Ellaville Ghost Town: Florida’s Boomtown the River Took Back

Historic marker at Ellaville Ghost Town in North Florida, marking the site of a former lumber boomtown along the Suwannee River.

Introduction: Where the River Still Waits There are places that vanish quietly, and then there are places like Ellaville—towns that don’t disappear so much as sink. Tucked along a bend of the Suwannee River, Ellaville was once one of Florida’s most prosperous lumber towns. In the late 1800s, steam whistles echoed through the trees, steamboats … Read more