Yeehaw Junction, Florida: a town time continues to forget

 Desert Inn was added to the National Register of
Historic Places in 1994. Florida State Archives/McDonald

By Jane Feehan

Yeehaw Junction. The name draws a smile from those who pass its exit along Florida's Turnpike. This town of fewer than 300 serves as a stopping point for gas and at one time, tickets for Orlando tourist attractions, food and lodging.

Located in Osceola County, some 75 miles south of Orlando in Florida’s cattle belt, this tiny town of ranchers seems to be a place that time continues to forget. Even the genesis of its name is forgotten. A few thought it was an Indian name; others say it was a call used to move donkeys or oxen along in their work at logging camps. Some say it was named Crossroads in the 1940s because it sat at the junction of SR 60 and U.S. 441. For years, truckers called it Jackass Junction, and may still do. A Standard Oil gas station owner once told a tale about cleaning up the name Jackass for an oil company map maker to Yeehaw Junction. It stuck.

The site of a few gas stations, a motel and now the closed Desert Inn, the town, at this writing, has no police or fire station, bank or schools. Legend says it once served as a cattle trail stop and an Indian trading post in the 1800s. In fact, Yeehaw Junction sat along the Okeechobee branch of the Florida East Coast Railway, which had set up one of its many water depots nearby (there were many along the railway’s route). The branch closed decades ago, lowering the curtain on its development.

While South Florida growth led the nation during the 1950s, Yeehaw Junction remained static. In 1960, Miami real estate titan J.A. Cantor bought much of the town’s leased property and set out to create Central City. Billboards proposed a modern community with amenities alien to residents, but for whatever reasons, plans fell to the wayside.  

Stuckey's at Yeehaw Junction 1960
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

In 2002, the Pentagon revealed Yeehaw Junction was a secret test site (among 27) for biological warfare. In 1968, during the height of the Cold War, wheat rust, a variety of Puccinia graminis, was sprayed over fields four times in hopes of developing a fungus strong enough to kill wheat crops of an enemy during warfare.

During the 1980s, state officials proposed a 122-room Yeehaw Junction motel be converted to a 200-man prison. Though a few residents hoped a prison would boost job growth and its economy, others joked the town would be known as “Jailhouse Junction.” The proposal failed.

Since then, travelers and truckers continue to stop for gas and restrooms. Its Desert Inn, first built in 1889, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The only place in town for nightlife and reasonable food, the inn recently closed. A voicemail message at the establishment says it’s closed indefinitely. In 2019, a truck with an orange juice cargo ran through an intersection into the building, severly damaging the structure.

Boom times again come to Florida—again sidestepping Yeehaw Junction. Developers and potential residents might be interested the town sits 69 feet above sea level, not prone to flooding.

Sources

Fort Lauderdale News, Sept. 25, 1960

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 17, 1986

Tampa Tribune, Jan. 24, 1995

Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 10, 2002

Tampa Bay Times, Dec. 22, 2019

WPTV.com 2019

Tags: Florida history, Yeehaw Junction, Florida’s Turnpike, Jane Feehan, film researcher, Florida development, Osceola County, National Register of  Historic Places, biological warfare

Fort Lauderdale traffic solution nixed: Tri-Level Interchange at Gateway Center,1963

Gateway Interchange 1963 · Mon, Jan 7, 1963 – 29 · Fort Lauderdale News (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) · Newspapers.com
By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale traffic jams have long vexed residents, visitors and city officials.  During the late 1940s and 1950s, the city could boast it had the worst traffic snarl in the state until the completed Henry E. Kinney Tunnel carried U.S. Route 1 under New River in 1960. That solution fared better than the proposed Tri-Level Interchange at Gateway did in 1963.

According to news that year, accidents in the city with the highest property damage occurred at Gateway Center at Sunrise Boulevard. The State Road Department offered a solution at a city commission meeting in January, 1963—a Tri-Level Interchange at Gateway. Engineering firm Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff presented a rendering of an interchange that was to cost $1.4 million and take about a year and a half to build.

Before the month ended, city notable Jack Gore, whose father Robert H. Gore opposed the Kinney Tunnel, opined in the Fort Lauderdale News that property devaluation would occur in that area if the interchange materialized. He also said traffic was most congested along North Federal Highway between the Jefferson Store and Oakland Park Boulevard and from Sunrise Boulevard east from Gateway to Bayview Drive. (Sound familiar?) By March 1963, 82 businessmen had banned together to protest the interchange. It would, they claimed, isolate Gateway from northeast Fort Lauderdale, disrupt business for a year and a half and would cost too much. Besides, newly installed—and much cheaper—traffic lights were already driving accident stats downward.

The Tri-Level Interchange never came about; it would soon give way to concerns about other interchanges along the turnpike and I-95. But the traffic? The same snarls along Federal Highway now join a growing list of others in Fort Lauderdale.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose or … the more things change they stay the same … right?

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, Fort Lauderdale traffic

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 7, 1963

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 20, 1963

Fort Lauderdale News, March 25, 1963

Largest electric road sign in U.S. - Vero Beach 1925

Early Vero Beach, Indian River
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Seems the citizens of Vero, as it was called in its early days, had big plans for their tiny community in 1925. On January 10 of that year, town notables, residents and guests gathered to dedicate the “largest electric road sign in the United States.” It bore the slogan— still used today—Vero, where the tropics begin.

Erected at the corner of Dixie Highway and Seminole Drive (then the main street through Vero) the illuminated sign spanned 50 feet, stood 10 feet high and was suspended 40 feet above the pavement. The sign was built for $2,000, a hefty sum for that time. It was paid for by residents and property owners.

Among the guests that day was Chicago developer Frank Croissant, who had established a reputation in Fort Lauderdale as developer of several communities, including Croissant Park.  No doubt, the people of Vero had high hopes for similar development in their town. The Fort Lauderdale News touted Croissant as the “greatest city builder of the country.”

Vero Beach today, near the ocean

The unveiling of the sign, which was “illuminated more elaborately than anything of its kind in the history of Florida,” was celebrated with a three-gun salute and 25 shrieking sirens, a live band and street dance.

The town, established in 1919, remained a sleepy agricultural center for decades.

Today with subdued (compared to that of South Florida), development of elegant communities, Vero Beach is home to Piper Aircraft and a growing list of celebrities—including Gloria Estefan—seeking a quiet alternative to the traffic and congestion of Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

Sources: 

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 9, 1926

COVB.org

Wikipedia

Tags: Vero Beach history, Fort Lauderdale history, Frank Croissant, Vero Beach

More restaurants, nightspots of the 1960s - Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale,  Broward County ... South Florida ... all were booming in the 1960s. Below are ads from some of the popular dining and club spots of 1962-1965. None remain open.  For a more comprehensive list, see:
http://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2014/04/those-1960s-fort-lauderdale-night-spots.html

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale nightspots, Fort Lauderdale restaurants

Sears story in Fort Lauderdale didn't begin with Searstown

Andrews Avenue 1939
Florida State Archives/ Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

Sears, Roebuck and Company, founded in 1886, has had its ups and downs over the years. The largest retailer in the United States until 1989, it now occasionally announces store closings.  Fort Lauderdale residents wonder if Searstown on Federal Highway at Sunrise will be shutting its doors. Now they know. In January 2022  the landmark department store announced it is closed after 66 years. 

Few know the history of Sears in Fort Lauderdale; it did not begin with Searstown.

Sears opened its first Fort Lauderdale store Jan. 7, 1937 at 101 S. Andrews Ave. Mayor Lewis Moore (in office 1937-39) officiated at the event along with Chamber of Commerce President J.D. Camp. A reported 2,000 residents “thronged” to the 19,000 sq. foot store. With plenty of product lines to choose from, the store also operated an automotive department offering free tire and battery servicing to those who purchased the products at Sears. Opening day was so busy Store Manager E.E. Carroll summoned additional help to assist at registers and in the aisles.

Sears’ business continued to expand in the growing city. In 1955 the new Searstown opened at 901 N. Federal Hwy where it entered memories of current long-time residents. The transition day between the closing of the store on South Andrews and the opening on Federal was the first business day Sears had closed in the 18 years it had been in Fort Lauderdale.

Searstown, touted as having plenty of parking--and always had--was anchor store to a collection of 15 other businesses by 1958: grocer Piggly Wiggly (second largest in the center), Billet Doux Card Shop, Stevens Bakery, Dr. Harold S. Doubleday, optometrist, Pribbles Jewelry, Searstown Beauty Salon, Chat-N-Nibble Sandwich Shop, Deluxe Barber Shop, Monty’s 5 & 10, Gift Box, Broward Drug and Surgical Supply, the Religious Shop, Dr. William Migden, physician and surgeon, and Town Properties Realty.

By 1958, Searstown was upgraded in the Sears roster of highest revenue producers to number 75 out of its top 122 stores. I wonder how it ranks today … 

Update:

Sun-Sentinel Nov 7, 2023

Denver-based Aimco announces plans to develop three mixed-use towers on the property. 

As of early 2024, the property has been cleared.

Oct. 15, 2018 national story on Sears bankruptcy filing.
 http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/ct-biz-sears-bankruptcy-20181015-story.html

Update: Sun-Sentinel 5/14/23

Plans uncertain for closed Searstown. RK Centers has already bought/sold the property. Another developer, Aimco, has proposed tamed down version of the first: 797 apts instead of 954, three towers instead of four but city doesn't like it. Not spectacular enough. Dubbed 901 North, the new plan presents no "gravitas" as city entrance. ( JF note: Now Mayor T is worried about traffic impact. Now, he's worried. Others worry about lack of infrastructure to support it ... now they're worried). Anyway, nothing for 2023 project start. 

Searstown closed January 2022 to make way for a $400 million mixed use project of apartments (condos?), offices and retail space by RK Developers. The project is expected to begin mid 2023. Get ready for even more traffic nightmares.

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-ne-fort-lauderdale-searstown-closes-20220122-koppuu6pcjfpjakv5t2qdmmjba-story.html

Update January 2024:

Searstown completely torn down.

Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 6, 1937

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 7, 1937

Fort Lauderdale News, Aug. 10, 1958

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, History of Fort Lauderdale, Florida retail history, South Florida history, Broward County history, About Fort Lauderdale

Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale's Victoria Park - then and now

January 1925

This advertisement came out less than two years before the devastating hurricane of 1926. It was the storm that ushered in the Great Depression in Florida before it cast its shadow across most other states.

And today? Recent sales include homes from $490,000 to well over $1 million. Others on the water fetch the highest prices. The area, which sits behind the Gateway Theater and along the Middle River, includes 30 percent of Fort Lauderdale's historically significant properties. About 7,000 residents call this beautiful neigborhood home.




Tags: Fort Lauderdale neighborhoods, Fort Lauderdale history, Victoria Park

Florida's floating islands

Pulling a floating island 1920
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan 

Lakes with floating islands dot the globe in countries with marshlands, notably in Tasmania, Brazil, Congo, Burma, The Netherlands and the United States.

Central Florida touts a number of these "islands," attracting the interest of tourists and scientists.

Orange Lake, located in Florida’s Alachua and Marion counties, and part of the St. Johns River system, floats several of these aquatic wildlife habitats. In 1937 this body of water made headlines and postcards as “Lake of a Thousand Floating Islands.”

A floating island, or tussock, comprised of plant root systems of cattails, reeds, bulrush and other species, occurs when water runs too deep for roots to reach bottom, so they orient toward the surface for oxygen. Some islands are small, others expand to acres in size and grow trees. One island with a maple tree was featured decades ago in Robert Ripley’s Believe it or Not compendium of the bizarre. Some say these island trees serve as sails when windy, eerily moving a root system across the water. Documented as growing eight to 50 inches in diameter, island-dwelling trees generally live a decade or two.

Floating islands in Florida serve as home to raccoons, aquatic rabbits, a variety of birds and at times, alligators. Bass fisherman and tourists flock to Orange Lake, which loses about 30 percent of its water each year through a network of sinkholes, an important feature of the area’s hydrology.

Orange Lake may be the best known Florida lake for floating islands but others are located in Lake Yarbo in Winter Garden, and Lake Buckeye and Lake Idyl in Winter Haven. Anglers find floating islands to be a nuisance. So does the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Invasive Plant Management, which spent more than $18 million in 2004-2006 for cleaning up organic buildup adversely affecting fish and wildlife habitats. BIPM is the largest program in managing invasive species on public lands in the U.S.

Map of Osceola County
David Benbennick, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

Tourist attraction or nuisance, Florida’s floating islands add to the area’s semi-tropical mystique.  

Sources:

Ocala Star Banner, Dec. 28, 1953

Ocala Star Banner, Jul. 31, 1986

St. Johns Water Management District

Wikipedia

University of Florida

Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Florida, floating islands, history, Orange Lake