The former town of Chipco stood here less than six miles west of the former site of Fort Dade #2, built in 1849 during the Seminole War era. Named for Chief Chipco, a Seminole leader and uncle to Chief Tallahassee whose band traded in the Tampa and Fort Dade area, the town rose to prominence after the Civil War as an economic center. Chief Chipco opposed the Third Seminole War and later became known as a "friends of the white." Chipco had a cotton gin and press, as well as grist and planing mills, built in 1874-75. In 1877, a frame schoolhouse was built that also served as a church on Sundays, and the town had a post office and a thriving general store supplying local farmers. In 1887, the Orange Belt Railway built a station there that operated as Chipco Train Station #21. The town likely declined for several reasons: the Great Freeze of 1895 killed many citrus groves, and the exhaustion of the virgin pine forests harmed the area's lumber and turpentine industry. The Chipco school remained in operation until 1901, and by 1909 the town had disappeared from most maps.