The ghost towns of Northeast Florida's past

[Tacachale]

Here's a cool story about ghost towns in the area from the FTU:

The American West doesn't have a monopoly on ghost towns. Northeast Florida may not have tumbleweeds or abandoned silver mines, but it does have its share of places time forgot.

In fact, according to the nationwide index maintained by Ghosttowns.com, Florida has the most ghost towns of any state east of the Mississippi River, with no fewer than 241. It's probably fair to say that number has as much to do with the Sunshine State's large population as it does with the peninsula's propensity for inspiring half-baked dreams of grandeur.

Interactive: Check out maps and photos of ghost towns in Northeast Florida

What follows are some local ghost towns that stand out. The Times-Union's rules for assembling this list were intentionally loose. Ghosttowns.com helped, but some local knowledge also played a role.

By the way, the list is by no means comprehensive. So all you Orange Bluffians can pocket those angry letters.

Crandall: Nassau sawmill town until Virginia pine was gone

Location: About two miles east of the Interstate 95 bridge over the St. Marys River; at the end of Crandall Road in northern Nassau County.

Heyday: At least 15 future ghost towns sprouted in Nassau during the late 19th and early 20th centuries around a sawmill. They boasted a company store and church, and most also had a post office and cemetery. Crandall was a prime example. The firm of L.A. Davis and Brothers began buying land in 1895. The town, named after its postmaster, grew to about 200 souls.

Undoing: The center couldn't hold. Like the other sawmill hamlets scattered around Nassau, Crandall's townspeople moved on when the virgin yellow pine was exhausted. The large mill closed sometime before 1921. The Davises sold their 45,000 acres to Rayonier in 1937.

Remnants: Crandall Road was built on the bed of the logging railroad that led to the small town. The buildings have long since given over to wilderness.

Sources: "Yesterday's Reflections II" by Jan Johannes; Clyde Davis, a Fernandina Beach attorney and great-grandson of one of the founders.





Yukon: Westside area full of military housing, more

Location: West side of Roosevelt Boulevard, across from Jacksonville Naval Air Station.

Heyday: A bustling bastion of military housing during the early and mid-20th century that included a 300-home development, train depot, assorted businesses, a Baptist church and post office (where mail was stamped with a Yukon seal). In its early days, the community was based closer to the St. Johns River on land now part of the base.

Undoing: A naval decree that ordered the community closed in 1963 as a flight and safety hazard.

Remnants: The sprawling Tillie Fowler Regional Park now occupies much of the area. Signs of old roads and sidewalks peek through the wilderness. Several businesses in the area still bear the Yukon name.

Source: Metrojacksonville.com





Rollestown: Palatka area social experiment failed

Location: 78,000 acres along the eastern shore of the St. Johns River in Putnam County, stretching from the present-day tip of East Palatka at the U.S. 17 bridge to Crescent Lake near San Mateo.

Heyday: Founded by a former member of British Parliament named Denys Rolle, Rollestown operated as a New World social experiment. Shortly after acquiring the property in 1765, Rolle dispatched the first of several boatloads of white indentures, populating the community with a rag-tag collection of shiftless debtors and low-level criminals. Most fled. Rolle eventually imported about 200 African slaves, who succeeded in clearing and cultivating about 600 acres and refurbishing his mansion.

Undoing: Hubris and geopolitics. Rolle's bizarre stewardship had all but ruined the tiny settlement; the Treaty of Paris in 1783 mercifully offered him a means of escape. The treaty ended the Revolutionary War and transferred control of Florida from Great Britain to Spain.

Remnants: A historical marker at a wayside park south of East Palatka on U.S. 17 tells the story of Rolle and his dream of a swampy utopia.

Source: University of North Florida's Florida History Online project





Boulogne: It was once first stop for tourists in Florida

Location: U.S. 1 just south of the Florida-Georgia border in Nassau County.

Heyday: Boulogne emerged as the first Florida stop of the Savannah, Florida and Western Railroad in 1881. As for the name, one theory is that the hamlet was named after the French city that lies on the south side of the English Channel from Britain's Folkestone. (The St. Marys River separates Florida's Boulogne from Georgia's Folkston to the north.) By 1882, Boulogne was home to 33 families with 150 people. The town was destroyed in an 1896 hurricane and rebuilt one mile to the north. In the 1920s, it migrated from the rail line with the paving of Kings Road (now U.S. 1-301). Well into the 1960s, the town served as a tourist stopover. A state welcome station, a Stuckey's and several motels once lined the highway.

Undoing: Interstate 95. The construction of I-95 several miles to the east in the 1960s left Boulogne to fade into highway history. What's more, the city incorporated in 1955 but was stripped of its charter eight years later. By then, Boulogne had become a notorious speed trap. According to local lore, anyone with an out-of-county license plate was sure to be pulled over, as the speed limit plummeted from 55 to 35 at the state line.

Remnants: Green road signs still denote Boulogne's location on either side of town, and plenty of folks still live in the area. But most of the tourist amenities, including the welcome center, have been razed or boarded up, lending the community its ghostly atmosphere. The St. Mary's Motel, which once billed itself as the South's largest, is now an assisted-living facility for people with schizophrenia and similar disorders.

Source: "Yesterday's Reflections II"





West Tocoi: Rrailroad down east coast ended clay site

Location: Near the present-day intersection of County Roads 209 and 214 in southeast Clay County.

Heyday: West Tocoi was a late 19th century transportation hub. From 1870 to 1892, it was the dropoff for passengers of the Tampa-to-Jacksonville railroad who wanted to head to St. Augustine. At West Tocoi, they rode a ferry to the east side of the St. Johns River to a landing aptly known as Tocoi.

Undoing: Henry Flagler's railroad down Florida's east coast enabled travelers to bypass West Tocoi. The railroad spur from Tocoi to St. Augustine had closed by 1895.

Remnants: Not much. A low-slung, dilapidated building along 209 once housed workers from a nearby turpentine plant. Across the street, a pair of wooden buildings moulder in the shade of towering live oaks. Green road signs label 209 as West Tocoi Road as the two-lane ribbon of asphalt nears its terminus at the Putnam County community of Bostwick.

Sources: Ghosttowns.com; Claude Bass, Clay County archivist





Fort Mose: Escaped slaves given community by Spanish

Location: Two miles north of St. Augustine in present-day Fort Mose Historic State Park.

Heyday: Fort Mose (pronounced Moh-say) was the first legally sanctioned African community in the United States. In 1738, the Spanish gave sanctuary at Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose to escaped slaves from the British colonies in the Carolinas. About 100 Africans populated the settlement, which included a log fort, houses and fields. The community formed a militia, which served as St. Augustine's northern defense. Ahead of a 1740 British attack, the people of Fort Mose fled to St. Augustine. The militia joined Spanish forces in orchestrating a surprise attack that recaptured the fort and left 68 British dead.

Undoing: Britain took possession of Florida in 1763, and the residents of Fort Mose departed for Cuba.

Remnants: No earthen or wooden structures remain, but the site is preserved as a state park that includes a boardwalk and museum.

Source: Fort Mose Historical Society

By Jeremy Cox.


http://jacksonville.com/entertainment/2011-07-17/story/ghost-towns-northeast-floridas-past

[thelakelander]

Nice to see Metro Jacksonville used as a resource!

[JaxNative68]

Can we keep downtown Jacksonville off this list?

[Tacachale]

Nice to see Metro Jacksonville used as a resource!

Very true! What is the link to that article?

[Tacachale]

My favorite of these ghost towns is West Tocoi, due to the placename history.

Tocoy was the name of a Timucua village on the east side of the St. Johns River in the 16th and 17th century. The village was probably originally part of the chiefdom known as the Utina, later known as the Agua Dulce (Freshwater) people. After the founding of St. Augustine in 1565, people from Tocoy converted to Christianity, and the chief moved to a new village near the city called San Sebastian. The twin villages became their own minor chiefdom independent of the Agua Dulce political structure, and were among the first Timucua towns to have missions.

Tocoy was an important ferry station, allowing the Spanish access to the interior of Florida from St. Augustine. However, its population declined and it was abandoned before 1616. San Sebastian followed soon after. Still, the Spanish saw the importance of maintaining a ferry in the locality of the "River of Tocoy" (now Tocoi Creek), and relocated Indians nearby to man it. Intermittently ferries existed in the area for years.

In 1870, I'm told, a horse-drawn railway was constructed from "Tocoi" to St. Augustine. Steamboats carried people and freight down from Jacksonville, and thus the primary route between the two cities went through Tocoi. Soon after, the Jacksonville-Tampa rail line was created, and a stop was established at "West Tocoi" on the other side of the river. Passengers and goods could get out at West Tocoi and take a ferry over to Tocoi. Another stop called "Tocoi Junction" was further east. The Tocoi and West Tocoi became bustling little rail communities, and were again a crucial ferry station for the commerce of Florida.

In 1892 the Florida East Coast Railway line was completed, crossing the St. Johns at Jacksonville and running directly down to St. Augustine. The Tocoi-St. Augustine line became obsolete, and was abandoned by 1895. Part of its run is now CR 214.

There are now no physical traces of the original Timucua village of Tocoy, and little remains of the later railway incarnations. The FTU article mentions some of what still exists on the west bank; little attests to its east bank counterpart besides some pilings in the river where the docks formerly stood. But the name itself has left a mark on the landscape. The creek near the erstwhile Indian village was known as the "River of Tocoy" to the Spanish in the 17th century, and is still called "Tocoi Creek" today. Off 214 near St. Augustine, there are roads named Tocoi Road and Tocoi Terrace. The stretch of CR 209 north of Bostwick is called West Tocoi Road.

Coincidentally, Tocoy's sister village of San Sebastian is the source of the name of the San Sebastian River around St. Augustine, and other associated placenames.

Toponymy lives!

[Wacca Pilatka]

There are pictures of some of the Boulogne buildings - both in their heyday and in their dessicated pre-demolition state - in Tim Hollis' "Selling the Sunshine State."

[thekillingwax]

Just wished they would've taken the photos without that stupid hipstamatic crap, it'd be nice to be able to actually see what these places actually look like.

[thelakelander]

Nice to see Metro Jacksonville used as a resource!

Very true! What is the link to that article?

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-aug-jacksonvilles-ghost-town-yukon

[acme54321]

Not sure if you guys have checked this site out before but it has an extensive list of ghost towns all over the country.

Here's a North Florida example:
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/fl/westtocoi.html

[Ocklawaha]

Not sure if you guys have checked this site out before but it has an extensive list of ghost towns all over the country.

Here's a North Florida example:
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/fl/westtocoi.html

Nicely done site, but they leave off a large number of Ghosts in the Northeast Quadrant of Florida. Between Ocala and Jax?

Burbank
Daisy
Bay Lake
Kenwood
Kennilworth
Rodman
Silver Lake

Between Bunnel and Jax.

Dinner Island
Negrola
Roy
Yelvington
Elkton
Vermont Heights
Bakersville
Molassas Junction
Elwood

...and these just off the top of my head. Don't forget the city is built over the graves of many old towns within Duval.

Hogan
Gilmore
Greenfield
Dinsmore
Yukon, and many more.

...Also many, many, abandoned military bases, some dating to the Seminole or Civil War Period, and many from the World Wars, and often the military just walked away and left their toys all of which makes for interesting hunting.

Flemming Island NAS
Lee Field
Francis Field
Switzerland
Imeson
Paxon (private but aparently used by the military - one hanger still standing)
Brannon Field
Camp Milton
Camp Finnegan
St. Johns Bluff
Yellow Bluff
HEMMING PLAZA

Etc...

Very cool stuff.

OCKLAWAHA

[north miami]

Devils Cup and Saucer,Negro Island     Osceola National Forest,Pinhook Swamp


Webster, west of current SR 21/Blanding,north of 218,Middleburg.Collection of Plantations facing each other for defense against .....Indians.

Oakleaf.

[Tacachale]

Nice to see Metro Jacksonville used as a resource!

Very true! What is the link to that article?

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-aug-jacksonvilles-ghost-town-yukon

Awesome, thanks Lake.

[Tacachale]

Not sure if you guys have checked this site out before but it has an extensive list of ghost towns all over the country.

Here's a North Florida example:
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/fl/westtocoi.html

Nicely done site, but they leave off a large number of Ghosts in the Northeast Quadrant of Florida. Between Ocala and Jax?

Burbank
Daisy
Bay Lake
Kenwood
Kennilworth
Rodman
Silver Lake

Between Bunnel and Jax.

Dinner Island
Negrola
Roy
Yelvington
Elkton
Vermont Heights
Bakersville
Molassas Junction
Elwood

...and these just off the top of my head. Don't forget the city is built over the graves of many old towns within Duval.

Hogan
Gilmore
Greenfield
Dinsmore
Yukon, and many more.

...Also many, many, abandoned military bases, some dating to the Seminole or Civil War Period, and many from the World Wars, and often the military just walked away and left their toys all of which makes for interesting hunting.

Flemming Island NAS
Lee Field
Francis Field
Switzerland
Imeson
Paxon (private but aparently used by the military - one hanger still standing)
Brannon Field
Camp Milton
Camp Finnegan
St. Johns Bluff
Yellow Bluff
HEMMING PLAZA

Etc...

Very cool stuff.

OCKLAWAHA

They don't claim to be totally comprehensive. For example they have an entry for West Tocoi but not Tocoi, which was more important even if less of it survives of it today. Still a great site.

[Old Jim]

Ock, where is the remaining hanger at Paxon Field? When my dad was in his early teens, he saved his pennies and was able to purchase a ride with Laurie Yonge at that field in a bi-plane.