Babcock Ranch Eco Tours was known for many years as Babcock Wilderness Adventures. It is one of the most unique of Florida tourist attractions. It takes place on a 92,000 acre working ranch in the heart of Old Florida.
Babcock Ranch is a working Florida ranch primarily engaged in raising beef cattle. The ranch also has large farming and mining operations.
The Babcock family of Pittsburgh owned the Babcock Lumber Company. E.V. Babcock came to southwest Florida in 1912 to hunt and fish. He liked the place so well he bought 100,000 acres of worked out turpentine pine woods and added to that acreage over the years. When his son, Fred, was 14 he started coming to Charlotte County in the summer months to learn the cattle business. In the winters he worked in the family sawmill near Pittsburgh. Fred liked this lifestyle so much, he continued it the rest of his life – except that he wisely reversed the seasonal visits. He became one of the early snowbirds.
The ranch sprawls across Lee County and Charlotte County, and is northwest of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda.
