Wild Florida Safari Drive Thru Park owner Sam Haught is our St. Cloud FL Business Spotlight this month. Jeanine Corcoran broker for Corcoran Connect interviews Sam in this month’s episode. Welcome to the 30th episode of Discover St. Cloud Florida.
Kristin asked Jeanine to describe her experience with Sam Haught at Wild Florida. Jeanine said did you know they have been in business for 13 years? Kristin said she didn’t realize that. She also loved the fact that what Sam went through is a “rags to riches” type of story that was born out of hardship.
Jeanine stated that Wild Florida is so close to where she lives yet it is in Kenansville. It is literally right across the line from Saint Cloud. Kristin added how great it is to be able to go to a wild animal park in Florida and enjoy the sights from the comfort of your own vehicle with the air conditioning on during the summer.
Wild Florida Safari Drive Thru Park is located at 3301 Lake Cypress Rd Kenansville, FL 34739. Kristin shared their website address which is WildFloridaAirBoats.com. They have so much to offer families, especially kids. Here is the interview with Sam Haught from Wild Florida.
Jeanine’s first question of Sam was how long has Wild Florida been in business? Sam replied that they have been in business for 13 years and he couldn’t believe it has been that long. Jeanine followed up and asked him why he decided to do this business. Sam said that it started with real estate.
He continued that they were in the real estate development business, and they were buying up properties and titling them and converting them or selling them. Then the market fell apart in 2008 and they had all this property that they owned. He stated that they were okay sitting on it but we said why don’t we figure out something we can do on this property that we own.
Sam continued and said that they started dreaming up these ideas to do with attraction and started with a dude ranch. He said it was born out of their love for the outdoors. Whenever we have people come into town, they would take them out on the airboats and have some fun. They knew that this was where their heart and passion were and wanted to build on it. Jeanine asked Sam if it was the airboats that started everything that is now called Wild Florida. Sam said yes, the airboats started everything.
Jeanine then followed up and asked what came next. Sam said they bought the property. It was 15 acres, and it had an airboat operator on it when we first bought the fish camp. We continued to let him operate the airboats for a couple of years until we were ready and then we took that over. Then, he said, eventually the park over time developed into what it is today.
Jeanine shared with Sam that she had thought that Wild Florida was a part of Saint Cloud Florida. She was surprised when she found out it was located in Kenansville. Sam said that Wild Florida is actually right on the border of Saint Cloud and Kenansville. They are literally 100 years away from being in St Cloud zip codes. He said they promote their business as being from Saint Cloud.
Jeanine asked Sam if he was a resident of St. Cloud and he answered that he was. He lives on Lake Lizzie and loves it. Sam said he loves everything about Saint Cloud. He continued that Osceola County is where they wanted to start their business. He said they looked all over Central Florida and decided on this area for their airboat business as it doesn’t get any prettier than this.
We hope you enjoyed Jeanine interviewing Sam Haught of Wild Florida Safari Drive Thru Park as our featured St. Cloud FL business spotlight. This will continue to be a monthly focus for the Discover St. Cloud Florida podcast.
