Jacksonville's Ghost Town: Yukon

[deathstar]

Wow, what a view. I have always wondered if there is something in these walls, and I guess it never hurts to give it a shot, eh?

[Ocklawaha]

Otherwise, the Bars at San Juan and Blanding, were ROUGH places during the leather jacket grease days of the late 1950's. I knew a guy (since deceased) named Eddie that lived that life and got into a huge fight at that corner and thrown right out of the window... He looked pretty nasty when we got to Saint Vincents!

Funny all this history talk, and I woke up last night with the name of that bar... at least I think I did... Ski's or Skee's maybe Skeets. Right around the corner from San Juan and Blanding on Blanding i think. It was gray block if I recall and in the late 50's was quite the "GREASE" bike hangout.

BTW, Eddie, became family when he married my sister, they raised 3 kids before they broke up. He remained a close friend and really funny guy, devoted to Ham Radio and his own INDIAN. He was killed along Cassett Avenue, in front of the automobile strip back in the 1980's. Witnesses said it appeared something went down on the cycle and caught some pavement (kick-stand?) anyway, they saw him try and boot it up when the bike went wildly out of control into a pole. I've never been back to that road myself, someday I guess if I ever find my nephews here, we'll go see the site.

My closest nephew (nearly the same age) went to Ed White High School with the Vann Zant boyz, in fact was a friend of a couple of them. I think they were over at his place one party night, but hell, if you can remember that much of the 60-70's era, maybe I wasn't there! Nice Jacksonville boys.

OCKLAWAHA

[Jason]

I greduated from Ed White back at the turn of the century.    Man, I'm getting old!

[lamplighter]

OCKLAWAHA... you still there?

Would love to talk to you about Yukon.  I'm a avid history buff and live in Duval.  I've been to yukon and work across the street.

If you have time please drop me a line.

[duvaldude08]

Jacksonville is such an amazing city to me. I never knew that that town existed. I wonder how much it would have thrived if it were still around. Before consolidation, there were so many functioning small towns. My mom was telling that durkeyville, picketville and alot of our other "neighborhood's" were actually towns before consolidation.

[fieldafm]

Local lore says the Ortega was dredged to an extreme depth and submarine pins were built behind the Yukon Community early in the fight. I know there are old piles out in the river, but never found so much as a trail down to the water... The water IS very, very, deep.

The water back there is indeed very deep.  I never heard the submarine stories.  I'm intrigued enough to get the depth finder out now.  Ock, where are the pins located?

I fish back there.  Unfortunately, the bridge at Collins is very low and there are some huge stumps on the other side of the bridge, so getting boat traffic on the Orange Park side of the bridge is difficult.  There is still a big swimming hole/boat landing back there on the 'Jacksonville' side.  It is accessible by boat, or by 4 wheeler off Collins.

Did anyone ever used to frequent the 'Flight Deck' across the street from Yukon where the Target is now?

BTW, if you havent been to JL Trents and you like good battered fish... go!

[BridgeTroll]

A looong time ago... used to frequent Murrays(still there), Flight deck and (Golden Anchor?)

[Bill Ectric]

As a young man in the Navy, I lived in a trailer park on Timuquana Road (Ware Trailer Park?) and used to take long walks (this was back in 1979ish).  One day I made a right into a path just after (east) of the Ortega Bridge (the one that goes over the Ortega River on Timuquana) I think it was, heading South in the woods in that area.  It wasn't that dense in the brush and after about 20 minutes, I stumbled upon old over grown streets, many empty foundations, and came to the conclusion that some type of residence or town was once there; after reading this post, I now know that was Yukon.  There was even an old playground "up in there."
Interesting.

Heights Unknown, you remind me of myself when I was younger, walking and exploring. It's always fascinating to discover something new. I'm trying to figure out what's between Yukon and Blanding Blvd. I'm looking at it on Google maps satellite, it appears to be woods, then swamp, then river. I think it would make a great setting for a mystery novel. Google maps is cool.

[Ocklawaha]

Yes,  just got a lot of home projects going and thus checking in once or twice a day, but I shall return. Meanwhile ask away, and some 2 am evening I'll endeavor to answer.


OCKLAWAHA

[fieldafm]

Golden Anchor... another fine watering hole!

I do have a vivid memory of my uncles sneaking me(not quite of age) into those places one raucuuous night on sort of a Roosevelt pub crawl 

[fieldafm]

Yes,  just got a lot of home projects going and thus checking in once or twice a day, but I shall return. Meanwhile ask away, and some 2 am evening I'll endeavor to answer.


OCKLAWAHA

Do you know the approximate location in the river of these alleged sub pins?  I'd like to try to map them, see if those rumor has wings.

[jandar]

While there are some deeper holes in the Ortega, there is a huge part that is only a few feet deep, but that could be silt and such.

Either way, interesting rumor.

[Ocklawaha]

Compare the Jacksonville JEDC GIS map page aerial view with NOAA chart 11492 available online, for purchase or at:

http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/11492.shtml

Note to the Northwest corner of Yukon the chart shows a sort of hour-glass "lake".  When looking at the aerial, it appears there is an old (possibly overgrown) channel to this site, there is also an old roadway to the spot.  It could account for the "Submarine" story, but in the early war panic, anything was possible.  Remember our army was FAR smaller then that of Japan or Germany and Italy, our army air forces were a joke, our Marine Corps was barely a division strong, our Navy's main battle strength had about 50% sitting on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.

Search it out... Let's go hiking!


OCKLAWAHA

[jandar]

Thanks for the map Ock, just like I thought. Upstream there are some deeper holes.
Downstream, especially starting at the 103rd st Bridge, its mostly 3-6 feet deep.

Unless they managed to do a lot of dredging, or there has been that much silt wash, then the sub stories are just stories.


edit:
Holy crap, look at the depth in Black Creek. Some of those holes are 50+ feet. I knew I couldn't touch bottom in most places while swimming there growing up, but wow.

[Ocklawaha]

Well this is where it get's fun, I've sounded lot's of the Ortega from the area of Yukon toward Ortega Forest back in the 60's-70's. At the time I had a 40' anchor line and in many places it would just swing free. The official depth? and perhaps the WWII Navy depth?  If we were hiding something up that stream, we sure wouldn't want it charted as a channel since the wolf packs were at our door. Not only that but came ashore to buy pizza and beer!


OCKLAWAHA