Trail Stops

516 NE 2nd Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/51XM3UwDSGFizq5h8

     Thelma A. Boltin Center was a community recreation facility that once hosted "Teen Time" dances and concerts, for which teenagers could purchase a membership card that would allow them entry to all events. While in junior high school, Tom Petty would go here with friends to listen to the music being played by a DJ spinning records or by a band on the stage. It is here where Tom and his neighborhood friend Keith Harben first heard The Beatles' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," which Harben told me immediately sparked Tom Petty's interest in the band. Petty soon began collecting Beatles records. 

     "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" was released in the United States on Dec. 23, 1963. Harben noted that Petty was eager to attend "Teen Time" shortly afterward because the DJ was going to spin this new record by The Beatles. 

     On the night of Feb. 9, 1964, Tom would watch in the Petty home (1715 NE 6th Terrace) the TV broadcast of the Ed Sullivan Show when The Beatles performed five songs, the last of which was "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," for the screaming studio audience of hundreds -- and the 73 million in their living rooms.  To read about this shared cultural phenomenon, go here:

https://www.edsullivan.com/artists/the-beatles/

     In 2017, Petty had recorded three episodes of his Tom Petty Radio show for SiriusXM before he died Oct. 2. They were not aired for a year. In the last show, No. 251, he concluded it by playing three songs by The Beatles, the last one being "I'm Looking Through You," then he talked about what those three songs were for the listeners' benefit. And with that, he ended what turned out to be his last radio show -- with a mini-tribute to The Beatles, which he had embraced all those years ago in Gainesville. To hear this radio show sign-off, go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6b4D2lZ4MY&t=27s

     In 1972 at the Thelma Boltin Center, Petty performed on stage with his third band, Mudcrutch, for a high school prom.  

     Other Gainesville musicians to have performed on stage here include Don Felder (The Eagles), Bernie Leadon (The Eagles, The Flying Burrito Brothers) and Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield; Crosby, Stills, Nash +/- Young). 

     Closed since 2020 during the pandemic, as of January 2024 it had yet to reopen. The Gainesville Sun reported in May 2023 that it was to undergo restoration. 

Photo by Shawn Murphy

1414 NE 23rd Ave, Gainesville, FL 32609

https://maps.app.goo.gl/nNJRNS7uKrA3H3838

     Currently this building is a Christian academy, but the Gainesville’s Moose Lodge was once located here. The Moose Club, as it was commonly known, held wholesome events and concerts geared toward Gainesville youth. One such event was a Battle of the Bands. The contest winner in 1964 was a recently formed Gainesville band, the Sundowners – that included 14-year-old Tom Petty. The contest prize included a contract for a standing Friday night gig throughout that summer, for which the band would be paid $100 for each show. 

     By summer’s end, Tom Petty had saved up $200, which he invested into the band’s amp. But Tom’s mother was skeptical about where he had acquired the cash. Petty told Paul Zollo during interviews for Zollo’s 2005 book “Conversations with Tom Petty”: “My mom was like, ‘Where did you get this money?’ and I told her I got it for the show. She said, ‘Really, where did you get this money? If you took this money, you’re gonna have to own up to it.' I said, ‘I swear to God, Mom, they paid me this for playing.’ She didn't believe me. So she called the Moose Club, and the guy said, ‘Yeah, they get the door, and that’s what they made.’” 

Photo by Shawn Murphy

3131 SE 27th St, Gainesville, FL 32641

https://maps.app.goo.gl/7DsNcoHXvaz4uLai9 

    The first time that Tom Petty was heard over the airwaves was from the WDVH radio tower on SE 27th Street, once known as Kincaid Road. The Sundowners, which formed in 1964, performed live here in the studio of the Top 40 hits format AM station. With Tom Petty, Robert Crawford and Richie Henson strumming, and Dennis Lee drumming, the band played rock and roll covers with Petty helping with singing. 

    Witnessing this in the studio was the “band manager,” Keith Harben, who I thank for helping me locate and map this trail stop. He recalls that it was in either 1964 or 1965 that this in-studio performance occurred. 

    Over the years the radio station has changed ownership, frequency and format many times, as well as its studio location. To read more about the history of WDVH, go here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WDVH_(AM)  

Photo by Shawn Murphy

565 S Lawrence Blvd, Keystone Heights, FL 32656

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5aRitDFJ7HbBkYGf8 

    The Sundowners performed in concert here at the Keystone Beach Historic Pavilion, located in Keystone Heights on the shore of Lake Geneva. The band, which included Tom Petty, Robert Crawford and Richie Henson on guitars, and Dennis Lee on drums, played rock and roll covers at this concert in either 1964 or 1965,       as recalled by Keith Harben, Petty’s childhood friend from his neighborhood who served as the “band manager,” and who was there for the concert. I thank Keith for making me aware of, and bringing me to, this trail stop. 

    During this time, the pavilion was a popular hangout for teenagers in the area. In 2017, then-mayor of Keystone Heights Tony Brown spoke about its history at a public meeting about restoring the building, which was constructed in 1924 (it has since been restored). As a teen, Brown “spent entire summers at the city’s pavilion playing ping-pong, billiards, listening to concerts and, when it got hot, jumping straight from the dock into the water,” as noted in this article from Clay Today:

https://www.claytodayonline.com/stories/pavilion-restoration-study-in-works,6672 

     Note that Lake Geneva’s water level was once much higher so that it would extend up under the stilts that once raised the structure above the water. Today it sits completely on sand.

     The pavilion is approximately 25 miles northeast of Gainesville, across county lines in Clay County. The county later became part of the lyrics in “Melinda,” which was included in “The Live Anthology,” a 2009 box set by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Harben noted to me that at the time the Sundowners played at the Keystone Beach Historic Pavilion, Tom Petty was seeing a girl named Melinda from here in Keystone Heights, Clay County, a fact that may have been inspiration for a lyrical thread in a song that crafts a mysterious story. The song, written by Benmont Tench and Tom Petty, includes the following passage:

“I would give the moon and sun

Just to see Melinda

The earth and all the sky

To be there with Melinda

And I just don't care, what you got to say

Cause I'm getting up in the morning

And I'm going to see Melinda

Yes I'm through with Clay County

You never done a thing for me”

    To listen to this song, performed live, go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVc0kp3dWV8

Photo by Shawn Murphy

1010 N Main St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/dnEneNDYLETXJs6r9

     As of December 2024, a wig store named Wiggo was located here, at the south end of Gainesville Shopping Center, at the intersection of North Main Street and NW 10th Avenue. But from the late 1950s to 1976, this  location was the site of Lipham’s Music Store, the largest retailer in the region at the time. It was a popular spot for the area's teenage musicians to hang out and play the instruments, among them Tom Petty. 

     It is at Lipham's that Tom Petty worked in 1967, Gainesville's Don Felder (later a member of the Eagles) showed him how to work out songs on the piano, where Mudcrutch performed, where Tom met Benmont Tench, and where Stan Lynch got his first drum kit while he was in the band Styrophoam Soule. 

     Customers included Bo Diddley and members of the Allman Brothers; Duane Allman tested a guitar and Marshall amp on the sidewalk outside of the store so that the volume could be cranked up. 

     Keith Harben, who was Tom Petty's lifelong friend and lived in Tom's neighborhood through their child and teen years, recalled to me that he would pedal his bicycle for a mile downtown, with Tom sitting on the handlebars, so that Tom could buy Elvis Presley 45s from Lipham's, which once stocked records as well as instruments. This came after Tom met Elvis in the summer of 1961 during the filming of "Follow That Dream" at a downtown Ocala bank (203 E. Silver Springs Blvd.). The introduction was arranged by Tom's uncle, Earl Jernigan, who owned  Jernigan’s Motion Picture Service in Gainesville (3019 NE 20th Way), a movie logistics company. Afterward, Tom was eager to tell Keith back home in Gainesville all about the encounter. Tom was so inspired by Elvis that day, he traded his slingshot for Elvis 45s with Keith. 

     Lipham's relocated to 3433 W University Ave. in 1976, after Tom Petty had left Gainesville for California. In 2014, Buster Lipham retired and closed his business that had been a Gainesville staple for 59 years. As of January 2024, this location was a store to buy home and patio goods.

     To read more about Lipham's, check out this Gainesville Sun article: https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/local/2018/09/29/gainesville-where-tom-pettys-dreams-began/9740920007/ 

     As well as this one, written when the store, open since 1954, closed in 2014: https://www.gainesville.com/story/business/economy/2014/04/11/with-liphams-closing-gainesville-losing-link-to-rock-royalty/31218859007/ 

     And read this transcript from an interview of Buster Lipham in 2012 that was part of the research that Marty Jourard did for his 2016 book Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town, which is found at a companion website:

http://www.gainesvillerockhistory.com/BusterLipham

Photo by Buster Lipham, courtesy of Lonnie Morris. Gainesville musicians hanging out in Lipham’s Music Store in the late 1960s are, from left to right: Robert Crawford from the Sundowners, Tom Petty (smiling, wearing tie), Tom Leadon from the Epics and later Mudcrutch, Lonnie Morris’ father who served as band manager for Styrophoam Soule, one or both of the Rucker brothers from the Epics, and Styrophoam Soule lead singer Lonnie Morris with his back to the camera.  

21 Graham Area, Gainesville, FL 32611

https://maps.app.goo.gl/hTnc53MaKoHZCQhk8

     Graham Hall, a dormitory built in 1961 on the University of Florida campus, is where the Epics performed a concert in 1966 in a venue called Graham Pond. The band's lineup included Tom Petty, who had recently left his first band, the Sundowners. Tom played bass guitar and sang lead vocals along with Rodney Rucker.

     Dickie Underwood from the Epics recalled Tom's performance on stage that night to Warren Zanes for the 2015 book Petty: The Biography: "Petty was like a wild man, all over the stage. That was probably the first time he got to be the front guy. And he loved it. And so did the people watching us. We all said, 'This guy is good.'" (pg. 38)

     Graham Pond was one of the nicer venues where the Epics performed, Petty recalled to Zanes. 

     "The Epics would just play down and dirty fucking places, a whole circuit of hick towns," Petty told Zanes.

     Note also that Road Turkey (which included future Heartbreaker Stan Lynch) also performed a concert here in 1972 with a band named Flood, which I thank Marty Jourard, a member of Road Turkey, for noting to me.

Photo by unknown photographer.

1900 NW 13th St, Gainesville, FL 32609

https://maps.app.goo.gl/tW7ADarpFLJ1b5fT7

     Gainesville High School is where Tom Petty graduated in the class of 1968 -- although he skipped out on the graduation ceremony so that he could play a gig with his band, the Epics, as explained in this Gainesville Sun article: https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/2006/09/20/memories-of-petty-how-singer-found-way-in-area/31538840007/.  

     A song lyric would stem from GHS in "Harry Green," a 1994 song recorded during the sessions for the "Wildflowers" album, but not released until 2020 in the "Wildflowers & All the Rest" box set. School peer Harry Green,  or Harris Harding Green, the song's inspiration,  died in a car crash in 1966. His gravesite can be found at Evergreen Cemetery, 401 SE 21st Ave., in Gainesville. You can read more about the real-life Harry Green by going to the Dreamville Ghosts section of Trail Stops on this website, found here:

https://tompettytrail.com/dreamville-ghosts

     Here is part of that song lyric: 

“Harry Green was my old friend 

We met in Spanish class 

Helped me out of a spot I was in 

He stopped a redneck from kickin’ my ass...

Harry Green was strong and tall 

Played on the football team... 

Well, them high school halls can sure get rough

when you ain’t like everyone else... 

Harry Green was alright by me.” 

     You can listen to "Harry Green" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEv2RsXo6qY

     Other GHS graduates include Bernie Leadon and Don Felder (both later in the Eagles), as well as Stephen Stills (later in Crosby, Stills, Nash +/- Young).

Photo by Shawn Murphy

11101 Millhopper Rd, Gainesville, FL 32653

https://maps.app.goo.gl/RWiJTJDTB9xxHewR7 

    Of the mindset to take a break from a day’s high school classes, Tom Petty and his neighborhood friend Keith Harben skipped school, drove to the northern outskirts of Gainesville, and hung out at Warren’s Cave, as Keith recalled to me. On other days, Tom and Keith would hang out here after school.

    Warren’s Cave at that time, the mid-1960s, was a popular spot for teenagers to hang out. The sinkhole that is the cave entrance was more accessible to the public at that time. A barrier has since been erected as a safety measure so that only experienced cavers can enter, and the precise location is kept secret in order to reduce vandalism.      

    Warren Cave Nature Preserve, as it is known today, is the longest mapped dry cave in the state of Florida. It has more than four miles of passageways, most of them very narrow and very dangerous. The preserve, located near the San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park, is today owned and overseen by the National Speleological Society (NSS). For experienced spelunkers to enter Warren’s Cave today, they must apply to the NSS for a permit to enter, which includes signing a liability waiver. 

    Dave Lizdas, who helps oversee the cave with Fletcher Jacob on behalf of the NSS, called the cave entrance an “overgrown sinkhole sandwiched between private properties” where there isn’t much to see above ground – and where it’s too unsafe for the public underground. Lizdas explained to me why the cave entrance’s precise coordinates are today kept secret – even for Tom Petty fans.

    “Like many cave preserves in the southeast, we as preserve managers have to deal with vandalism, spray paint, burnt tires, and destruction of gates,” Lizdas said. “When Tom Petty and Keith were visiting Warren Cave, there were a lot of issues with people trashing the cave because they knew about it and could. But it’s worse than that: people actually died in Warren Cave. It quickly gets surprisingly dangerous without the proper equipment and training. Before the gate was installed, there were several deaths related to falls and even a spinal injury that resulted in permanent, paraplegic disability. The sheriff almost dynamited the cave closed because of the media sensation. … We (the Florida Speleological Society) were able to avoid permanent closure because we created the gate and management plan, but still had to deal with the gate being torn out multiple times, up into the 1980s. We have all sorts of issues to this day regarding vandals and nonsense on other caves. It’s for these reasons that cavers – as a rule – never post cave locations online. It’s a policy strictly enforced within the caving community, and since this cave preserve is owned by the National Speleological Society itself, Tom Petty fan or not, I can’t make an exception. Obviously I doubt Tom Petty fans would ever cause a problem but information from one website or google map pin can spread.”

    To learn more about the cave, and to see photos from underground, go here:

https://caves.org/preserve/warren-cave-nature-preserve/

    To learn more about the adjacent state park, which boasts an extensive network of trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding, go here:

https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/san-felasco-hammock-preserve-state-park

Note that I have pinned on Google Maps the south parking area for San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park. This was suggested by Lizdas as a middle-ground solution to trying to map a place that needs to be a secret location. He said, “The cave is on the south side of Millhopper Road and there is a hiking trail there too.”

    Should you go here, and should you somehow discover the cave’s entrance, do not under any circumstances vandalize this property or attempt to bypass the gate to enter underground.

Photo of cave plaque courtesy of the NSS

4732 Millhopper Rd, Gainesville, FL 32653

https://maps.app.goo.gl/7rh1AVWFMk2LEqQB9

     Devil's Millhopper was featured in “Southern Accents,” an MTV mini-documentary from 1985 as a way to promote that album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. In the film, Tom Petty, keyboardist Benmont Tench and drummer Stan Lynch reminisce about bringing girls there as youth, and Tom notes there were no stairs or boardwalk at that time. The full half-hour documentary can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmVU3LOcLds 

Photo by Shawn Murphy

1826 W University Ave, Gainesville, FL 32603

https://maps.app.goo.gl/rVS9FeD1f6LJCMNi6

     On the northern side of University Avenue, across the street from the campus, is the University Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is flanked by two fraternity houses. It was once sponsored the Bent Card coffee house in a building located outside the church hall that was a childcare center by day and a coffee house by night. 

     Run by its Bent Card Coffee House Ministry, the concert series began in 1965. From 1966 to 1970, it hosted musicians performing acoustic folk and country music. Among them was the earliest lineup of Mudcrutch, a drummer-less version of the band that was comprised of Tom Petty, Tom Leadon and Jim Lenahan, who performed here in 1970.

Image of poster from Gainesville Rock History website research that Marty Jourard created as a companion to his 2016 book, Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town.

1230 NE Waldo Rd, Gainesville, FL 32641

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZUqeJEHFUsqEHKuk8

     This was once the location of the 24-hour radio station WGGG. The office, studio, transmitter and tower of the 250-watt station, under the AM frequency of 1230, were here with the address of 1230 NE Waldo Road. However, after the building was razed, the address ceased to exist, so I have mapped this as 1100 NE Waldo Road -- which is mere feet from where the building once stood. 

     During the formative years of the youth of Gainesville during the 1950s and 1960s, WGGG played the music that they listened to on their transistor radios. Among them was Tom Petty. The station would spin 45s by local bands as well as the hits from nationally and internationally known groups. The Sundowners, Petty's first band that was formed by the 14-year-old while a student in junior high school at Howard W. Bishop, performed songs live on the air as in-studio guests.

     In 1973 when Mudcrutch, Petty’s third band, recorded a 45 at Miami's Criteria Studios, it lobbied for WGGG DJs to play their record. Eventually they did – and the song topped the station’s charts.

    The radio station as WGGG ceased operations in 2018 and the frequency has since rebranded itself under a different name (WRBD), location and format. 

     The original studio has since been razed, despite an effort by some concerned folks in Gainesville, among them Boomer Hough, a beloved musician and DJ in Gainesville. He had been in a popular band in the 1960s with a British-sounding name and a somewhat psychedelic sound, Maundy Quintet. He can be seen in this WCJB report from 2018:

https://www.wcjb.com/content/news/Group-Tries-to-Save-Original-WGGG-Building-Before-Its-Demolished-479572733.html

     Sumner Wayne Hough, better known as Boomer Hough, died in January 2025. He played drums in a band called the Pink Panthers in the early 1960s, which morphed into the Maundy Quintet, a more mod-sounding name for the late ’60s. Soon they were a working band, complete with printed business cards that they handed out, advertising that Maundy Quintet were available for hire to perform at any of these events: “Quilting Bees – Funerals – Wild Parties.”

   Don Felder, who was a guitarist in the band, noted in his 2008 book, Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001), that Boomer Hough’s mom bought him a used van for the purpose of driving the band and its equipment to booked shows. Clearly keen on promotion, Boomer had painted on the side of the van the band’s business-card motto.

   That van could be seen every day in the parking lot at Gainesville High School while Boomer was in school.

   While a high school senior, Boomer, known around town as Maundy Quintet’s drummer, was hired by another local commercial radio station to spin records for an hour after school, during the 3-4 p.m. slot, which probed popular with teens tuning in. This led to Boomer being moved into the coveted drive-time slot in the late afternoon, which gave him and his band an even higher status in town. The station, WUWU, a top-40 radio station from 1963 to 1971, then relocated its studio to the newly built Gainesville Mall, at a time when malls were seen as an exotic and enticing place to shop and hang out. The fishbowl studio idea turned out to be marketing genius, further elevating the visibility of WUWU, Boomer, and the Maundy Quintet.

   “That’s where it really took off because the Gainesville Mall was the biggest thing in Gainesville, and Leon Mims (the station owner) had put this radio station right in the mall for everybody to walk by and actually watch you broadcast. It was great,” Boomer told Marty Jourard for his 2016 book, Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town. “I remember interviewing the Beach Boys, Graham Nash of the Hollies, and Buddy Ebsen, who was there to perform at Gator Growl. The crowd around that window in the Gainesville Mall was huge, and it went all the way across the mall to Kinney Shoes. I was the one that got to interview all these people because of the popularity of my afternoon drive shift” (pgs. 51-52).

   Maundy Quintet’s single “I’m Not Alone,” with “2’s Better Than 3” on the B-side, was recorded in 1967 on the Paris Label – naturally located in Tampa, Fla., not Paris, France. “I’m Not Alone,” which was produced and arranged by Bernie Leadon (later in the Eagles), another guitar player in the band, plays its banjo solo. 

     In 1967 when Maundy Quintet’s single, “I’m Not Alone,” was released, Boomer was a DJ at WGGG, according to Tom Laughon, the band’s lead singer. Boomer made sure to queue up “I’m Not Alone” whenever a listener would request it.

   Laughon told Jourard for his Gainesville Rock History website, and subsequent book, Music Everywhere, how the song became a local hit: “Our drummer Boomer was a DJ at WGGG, so we had somebody who would play our record, and I remember calling, and requesting our own record so we could hear it. And, it got us more money! Having the record made us more money. It went to #1 airplay at WGGG for a while, because when you have six guys in a quintet calling up for requests you can get some good air time going on. We felt like we had a #1 world hit, and we made more money for gigs.”

   To hear this song, go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyRwGSlNWhQ

Post card photo courtesy of University of Florida Digital Collections

2200 NW 45th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32605

https://maps.app.goo.gl/L1Msy2ydLnWtcUkM6

     The address of Norton Elementary School, 2200 NW 45th Ave., is a stone's throw from the address given for the free Sunday, Dec. 13, 1970 Mudcrutch Farm Festival, 2203 NW 45th Ave., which would approximately be where the bike trail meets the road, slightly west from this school. 

     The property that is referred to as "Mudcrutch Farm" was a 10-acre parcel of land on which there was a decrepit home with no hot water. The house sat in a clearing with a horseshoe-shaped dirt driveway out front, which was surrounded by woods. To get there, one had to drive down NW 45th Avenue, then a dirt road that turned into a narrower dirt road. The house was rented by Randall Marsh and Mike Campbell, as well as William "Red" Slater, a university engineering student who had a knack for photography (he shot most of the iconic photos of Mudcrutch from this era). 

     "The whole rental was $75 a month. It was just a rundown house. It didn't have hot water, the fridge didn't work. At the time, it was quite a way from Gainesville, so it was a hike into town. It was just a place to hang out for a low-profile band," Slater is reported to have told a Gainesville Sun reporter for a 2008 article headlined "What's left of Mudcrutch Farm?" (the answer is nothing; today you will find a school and residential neighborhoods).

     The moniker Mudcrutch Farm came about after the band formed and solidified -- and used the house for its near-nightly rehearsals, which lead to a standing nightly gig a short distance from here, at Dub's Steer Room (4562 NW 13th St.). 

     That formation came about when Marsh and Campbell noticed an advertisement for a drummer on an announcement board at Lipham's Music (1010 N. Main St). Marsh responded to the ad and invited the ad-poster -- the early lineup of Mudcrutch: Tom Petty, Tom Leadon and Jim Lenahan -- to come out to their then-rural place for tryouts. After Marsh had earned a spot in the band, Campbell managed to get an impromptu tryout. 

     Lenahan told Warren Zanes for the 2015 book Petty: The Biography that he heard Campbell strumming his guitar in the next room, so told Marsh to summon his housemate to join them.

     "So Mike Campbell comes out with the worst guitar I had ever seen in my life. It looked like it had been cut out of a door," Lenahan recalled for Warren Zanes' 2015 book Petty: The Biography. "He was super skinny, just looked unhealthy. He plugged into Leadon's amp. We asked if he could play 'Johnny B. Goode.' He ripped into that opening, and our jaws dropped. By the end of the song, we said, 'You're in our band now.' He said, 'No, I'm in school'" (pg. 56). 

     The opportunity to join Mudcrutch was too much of a temptation, though. Campbell, the new kid in town, had recently moved from Jacksonville to attend the University of Florida. Musically gifted, Campbell wanted to major in music, yet was rejected because he lacked regimented training. So, he majored in general education with thoughts of switching to architecture. 

     Campbell's memory of the Mudcrtuch tryout goes this way: "I was sitting back there reading a book, but I was thinking, 'God, that sounds like fun.' And Randall tells them that there's a guy in back who plays guitar. He comes in and asks me to play. 'Yeah, sure,' I tell him. I got my little Japanese guitar, went out there, the only one with short hair, cutoff jeans, and this stupid little guitar. You could just see their disappointment, like, 'Oh, great. The drummer's good, but does he have to bring this guy along?' They ask what songs I know, and I say, 'Johnny B. Goode" (Zanes, pgs. 62). 

     Marty McKnew, a friend of Mike Campbell's at the time, was also there that night. Because Marty worked at a downtown flower shop, he had access to a van from work. This came in handy for Mudcrutch, as he became “their unpaid roadie for a couple of years," he told me. Having access to transportation, he was able to drive the band and its equipment to various gigs in and around Gainesville. But the night that Randall Marsh and Mike Campbell tried out for the band, he was at Mudcrutch Farm.

     In the years of 1970 and 1971, three Mudcrutch Farm Festivals were held here. All had free admission, including free catered food, yet donations were accepted. After the last one, which included overnight camping, the property landlords paid a surprise visit on the morning after. Since the bandmembers had not yet cleaned up the property of the litter, it left an impression about the renters, so they were evicted -- and thus sealing Mudcrutch Farm to history and memory. 

     Four band members then moved to Earleton, on the west side of Lake Santa Fe -- a 25-minute drive east of here. 

     The band continued performing in Gainesville, across the state, and even in some Deep South locations until it played a farewell-to-Gainesville show on March 30, 1974, at what was then called Westside Park (1001 NW 34th. St.; today called Albert "Ray" Massey Park). The fundraiser was produced by Rose Community Center. Members of Mudcrutch (including Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, later the core of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) performed with members of Road Turkey (including Stan Lynch, later the first drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), members of RGF, as well as Nancy Luca (who had taken guitar lessons from Mike Campbell) and Gail Roberts (sister of Danny Roberts, then a Mudcrutch guitarist). The makeshift band called itself Tommy Ohmage and the Fantabulous Tornadoes (which was pronounced this way: "tor-NA-does"). The next day, April 1, 1974, members of Mudcrutch began the drive to Los Angeles for a record deal. Instead, Mudcrutch would disband, morphing into the core of the Heartbreakers, who released its first album in 1976. 

Photo courtesy of Rose Community Center

1500 NW 45th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32605

https://maps.app.goo.gl/DJ6YKMYVCKBbFKAaA

     Northwest 45th Avenue was once the boondocks, a dirty road far from the rest of Gainesville, though today you will find a smoothly paved road, this nature park, an elementary school, and upscale housing developments. Was today's Hogtown Creek Headwaters Nature Park where Mudcrutch Farm was located? Yes, according to Lauren Poe, the mayor of Gainesville when Tom Petty Park was dedicated on Oct. 20, 2018. In his speech to the crowd that day, he noted that the city's second choice for a park named after Tom Petty was here. In it he said that "Mudcrutch Ranch" was located here, as you can see in this video of the event (start at 2:50 marker) -- despite the fact that the park is in the 1500 block and Mudcrutch Farm was in the 1700 block, according to a famous concert flier from 1970: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbwl5tVZ9go 

     Note that the address given in a flier for the free Mudcrutch Farm Festival on Sunday, Dec. 13, 1970 was 2203 NW 45th Ave., which is 8/10th of mile west of this park.

Photo by Shawn Murphy

1516 NE 7th St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5gSHtYDzBu9efs5D6 

    Mudcrutch guitarist Mike Campbell lived here for a while in the early seventies. The owner of the house, Marty McKnew, rented to his friend a spare bedroom with a bathroom and a designated egress doorway separate from the main house. Marty recalls it being in 1973 or early 1974 when “Mike Campbell’s Airbnb” was rented for $15 a month. At times, Mike would sit outside practicing guitar riffs and learning songs. During this time, Marty remembers Tom Petty stopping by to visit Mike. He recalls that Tom liked to joke around with his dog, getting it riled up. One funny image Marty has in his head is when his dog stood up, planted its front paws on Tom’s shoulders, and stared eye to eye with him.

     During this time, Mike gave to his friend a Christmas ornament he had made of a red guitar. 

    While living here, Mike earned extra cash by giving a few guitar lessons for $10 an hour. One student was Nancy Luca, who recalled to Marty Jourard for his 2016 book, Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town, the following: “It was when I was 14 or 15 that my friend announced in the high school’s restroom, ‘My boyfriend’s teaching guitar lessons. Know anyone who wants guitar lessons?’ and her boyfriend was Mike Campbell. It was ten bucks an hour, and my parents would drive me (there). I took guitar there, and so did a couple of my friends. He would teach all of us the same songs. He would show us ‘Get Back’ by the Beatles, then ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,’ and the big song he showed me was ‘Cannonball Rag.’”

     Around this time, Nancy Luca debuted as an opener for Mudcrutch at the Rathskeller on the campus of the University of Florida (205 Fletcher Dr.; it burned down in 1987 and was replaced by an academic building without a college bar and concert venue inside). 

    In 1970, shortly after Mike moved from Jacksonville to Gainesville, and Marty moved from Boca Raton to Gainesville, they met. “Mike and I were good friends,” Marty told me. Not long after Mike’s arrival in Gainesville, he, Randall Marsh and William “Red” Slater (who shot most of the iconic photos of Mudcrutch from this era) rented a run-down house in a clearing on 10 rural wooded acres at the end of what was then a dirt road (eventually known as Mudcrutch Farm, with the house located at 2203 NW 45th St.). “We spent a lot of time together at the farm where Mike and Randall lived,” Marty said.

    Mudcrutch’s formation came about when Marsh and Campbell noticed an advertisement for a drummer on an announcement board at Lipham’s Music (3433 W. University Ave.). Marsh responded to the ad and invited the ad-poster -- the early trio lineup of Mudcrutch: Tom Petty, Tom Leadon and Jim Lenahan -- to come out to their house for tryouts. After Marsh had earned a spot in the band as a drummer, Campbell managed to get an impromptu tryout. He plugged in his inexpensive guitar and tore through a cover of Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode, earning a spot in the band. Marty McKnew remembers being there that night to witness this.

    Because Marty worked at a downtown flower shop, he had access to a van from work. This came in handy for Mudcrutch, as he became “their unpaid roadie for a couple of years”. Having access to transportation, he was able to drive the band and its equipment to various gigs in and around Gainesville. During this time he was there for the concerts at bars, schools and colleges – bootleg-recording some of them with the band’s permission. And he was also there for when Mudcrutch performed in the WUFT studio on the campus of the University of Florida circa January 1971 with Tom Petty on bass guitar, Randall Marsh on drums, Mike Campbell on guitar, and Tom Leadon on guitar; guesting on banjo was Bernie Leadon, who later became an Eagle. The studio was then located inside Florida Field complex, the football arena that is today named Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The studios were on the first floor in Stadium West, in the north corner. That night, David T. “Lefty” Wright video recorded what is believed to be the earliest known film of the band. 

     Should you go here, remember that this is a private home, located in a residential neighborhood. It must be treated with respect for the property owner and neighbors. It is still owned by Marty McKnew, who gave me his blessing to map this trail stop. But please know that you do not have his permission to trespass onto his property!

Photo by Shawn Murphy

704 SW 2nd Ave, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/zUbtmC2MXpwj9v639

     Now this city block contains a large medical complex and a large parking lot in the Innovation Square section of Gainesville, but this was once the location of Buchholz Junior/Senior High School. But in 1966 it became the first campus for Santa Fe Junior College, before its relocation to the northwest part of the city starting in 1972, when the use of the old Buchholz campus was gradually phased out. While SFJC still had a small presence here, Mudcrutch (with future Heartbreakers Tom Petty and Mike Campbell) had a two-night stand with two opening acts, Dreyfus and Rare Bird, at SFJC. A ticket cost $1 for either concert, on March 3 and 4, 1973.

    Mike Campbell’s friend Marty McKnee, who served as the band’s roadie for a couple of years, was at these concerts and made a bootleg recording with the band’s permission. Because Marty worked at a downtown flower shop, he had access to a van from work, which he used to drive the band and its equipment to various gigs in and around Gainesville, including these at SFJC. 

    The late sixties academic SFJC campus was bordered by West University Avenue to the north and Southwest 2nd Avenue to the south, with Southwest 7th Street to the east and Southwest 8th Street to the west.

Unknown photographer for archival picture, courtesy of Santa Fe College History Timeline website 

1001 NW 34th St, Gainesville, FL 32605

https://maps.app.goo.gl/me55mZTvYTcP3oqm9

  On the evening of March 30, 1974 in this public park, then called Westside Park (now called Albert "Ray" Massey Park), members of Mudcrutch (including Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, later the core of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) performed with members of Road Turkey (including Stan Lynch, later the first drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), members of RGF, as well as Nancy Luca (who had taken guitar lessons from Mike Campbell) and Gail Roberts (sister of Danny Roberts, then a Mudcrutch guitarist). It served as a fundraiser for Mudcrutch, which did this farewell-to-Gainesville concert before leaving town, then driving to Los Angeles for a record deal. The makeshift band called itself Tommy Ohmage and the Fantabulous Tornadoes (which was pronounced this way: "tor-NA-does" ). On stage, most band members donned sunglasses that night.

   The benefit concert came about after Tom Petty approached the Rose Community Center, a concert production enterprise formed by Bruce Nearon and Charles Ramirez, eventually assisted by Jeff Goldstein, which produced many concerts, with local and national acts, in and around Gainesville during the early 1970s. Because the Rose had produced many Mudcrutch shows from 1970-1974, there was already a relationship built with the band.

     Here is how this concert came about, according to Goldstein: "In mid-March 1974 Tom Petty came to us seeking help. At the same time we had received a call from Denny Cordell (well-respected record producer who started Shelter Records with Leon Russell in 1969 with offices in Los Angeles and Tulsa, Okla., home to the famed recording venue, The Church Studio) seeking information on Tom Petty and Mudcrutch. Tom told us the band was starving, living off peanut butter sandwiches and all they wanted to do was get in Danny Roberts', Mudcrutch guitarist, van and go to California. The Rose jumped in and with permission of the City of Gainesville produced a show ... The show was a success and the Rose Community gave all the proceeds from the show to the band for their trip..."

   Danny Roberts noted in 2019 the importance of The Rose Community in promoting Mudcrutch and helping to produce its concerts in the early seventies, including the farewell to Gainesville show. "The Rose donated all the money to our much-needed gas fund, which was very, very important in our search for fame and glory!" wrote Roberts. "They played a major role in getting us to where we wanted and needed to be, both at the local level in Gainesville and then getting us to the Rock 'n' Roll Mecca of Hollywood."

   On April Fool’s Day, April 1, 1974, Mudcrutch departed Gainesville in Benmont Tench’s mom’s station wagon, a rented U-Haul truck and a VW bus. The truck broke down at the Gainesville city limits. Later along the road, the station wagon broke down, which delayed their trip for a couple days while parts were ordered. To hear Tom Petty and Benmont talk about this cross-country adventure, see this clip from “Running Down a Dream,” the 2007 Peter Bogdanovich documentary:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=285430103747041  

   Mudcrutch would morph into the Heartbreakers, who released their first album in 1976.

   To read about this band transformation, and Tom Petty signing with Shelter Records and recording at The Church Studio, go here:

https://thechurchstudio.com/tom-pettys-journey-at-the-church-studio/  

Reproduced photo courtesy of Jeff Goldstein

1200 SW 6th St, Gainesville, FL 32601

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ckppLf9ViDNovSL6A     

     The P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School is where Stan Lynch (future drummer for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) graduated in 1973. He was also the drummer for Road Turkey, a popular Gainesville-based band in the early 1970s.     

     It is also where Mudcrutch (with future Heartbreakers Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench) performed in the school gym on June 1971 for a students-only Sock-Hop. 

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Physics Lawn just southwest of Phelps Lab on UF campus, 1953 Museum Rd, Gainesville, FL 32603

https://maps.app.goo.gl/VAmmZQPNApbDDCxA8

    Folks really like their trees at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Just since 2023, trees here have made headlines. There was the story about Hurricane Helene blowing down the 100-year-old oak alongside Norman Hall. And the story about the death of the oldest tree on campus, a 275-year-old longleaf pine near Keene-Flint Hall, which succumbed to a case of the chills in old age. Plus there was the story celebrating the decade-long streak of the Arbor Day Foundation recognizing UF with the prestigious Tree Campus status.

    On the 2,000-acre campus, approximately 1,200 trees have been marked with numbered tags. While the campus is perhaps most known for its live oaks, there are 181 documented species. One of the tree species goes by the scientific name of Nyssa ogeche, yet most commonly known as Ogeechee-lime or Ogeechee tupelo. Of these Ogeechee-lime trees, though, one stands out for its folklore – the little-known and often-overlooked tree of legend, the “Tom Petty Tree.” Located on the Physics Lawn just southwest of Phelps Lab, it stands about 40 feet tall, roughly 10 inches in diameter. 

     The tree “was theoretically planted by Tom Petty the summer he worked for the UF Grounds Department,” Erick Smith told me. Smith is today a co-owner of Kestrel Ecological Services in Gainesville, a company he helped found in 2007. Prior to that, he was essentially UF’s tree whisperer – an overseer of all the trees on campus, among them the “Tom Petty Tree.” Here’s how a 2005 profile about by UF News described him:

    “‘Erick Smith is UF’s urban forester responsible for thousands of trees blanketing the university’s 2,000-acre Gainesville campus. He acts as resident tree expert, defender, doctor, evangelist and — on occasions when a tree is sick or dying — reluctant executioner. … His list of notables includes an ogeechee lime known to senior grounds crew members as the ‘Tom Petty Tree’ because the aging rocker and Gainesville native planted it near Phelps Laboratory during a brief stint on the UF crew more than 30 years ago.’”

    In 2011, Petty said during an interview with Sirius XM that he did not remember planting the tree. The Hollywood Reporter coverage of this interview read: “There’s a tree on campus dubbed the ‘Tom Petty Tree’ that, according to legend, he planted back then. Petty dispelled that. ‘I don’t remember planting anything,’ he said with a grin.”

    One thing is for certain: Petty did work on campus for the grounds crew, so it is possible that part of his work might have included planting trees, possibly even the one today that is known as the “Tom Petty Tree.” 

    After Petty had dropped out of Santa Fe Junior College after successfully avoiding being drafted into the Vietnam War, he found himself living in his childhood home, in need of a daytime job to supplement the meager pay from the earliest gigs with Mudcrutch, when it was just a trio. So, he, along with fellow bandmate Tom Leadon, landed a job working for the University of Florida’s grounds crew for $1.25 an hour during the summer of 1970.  

    Leadon recalled this job during an interview he did with Marty Jourard for his 2016 book, Music Everywhere: The Rock and Roll Roots of a Southern Town: “I was on the paving the streets crew and painting bus stop benches, we’d spray paint the crosswalks and arrows. It would be 100 degrees with humidity and the sun would be shining down on the white paint and you put the glass beads in there that’s reflective and the sun would be hitting them. That was the hottest summer I ever spent in my life; you worked for eight hours and made like fourteen dollars. Tom was on the crew working down at Lake Alice” (pg. 53).

    Petty recalled working this grounds crew job for Warren Zanes for the 2015 book Petty: The Biography: “I just changed the screens on a water purification system they’d set up in Lake Alice. They were dredging the lake, trying to get all the water hyacinths out so there would be more oxygen in the water, which was filled with alligators, all kinds of wildlife. I had a few adventures with snakes out there.”

    Left alone to do this task, Petty would finish up then sit under a shade tree while waiting for the rest of the grounds crew to return to pick him up. When a supervisor saw him lounging rather than working at that moment, he went “ape shit,” Petty said, in both words and then actions. But firing someone required following specific university protocols, procedures and paperwork. Instead, in an attempt to push Petty into quitting the job, the supervisor reassigned Petty to progressively more mundane or physically challenging tasks. The last of these was picking up rocks around campus and putting them into a canvas bag.

    “I was dragging this bag of rocks, without any point to it,” Petty told Zanes. “The foreman was a hellacious redneck who couldn’t read – had to ask what it said on cans of paint – and he just hated me. When I asked why I was dragging these rocks around, he just said, ‘Shut up and do what I tell you.’ I finally went, ‘Okay, you win. I quit,’” (pg. 54).

   Petty would then land a job through the city’s unemployment office at a cemetery where he worked on the grounds crew.

    To read the Hollywood Reporter story about the 2011 interview in which Tom Petty said he didn’t remember planting this tree, go here:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/tom-petty-discusses-influences-career-179282/ 

    To read the interview that Marty Jourard did with Tom Leadon, in which he talks about the grounds crew job, see this page on the Gainesville Rock History website:

http://www.gainesvillerockhistory.com/TLeadon.htm

    To read the 2005 profile about Erick Smith, produced by UF News, go here:

https://archive.news.ufl.edu/articles/2005/12/university-of-florida-trees-have-a-friend-in-campus-forester.html

     To learn more about the species of trees on campus, go to this Florida Museum site:

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/herbarium/research/uf-trees/

    To learn more about Ogeechee-lime trees, read this from the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences:

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ST420

    To learn more about the death of the Norman Hall oak tree, read this WUFT article:

https://www.wuft.org/weather/2024-10-04/hurricane-helene-took-down-a-historic-live-oak-tree-at-uf-saddening-its-admirers

    To learn more about the 2023 death of the oldest campus tree, read this Independent Florida Alligator story that serves as its obituary:

https://www.alligator.org/article/2023/04/uf-oldest-tree

    To learn more about UF’s Tree Campus awards, read this UF Office of Sustainability press release:

https://sustainable.ufl.edu/2023/08/10/uf-ten-years-tree-campus/

     To learn more about the Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree Campus program for colleges, go here:

https://www.arborday.org/our-work/tree-campus-higher-education

Photo by Erick Smith