase it directly. (However, it was Rod Chandler's feeling that NAS would be obliged to pay the full asking price of $500,000 if purchased _directly.) According to Frosty: "We often use this section as an unofficial access route to the Sanctuary. It has undisturbed prairie, two oak-palm hammocks, a sizable Indian mound and Comptie Slough, which has an established colony of wading birds in it. From the biological standpoint, this section is as valuable, or more so, than any of those 9 already in the Ordway-Whittell. "It lies just west of Sections 6, 5, 4, owned by Andy Griffith, which we also are interested in."
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15a. NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY SANCTUARY DEPT. West Cornwall Road, Sharon, "Connecticut 06069 To: ,!f'~ ;~ From: 9 2'-f I 'f :z..o 0 RD w' I~ . y-Wr /TTELL 3'-31 1-Z.. S AfNCTU,~ RY I Sa.le ; ! ' s Date: .3_., .P/ Re: /~P~ _ _ Au~l ~ -8~-(A ~~X---~ r, ff. ti_!!_ _ _ _ ~) w ~ _tl_ , cc: Dusty Dunstan
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