Gumbo-limbo trees are massive and almost indestructible. They were used in the early years of Florida development as starting stakes for county surveys. Legend has it that a gumbo-limbo tree was used in the 1800s when the Juno area was first surveyed. Years later, when the land was again surveyed for the Celestial Railroad, the tree had surprisingly disappeared. A second gumbo-limbo tree was chosen, but it too had vanished by the time a survey was undertaken in 1918 for US1. This time the engineers took no chances, placing a concrete monument as a starting point for their survey. This monument too had disappeared when the area was again surveyed in 1948. The “lost tree” legend appealed to Llwyd Ecclestone when he heard it in the late 1950s. Mr. Ecclestone decided that “Lost Tree” would be an intriguing name for the golf club he was developing in northern Palm Beach County.