Fort McCoy, Florida

Fort McCoy is an unincorporated community in Marion County, Florida, United States. It is situated northeast of Ocala and lies between the towns of Sparr and Eureka on County Road 316 and is directly north of Silver Springs on County Road 315. The community is part of the Ocala Metropolitan Statistical Area.GeographyFort McCoy is located at.The community is located west of the Ocala National Forest.HistoryFort McCoy was originally named Fort Mackay. MacKay and MacCoy were both settlers in the area who were killed by Indians during the war. The town of Fort McCoy is named after the settler Jeb MacCoy but spelled differently. When hostilities with Native Americans worsened, Jeb MacCoy was killed by Indians while bringing his family into Fort Russell. Captain Mackay was head of the local militia, and was killed while surveying Itonia Scrub on March 20, 1839.EducationThe first school in Fort McCoy was supposedly a log cabin that was built near the fort; and it is thought to have been abandoned during the Second Seminole War. When the Union Church was built near the Fort McCoy Cemetery, it was used as the school, with church services on the weekends. Sometime between the 1890s and the first decade of the 1900s, a wooden building was built to serve as the school. In 1935, this building was destroyed in a fire. A small new school (to serve the approximate 75 pupils at the time) was built on the land donated by Dr Percy F. Lisk, which was right in front of the old schools location. The new brick school opened in 1936. The earliest known student grade levels are from the 1940s, when the school was known as Fort McCoy High School.