Florida is the top tourist state in the nation with 110 million annual visitors and snowbirds. Most come for good weather, beaches, amusement parks, outdoor activities. But sometimes you might like an unusual and exciting change of pace – here are my favorite weirdest Florida tourist attractions:

KORESHAN STATE PARK

Located off US41 18 miles south of Fort Myers, Koreshan State Park is a forested campground for RVs and tents along the Estero River. It is a place to hike, launch your canoe or kayak, fish, and picnic. Koreshan has something, however, no other Florida park has: a utopian ghost town, a National Register of Historic Places site.

The giant Planetary Building houses group records

In the 1890s Dr Cyrus R. Teed, a New York doctor, was told in a vision he would be the Messiah of a “New Jerusalem.” Calling himself Koresh (Hebrew for Cyrus), Reed attracted huge groups to his cause. The most strange of their beliefs was that the universe was a rotating sphere inside the Earth.

In 1894 his dream town became a reality with the purchase of land in Florida. Cabins, a three-story dining room, a bakery, post office, cabins and dorms that separated men and women, machine shops, the 1904 Planetary Court, and the 1905 Art Hall, where Thomas Edison and Henry Ford watched concerts by the Koreshans. The colony planted monkey puzzle trees, sausage trees, and bamboo trees making the gardens and park trails very exotic.

Evidence we live inside the world in the Art Hall which oce entertained Thomas Edison and others.

The death of Teed and mounting opposition by neighbors who disliked the group’s political and social beliefs led to the decline of the group. The final members gave the land to the State of Florida. Park Rangers give tours of the eleven restored Koreshan buildings as well as the nature trail tours.

From the Bamboo Dock you can explore the Estero River in kayaks.

The State Park (239-992-0311) has some 60 RV and tent sites including glamping safari tents. Kayak and canoe rentals are available from Estero River Outfitters (239-992-4050). Travel upstream for dense tropical landscapes; go downstream to Estero Bay and Mound Key, home of the Calusa Indian center. The Estero River has both saltwater and freshwater fishing.

THE TOWN OF CASSADEGA

Located 20 miles southwest of Daytona Beach off I-4 (exit 116 Lake Helen) the village of Cassadega is unlike any other town in Florida. It is the winter home of the National Spiritualist Society.  It is a community of Victorian houses where mediums help people reach their deceased loved ones.

While winter is the busy season, Cassadaga’s mediums operate year-round.

There is a hotel, an information center and book shop, a church, some restaurants, a creepy cemetery, and Spirit Lake, where I once saw a rocking chair blow around the lake on a windless day (maybe the hills blocked wind around me).

The Cassadaga Hotel is a friendly old-fashioned spot for visitors.

The Cassadaga Information Center helps visitors find mediums.

The Victorian houses of the mediums add to the uniqueness of your visit.

Cassadega is not a place for a Halloween jaunt. This is a serious, religious community practicing a faith that began with the teenage Fox Sisters, Maggie and Kate, back in 1848.  While staying at the hotel or attending a church service might not be your desire, visiting the information center, talking with people about the movement, and deciding whether to visit a medium is one experience that few vacationers to Florida can check off.

CORAL CASTLE – FLORIDA’S STONEHEDGE

South of Miami near Homestead on US 1is the mysterious complex known as Coral Castle (https://coralcastle.com).   It is a case where we know who, where, and when, but the how has fascinated scientists.  The first time I visited the place there were a group of engineers who came all the way to Florida to examine Coral Castle.

The story of the place is weird. In 1912 a 135-pound Latvian immigrant Edward Leedskalnin came to the USA after being jilted at the alter by his finance. In 1923, he came to Florida and bought an acre for $12.00 at 18900 SW 252 Street. Living isolated from his nearest neighbors, Leedskalnin decided to build a monument to his lost love out of the nearby Oolite sedentary rock.

The size of the Coral Castle complex is amazing since it was a one man show.

Without the help of machinery or co-workers and with only the help of a mule, he quarried over 100 tons of rock into some 260 stones, with one reaching 23-foot tons and 23 tons.  He began charging a dime for people to visit his massive creation.  He refused to show how he built his wonders although he said he studied the Egyptian pyramid builders and had made levers.

Inside his stone house were some levers but no machines or fancy tools.

Giant symbols and ten-ton swinging doors makes this castle unique.

In 1936 when a subdivision was planned next door, Leedskalnin moved his entire complex in a few days. The engineering of Coral Castle is amazing. The meaning of all the symbolic shapes is confusing.  I moved a one-ton swivel door of stone with one finger!