Skip to main content

Ghost Town Tuesday; The Ghost Towns of Lake Okeechobee

The 1928 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane was the second most deadly in U.S. history behind the 1900 Galviston Hurricane.  The Category 5 Hurricane first hit Puerto Rico before moving to Florida with winds sustained at 160 MPH.  The path of the hurricane took it directly over Lake Okeechobee which is the largest lake in Florida and headwaters of the Everglades.  The Lake Okeechobee Hurricane raised the water level by at least 20 feet and wiped out many of the surrounding communities.

In total it is estimated that there was at least 2,500 fatalities related to the Lake Okeechobee Hurricane in Florida.   A general list of the communities destroyed by the Lake Okeechobee Hurricane include; Port Mayaca, Sand Cut, Canal Point, Pahokee, Belle Glade, South Bay, Okeelanta, Bean City, Ritta Island, Lake Harbor, Chosen, and Kreamer Island.  Some communities like Belle Glade eventually were rebuilt but others became ghost towns largely wiped clean. 

In response to the Lake Okeechobee Hurricane the Herbert Hoover Dike was built around the lake to a modern height of approximately 20 feet.  The Dike was eventually expanded to almost completely encircle the lake which allowed only shipping to occur via flood control locks.  Most of the communities destroyed by the Lake Okeechobee Hurricane were in the sugar fields on the south side of the lake in Palm Beach County in the sugar cane fields of the Everglades watershed.

Okeelanta was located approximately at the junction of US Route 27 and Palm Beach County Route 827.   At it's peak by 1920 Okeelanta had an approximate population of 200.  A rebuilding attempt in Okeelanta was attempted but ultimately failed due to a lack of investors.  There is a sugar refining facility located near the Okeelanta town site which bears the name of the community.  The only other structure of interest is the abandoned Gatorama on US 27.




Port Mayaca was located east side of Lake Okeechobee in Martin County on what became US 441/98.  Port Mayaca ultimately became the location of the most burials following the 1928 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane due to the slightly higher elevation over the lake.  US 441/98 used to run on Old Conners Highway through Port Mayaca but it was raised to a new alignment following the completion of local locks.  Port Mayaca regrew enough that it warranted Post Office service until 1958.  The white home pictured below was once the community hotel called the Cypress Lodge.



Kreamer Island is located immediately west of Florida State Road 715 on the southeast shore of Lake Okeechobee. Kreamer Island was settled in the 19th century and was one of the first communities settled around Lake Okeechobee.  Kreamer Island faced various large scale floods related to hurricanes in the 1920s but the 1928 Hurricane was the death knell.  Upon the completion of the Herbert Hoover Dam road access to Kreamer Island was cut off.  Various overgrown roadways and grades can be observed on Kreamer Island via satellite.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

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

Route 75 Tunnel - Ironton, Ohio

In the Ohio River community of Ironton, Ohio, there is a former road tunnel that has a haunted legend to it. This tunnel was formerly numbered OH 75 (hence the name Route 75 Tunnel), which was renumbered as OH 93 due to I-75 being built in the state. Built in 1866, it is 165 feet long and once served as the northern entrance into Ironton, originally for horses and buggies and later for cars. As the tunnel predated the motor vehicle era, it was too narrow for cars to be traveling in both directions. But once US 52 was built in the area, OH 93 was realigned to go around the tunnel instead of through the tunnel, so the tunnel was closed to traffic in 1960. The legend of the haunted tunnel states that since there were so many accidents that took place inside the tunnel's narrow walls, the tunnel was cursed. The haunted legend states that there was an accident between a tanker truck and a school bus coming home after a high school football game on a cold, foggy Halloween night in 1

The Lincoln Highway Bridge Rails

The Lincoln Highway Bridge Rails are presently located at the eastbound truck parking area near Mile Marker 6 of Interstate 80 in Washoe County, Nevada.  These bridge rails were part of the Mogul Road culvert which was completed in 1914 as part of the Northern Branch of the Lincoln Highway.  The railings were intended to be a common feature of the Lincoln Highway but ultimately were only installed at one other location in Tama, Iowa.  During 1926 US Route 40 would be carried for a time through the Lincoln Highway Bridge Rails.  The bridge rails were abandoned during a realignment of US Route 40 during the 1930s but were ultimately salved during the construction of Interstate 80 in 1970.  Part 1; the history of the Lincoln Highway Bridge Rails During 1912 Indiana Businessman Carl G. Fisher conceptualized the Lincoln Highway as a major transcontinental Auto Trail.  The Lincoln Highway was formally dedicated on October 31, 1913, and was aligned west of Fallon via split branches over the S