Inspired by the completion of the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railroad (CH&N) in 1907, land speculator John Milton Murdock (1867-1925) platted the village of Murdock in 1914. Located at the southwest intersection of US 41 (Tamiami Trail) and the CH&N, the area known as Murdock was once home to a hotel, general store, post office, CH&N loading dock, and a two-story railroad depot. This area housed Irish railroad workers who lived in two rows of small frame houses. Advertised as a farming colony of 10-acre plots, John Murdock soon realized this area was too wet for year-round agriculture. He petitioned for DeSoto County Commission to establish a drainage district and constructed drainage canals that ran from Murdock to Charlotte Harbor. The canals drained the land so well they needed expensive irrigation during the drier winter months.