Florida Ghost Towns
I was recently sent a copy of a new book “Historic Photos of Florida Ghost Towns” by Steve Rajtar and have to say it’s a very interesting journey through Florida’s history.
If you decide to pick up copy of the book you should be aware that it has nothing to do with ghosts, ghouls or the supernatural but everything to do with exploring Florida as it once was.
Author Steve Ratjar has previously written books with such titles as “Historic Photos of Florida Tourist Attractions” and “Historic Photos of the University of Florida” so it goes without saying that the material in his latest book is extremely well researched and documented.
The book is broken down into several chapters but the one’s I found to be of particular interest were the chapters on “Disastrous Weather” and “Absorbed by Another City”.
The chapter on “Disastrous Weather’ reveals much about Florida’s climate and how dangerous it actually can be. It also focuses on the problems that freezes have on an area not normally known for cold weather and exposes the real life drama of what losing a crop and a livelihood can mean to an area.
The chapter on areas being “Absorbed by Another City” is also interesting and focuses on towns that are now often only memorialized on road signs…if they are memorialized at all. I also enjoyed the story of George K. End who made a place called “Rattlesnake” famous… and of course, you can guess how he met his real end!
Overall the book is well worth a read. In a day and age when things move so fast it’s good to look back on the past and realize how fortunate we are now. The book features over 200 towns and places that have long since disappeared or plain vanished… it’ll be interesting to look back in 100 years time and see the MKII version of Florida Ghost Towns and to see which thriving places disappear from the map… and that, of course, is the whole point of this excellent book.
The one improvement I would make to the book though…is to put a small map of where each town is on the page of the photo…it would be so much nicer to see exactly where they are!
Thanks greatly to Megan Munroe for sending me a copy. You can pick up your own copy from Amazon by clicking the link below.
