Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainAn 1884 citrus-boom settlement in the Ocala National Forest, emptied after the Great Freeze of 1894-95 and kept intact ever since by the founder's descendants.
Kerr City Road, near Salt Springs, Ocala, FL 32134
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Privately owned and fenced. Not open to the general public; access only by permission of the owners.
Access
Limited Access
Unpaved sand roads through the Ocala National Forest. Standing wood-frame structures, a 1925 gas station, and the old post office sit on private, fenced land.
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1884 · One of a small number of Florida ghost towns preserved largely intact · Founded 1884 by George Smiley during the central Florida citrus boom · Emptied by the Great Freeze of 1894-95 · Listed on the National Register of Historic Places · Retains a 1925 gas station and the original post office building
Kerr City was laid out in 1884 by George Smiley on a site near Lake Kerr, along a stagecoach route through what is now the Ocala National Forest in Marion County. The town was named for Robert B. Kerr. As Florida's citrus industry expanded in the 1880s, residents planted groves and shipped fruit, and a small community took shape with a post office, a schoolhouse, a church, a hotel, a sawmill, and a general store. At its height the settlement counted about 100 people.
The town's economy was built almost entirely on oranges, which made it acutely vulnerable to weather. In the winter of 1894-95, two severe freezes struck in close succession, an event Florida growers remember as the Great Freeze. The cold killed the groves across central Florida, and Kerr City's economy collapsed with them. Wikipedia records plainly that 'the community deserted the town after the freezes of 1894-95.' The Lake Kerr House, the town's hotel, burned in 1907.
What sets Kerr City apart from most abandoned Florida settlements is that it did not rot away. Descendants of George Smiley kept the family holdings and have maintained the surviving wood-frame buildings, including the post office and a 1925 gas station described as the oldest surviving station of its kind in Florida. The post office itself, established in 1884 and renamed Lake Kerr in 1888, operated until 1942. The townsite is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As of September 2014 it is fenced off and closed to the general public, with the owners living on the property year-round.
Sources
Because Kerr City survived where other Florida boomtowns vanished, it has drawn a steady stream of ghost-town lore. Ocala-area outlets that have written up the site describe the old post office, which stayed open until 1942 and was the last functioning building in town, as the center of the local stories. The most often repeated tale involves a red-haired postmaster remembered as Sarah, reported in the second-floor bedroom of the post office.
Other accounts tie reported encounters to the Lake Kerr House, the town hotel that burned in 1907, and to the broader sense that a settlement abandoned almost overnight leaves something behind. These are oral legends passed along in local coverage; no documentary record confirms them, and the town's owners do not market the property as a paranormal site.
Visitors should bear in mind that the townsite is private, fenced, and closed to the public. The interest here is historical: a citrus settlement frozen out in 1895 and held in place for more than a century by one family.
Notable Entities
Kerr City sits on private, fenced land within the Ocala National Forest and is not open to the general public. The surrounding national forest roads near Lake Kerr and Salt Springs are publicly accessible, but the historic townsite itself can only be entered with the owners' permission. Visitors should respect the no-trespassing boundary and view the area from the public road only.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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