The road to Pensacola crawled that morning. Dusty and I had already conquered every cup of coffee the truck could carry before we finally reached the causeway that led into Gulf Islands National Seashore. Traffic melted away as white dunes swallowed the skyline, and the Gulf turned the color of polished glass. Somewhere under a … Read more
They didn’t just steal the papers.No—Florida’s never been one for subtle crimes. In 1891, under a moonless sky, a gang of Inverness men rolled into Mannfield, Florida, and stole the entire courthouse—records, furniture, clerk, and all. By sunrise, the county seat was gone, and Mannfield’s heart went with it. Today, little remains of this ambitious … Read more
Brooksville, Florida They say three-year-old Jessie Mae still cries for her mother inside this house—more than 160 years after she died. Visitors swear they hear her at the top of the stairs, a small, aching voice calling “Mama…” into the dark. It’s a haunting thought, isn’t it? A child’s sorrow suspended in time, echoing through … Read more
Some places whisper their stories. These caves?They echo them. Deep in the Withlacoochee Forest, two sinkholes carved into Florida’s limestone belly — Dames Cave and Peace Cave — wait like open mouths in the earth. Their edges are framed in ferns, roots dangle like veins, and the ground drops away without warning. These are some … Read more
Haunted History in the Heart of Kissimmee They still talk about the morning of January 19, 1912. The air was crisp, the crowd pressed against the picket fence, and the rope swung gently in the dawn light. When the trap gave way, a man dropped—and legend says the rope never stopped swaying. Today, workers in … Read more
There’s a hush that hangs over Orleans — a silence too even to be accidental. You feel it the moment your boots cross into the old township boundary, like the woods themselves are holding their breath, remembering. Once, this was a place on the map. Now, it’s a place you have to feel your way … Read more
Declassified with restrictions. The Launch Point Officially, I was on my way to a hackathon in Bethesda, Maryland.Unofficially, I had one stolen day, a heavy heart, and a covert objective: carve out a little space to breathe, sneak in time to explore, and begin the hunt for the historic Union Arch Bridge. Every operation needs … Read more
May 26, 2025 by Ki There’s a place just outside Marianna, Florida, where the woods grow quiet… too quiet. Where the moss hangs heavier, the air thickens, and stories refuse to stay buried. That place is Bellamy Bridge Historic Site—a stretch of haunted trail and weathered iron where the line between folklore and history blurs … Read more
Where steel meets stillness in Chattahoochee, FloridaMay 26, 2025 by Ki Some places hold their stories close, like secrets whispered to the river. River Landing Park in Chattahoochee is one of those places—a quiet, green edge of Florida where time folds in on itself and history lingers in the ripples of the Apalachicola. We didn’t … Read more
A Forgotten Crossroads of Citrus County Tucked deep in the wilds of Citrus County, Florida, where pine trees whisper old secrets and the earth remembers every footfall, lies a place called Stage Pond. What’s left of it, anyway. Blink and you’ll miss it. But linger… and the land might just whisper back. In the late … Read more