Inspired by the completion of the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railroad in 1907, land speculator John Milton Murdock platted the village of Murdock in 1914. Located at the southwest intersection of US 41, the Tamiami Trail, and the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railroad, the area once had a hotel, general store, post office, railroad loading dock, and a two-story railroad depot, and it housed Irish railroad workers in two rows of small frame houses. Advertised as a farming colony of 10-acre plots, it proved too wet for year-round agriculture, leading John Murdock to seek creation of a drainage district and to build canals from Murdock to Charlotte Harbor. The canals drained the land so effectively that expensive irrigation was needed during the drier winter months. In 1916, John Murdock abandoned the town and moved to Jacksonville. Today Murdock refers to the intersection of Tamiami Trail and SR 776 and the surrounding area, including the present location of county municipal offices.