In the 1950s, Charles Oliver Wellington, an accountant from Massachusetts, purchased about of central Palm Beach County swampland located south of Florida State Road 80 (locally known as Southern Boulevard) and west of U.S. Route 441. Wellington named the property Flying Cow Ranch, due to his other occupation as an aviator and his initials spelling the word "cow". The ranch became protected against floodwaters from the Everglades after the United States Army Corps of Engineers constructed a levee to south of the property between 1952 and 1953. Following his death in 1959, his son Roger inherited the property. The family sold at $300 per acre to Arthur William "Bink" Glisson, Charles' agent. Glisson sold the land for $1,000 per acre within the following several months. Many other farmers began purchasing or leasing portions of the Flying Cow Ranch in the 1960s. About were used for growing strawberries at one point, which was claimed to be the largest strawberry patch in the world.