Florida Ghost Towns

How does a Florida ghost town exist in one of the fastest growing states in our country? Many early Florida towns were located near natural resources. These communities grew up to house and support companies and people who turned the resources into products. There were towns that relied on fishing, clams, lumber, phosphate, citrus, cattle, oysters, watermelons, celery, and other products of sea and earth. There were also boom time towns that were really just lot sales programs. Many of these towns barely got off the ground when they collapsed during the Florida land sale bust that preceded the Great Depression. As natural resources were exhausted or economic depression, hurricanes, and freezes slammed into the state, many of these towns folded and mostly disappeared. Railroads closed, highways were built that bypassed the town, other things happened that made the town only a footnote in history.