Ghosthunting Florida (America's Haunted Road Trip)

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About Ghosthunting Florida

Product Description Discover the Scariest Spots in the Sunshine State Author Dave Lapham visits more than 30 legendary haunted places, all of which are open to the public so visitors can test their own ghosthunting skills. Join Dave as he visits each site, snooping around eerie rooms and dark corners, talking to people who swear to their paranormal experiences, and giving you a firsthand account. Enjoy Ghosthunting Florida from the safety of your armchair or hit the road, using the maps and the Ghostly Resources as your guide. Buckle up and get ready for the spookiest ride of your life. From the Inside Flap EXCERPTS KING CORONA YBOR CITY Ten years ago Joanne, Sue, and I went snooping around Ybor City, looking for ghost stories. Ghost hunting wasnt so popular then, and there werent many resources to rely on. It was a hot day. As we ambled down Seventh Avenue, I spied King Corona Cigar Bar & Cafe and suggested we pop in for a beerand air conditioning. As soon as we walked in, Joanne got a tingling sensation with goose bumps on her armsand it wasnt the air conditioning. We struck up a conversation with the owner, Don Barco, and asked him about any unusual activities in the building. Don chuckled, Actually, we do have ghosts here. Wait. Dont tell us, I replied. Joanne is really sensitive. Could we walk around a bit just to see what she might find? Sure, Don said. Let me show you the place, and Ill tell you a little of the history. Joanne led the way, poking into nooks and crannies, while Don related the history of Ybor and King Corona to Sue and me as we followed along. Ybor City, now a neighborhood of Tampa, was founded in 1885 by a group of cigar manufacturers led by Vicente Martinez-Ybor, who wanted to move their cigar businesses from Key West to escape the high costs, labor strife, and transportation problems. The Tampa area was an excellent spot, near enough to Cuba to get Cuban tobacco cheaply and easily. And with a new railroad line working its way across Florida, distribution of finished cigars across the entire United States would be possible. Thousands of tabaqueros, tobacco workers, in Key West were recruited to come to Tampa for the chance to buy land and own their own homes, opportunities they never had in land-poor Key West. Señor Martinez-Ybor even built houses for his workers and sold them just above the building cost. Ybor City was an immediate success. Tampa annexed it in 1887, over the protestations of Ybor himself, and by 1900 it had paved streets, brick buildings, a variety of fashionable shops, restaurants, street lighting, and a population of 16,000. And from its very beginning, it was a wide-open town. A diverse population of Cubans, Italians, Spanish, Romanians, and Germans gave Ybor City an exotic, European atmosphere, which was only enhanced by the many social clubs formed by the various ethnic groups. The Cuban Club, the German-American Club, the Italian Club, El Centro Español, among many others, all celebrating their own ethnic holidays and fetes, gave Ybor City an almost continuous party air. The factories turned out millions of cigars a year. At one time Ybor cigar factories produced and shipped over 500,000,000 cigars hand-rolled by skilled torcedores, and the money flowed. Clubs, restaurants, and bars were packed nightly, and the good times seemed never to end. Prohibition in 1920, the Volstead Act, closed the taps on much of the alcohol across the country, but in Ybor City, with its tightly knit ethnic groups and clubs and numerous bars, the liquor still flowed freely. Speakeasies began popping up all over the town, and criminal elements soon took advantage of the loosely enforced regulations. Murders, muggings, and extortion were common. There were rumors of tunnels dug between buildings and across streets from one building to another, so that criminals might escape if a nightspot was raided. With the Stock Market Crash and the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929, law