PORT ORANGE, Fla. — Tucked away in Port Orange, Dunlawton Sugar Mill Gardens isn’t just another pretty park. It’s a little slice of Florida history mixed with wild, tangled beauty and a dash of weirdness you don’t see every day.
What You Need To Know
The Dunlawton Sugar Mill Gardens blend Florida’s natural beauty with the remains of a 19th-century sugar factory once operated by enslaved workers
Volunteers and gardening enthusiasts help maintain the 10-acre property, using both traditional methods and new technology to study local plants
The site was once home to “Bongoland,” a 1940s roadside attraction featuring handmade concrete dinosaurs and other vintage curiosities
Visitors can still find several of Bongoland’s surviving dinosaurs among the gardens, including remnants of a 42-foot T-Rex preserved at the Port Orange Museum
The place once buzzed with the noise of a 19th-century sugar factory, run by enslaved workers.
Now, it’s 10 acres of quiet, filled with native plants, winding trails, and giant trees that have been standing longer than most visitors have been alive.
The gardens are always changing, thanks to a crew of about 20 dedicated volunteers who get their hands dirty every week.
People like Janet Keith, who have seen firsthand how technology is reshaping the way they care for the land.
“It’s changed gardening quite a bit using technology,” she said, pulling out her phone to show off apps that help identify the plants scattered everywhere.
Some volunteers who help maintain the gardens each week find meaning in the smallest tasks.
Debbie Miller, a regular, grins and shrugs. “Call me crazy, but I am one of those people that enjoy weeding.”
For her, it’s not a chore — it’s a kind of meditation.
For others, like Maryann Parks, the gardens are pure escape.
“It’s peaceful. I can come out here and relax and lose myself,” she said, strolling through one of the park’s dozen themed gardens.
But here is the real twist — right in the middle of all this natural beauty, you’ll stumble onto something unexpected: Bongoland.
Back in the 1940s, Perry Sperber’s dad dreamed up this unique roadside attraction, filling the place with handmade concrete dinosaurs, monkeys, birds, a train, and even an Indian village.
Most of it faded away after Bongoland shut down in 1953, but a few of those ancient dino statues still lurk in the undergrowth.
The biggest was a 42-foot T-Rex, but a hurricane finally knocked it over in 2019.
“When he fell, it was shortly after a hurricane we had in this area,” said Christine Owens from the Port Orange Museum, where the T-Rex’s tail now sits on display.
“Bongoland died in the early ’50s,” Sperber said. “And then Jackson Lloyd ended up donating this property to Volusia County.”
The Dunlawton Sugar Mill Gardens is a little bit of everything — botanical preserve, history lesson, and a nostalgia trip all rolled into one.
It’s free to wander, and parking doesn’t cost a thing.
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