Skip to main content

Ghost Town Tuesday; Yeehaw Junction and Kenansville, FL

By
Back in 2014 I often found myself using US 441 out of Orlando to reach the Miami area instead of Florida's Turnpike.  In the remote countryside of Osceola County there are two haggard old communities that are well past their primes; Yeehaw Junction and Kenansville.






Both communities have ties to the Okeechobee spur of the Florida East Coast Railroad.  Both Yeehaw Junction and Kenansville are both first observable as rail road sidings on the 1917 map of Osceola County but were likely present as early as 1914.  The shape of Osceola County was much different due to Okeechobee County not being created at some point in 1917.  Additional rail siding towns south of Holopaw to Yeehaw Junction would have also included; Illahaw, Nittaw, Apoxsee, and Lokose. 

1917 Osceola County Map

On the 1917 map of Osceola County actually has Yeehaw Junction in Indian River County.  I'm not sure if that was a surveying error or if there was some sort of land exchange because my 1921 it appears in Osceola County much as it does today.

1921 Map of Osceola County

I'm not exactly certain of the closing date of the Okeechobee Spur of the Florida East Coast Railroad but I believe it was in 1947.  By 1949 US 441 was extended south to Miami which gave some of the Okeechobee rail siding towns a second life.

USends on US 441

Interestingly Pre-1945 Florida State Road 29 was already present along the Okeechobee Spur railroad tracks south of Holopaw by 1936 as evidenced by this map of Mid-Osceola County.



Mid-Osceola County 1936

Both Kenansville and Yeehaw Junction barely hang on today with US 441 been surpassed in importance by Florida's Turnpike.  Kenansville still have a stray old bank building and a hotel called the "Heartbreak Hotel" which has been rumored to been the inspiration for the Elvis Presley song of the same name.  Kenansville is located at the junction of US 441 and County Route 523.






To the south of Kenansville at the junction of US 441 and Florida State Road 60 is Yeehaw Junction.  The primary building that stands out in Yeehaw Junction is the Desert Inn.  The Desert Inn in Yeehaw Junction was built in 1925 according to the historic signage in front of the building, there seems to have been an earlier trade post by the same name.  Apparently the Desert Inn was named for the local cattle ranchers that would frequent the establishment and it is rumored to have been a brothel at one point.  There used to be a bunch of abandoned gas stations in Yeehaw Junction which still have stray ruins on FL 60.







Labels:

Comments

Cape Kennedy Retail said…
very sad that now the Desert Inn has basically been decimated, struck not once but now twice by inattentive tractor trailer drivers. There's even less left of the true Yeehaw Junction. The abandoned gas stations have been razed as well; there's more modern gas stations being constructed there too, a Pilot already open and a Racetrac under construction, which will likely drive the last "old" gas station, a BP in a former Stuckey's, out of business. Yeehaw Junction is really on track to become a true ghost town within the next decade or two.
6:47 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bleriot Ferry - Alberta

By
  Alberta operates six ferries scattered throughout the province. Roughly twenty to twenty-five kilometers up the Red Deer River from the town of Drumheller is one of the most scenic ferry crossings in all of Wild Rose Country, the Bleriot Ferry. Using the North Dinosaur Trail (Alberta Highway 838, or AB 838), the Bleriot Ferry provides a scenic river cruise of sorts in the Canadian Badlands. The Bleriot Ferry started operating in 1913 as the Munson Ferry when a few bridges crossed the Red Deer River. The ferry was started by Andre Bleriot, the brother of famed early aviator Louis Bleriot, who became famous for being the first person to fly over the English Channel. At the time, the Alberta provincial government commissioned local residents to run the ferries. There were several ferries along the Red Deer River, and not only did they serve as vital transportation links, but they also served as local social hubs, since everyone had to take the ferries to go places. Over time, as the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

By
In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...
4 comments
Read more

I-73/I-74 and NC Future Interstates Year in Review 2024

By
Welcome to another annual review of progress in constructing North Carolina's New and Future Interstate routes. While 2024 was not too exciting, with no new segments of major routes opening, there was 1 new interstate signing, another proposed new interstate route, and the near opening of a new segment for 2 routes. As tradition, I will start off with a review of what happened with I-73 and I-74 and then move on to the major news of the year about the other new and future routes. Work continued on the I-73/I-74 Rockingham Bypass through the year. The last few months have been hoping for news of its opening before 2025, without luck. Signs of its near completion included the placement of new signs, many with interstate shields uncovered, along the Bypass and intersecting roadways. For example, these went up along US 74 East: Overhead signage at Business 74 exit which contains the future ramp to I-73 North/I-74 West. Signage was also updated heading west on US 74 approaching the unop...
Post a Comment
Read more