Hidden In A Jacksonville Park Is A Disappearing Ghost Town That Was A Once-Thriving Florida Community

When you give it a moment's consideration, ghost towns are strange things: places whose character is defined by a literal lack of characters. Travel is so often about the people we meet, yet it's well documented that humans are fascinated by ghost towns and faded glory and once-thriving destinations long-since abandoned. One such destination is the old town of Yukon, hiding within a public park in Jacksonville, Florida.

Yukon's origins date to a cotton plantation and orchard established by an Englishman named Timothy Hollingsworth in the late 18th century. It was later sold to people formerly enslaved there, renamed Blackpoint Settlement, and eventually grew into a thriving, if fairly anonymous, rural Florida community, with a train depot, paved streets, a business district, and residential areas. It acquired the name Yukon in the 20th century, but by then its days were numbered. In 1939, the government purchased part of the old plantation to build Naval Air Station Jacksonville, and within a few decades, closed the city down as it posed a safety risk to incoming jets.

Yukon now sits on the grounds of Tillie K. Fowler Regional Park, which is webbed by 7 miles of trails and hosts a nature center and outdoor classrooms. You'll encounter the remains of the ghost town here, including the plantation cemetery and buildings along its former main street. Yukon isn't the only ghost town in the Sunshine State — there's one nestled by Florida's most forgotten spring — but it's one of the best preserved and most accessible. Only 20 minutes from Jacksonville by car, Yukon is on the doorstep of Florida's giant coastal resort city.

When Yukon was closed, its residential buildings were removed, the streets and former plots now disappearing under weeds and grasses, but the central business thoroughfare, Yukon Road, remains. Here, on the eastern fringe of the park, you'll find the former post office and a Baptist church, as well as the stone foundations of the Yukon train depot. Not everything is a shadow of its former self, though. You can stop at J.L. Trent's Seafood & Grill or dive bar Murray's Yukon Tavern — both on the site of the abandoned town — for food and refreshments.

Another point of interest is the old brick road running through Yukon, once part of a network connecting Camp Johnston with Ortega and Jacksonville. It was used to move troops, horses, and military equipment during the First World War. In Tillie K. Fowler Regional Park, you can see parts of the road, much of which is overgrown and is crisscrossed by the park's walking trails. When walking through the park, also keep your eyes peeled for gravel tracks and slabs of sidewalk that were once part of the town.

Open from sunrise to sunset, the park is a great place for a stroll, with several trails winding through the shade of slender trees. The mile-long, flat Tillie Fowler Blue Loop is a good beginner set, leading to an observation tower with views across the forest towards the Ortega River. Keen mountain bikers should head to the wonderfully named Hooskerdoo and Nipsy Dipsy trails in the park, which connect to yet more trails in the north. There's no shortage of amazing stops between Jacksonville and Orlando, but if you don't want to venture as far as the latter, Yukon is a historically rich and worthwhile alternative.