Wimauma is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,373 at the 2010 census, up from 4,246 at the 2000 census. Wimauma was founded by Captain C.H. Davis in 1902. Davis named the town using the first few letters of the names of his daughters Will, Maude, and Mary. Wimau…Wimauma is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,373 at the 2010 census, up from 4,246 at the 2000 census. Wimauma was founded by Captain C.H. Davis in 1902. Davis named the town using the first few letters of the names of his daughters Will, Maude, and Mary. Wimauma was located on a 55-mile railroad route that was built south from Durant to Manatee County and into Sarasota, with construction starting in 1895. It was incorporated in 1902 as the United States & West Indies Railroad and Steamship Company. It became the Florida West Shore Railway on May 9, 1903 and then merged into the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1909. In 1902, Capt. Davis helped to build the railroad connecting Turkey Creek and Bradenton. He decided to found a town at the halfway point, opening a post office there on October 24, 1902. The town had the railroad tracks as the eastern boundary and was centered on Lake Tiger, now called Lake Wimauma. A railroad depot was constructed in 1903. The town was officially incorporated in 1925 as the county's fourth municipality, but the city government ceased to function some time in the 1930s. In 1993, this fact was rediscovered, but it was concluded that the incorporation was no longer valid after about 60 years without a city government. The railroad depot in Wimauma served as a passenger stop until 1968. The railroad tracks were removed in 1984, and the station had been razed years before this removal.
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