YEEHAW JUNCTION--

It was a crossroads community in rural Florida with lots of hope one day, a long time ago.   Earlier it was known as Jackass Junction.  That name came from the fact local ranchers were known to ride burros to town to visit the Desert Inn, then the local brothel. 

As the 1950s approached, the Florida legislature felt a name change was due in light of the construction of Florida's Turnpike through the center of the community in 1957.

After all who would want a turnpike interchange known as Jackass Junction.

The result, it is believed, was renaming the town to its present day Yeehaw Junction.  Yeehaw comes from the Seminole Indian language and means "wolf", referring to wolves that once inhabited the area.

That new turnpike crossed a main east-west highway, SR 60, which travels today like an arrow from Vero Beach westward to Tampa.  The turnpike also nearly paralleled US 441, then a major thoroughfare linking the Orlando area with Miami.

The state's tourism industry and population were burgeoning back then.

I can remember crisscrossing the state in private and corporate airplanes in the 1970s and seeing new allotments being constructed, everywhere.  The new turnpike brought such enterprises as the sparkling Tourist Information Center (above), now a weed infested vacant building slowly eroding under the ravages of intense sunlight and storms.

And, it remains easy to still find those empty allotments complete with paved roads and sidewalks with fire hydrants sprouting from the weeds all over the state.

Today the tiny town of Yeehaw Junction claims a population of 240 souls counted in 2010 by folks who fuss with such details.  But, the Desert Inn and the tourist center are closed, leaving local commerce in the hands of a truck stop and a convenience store still doing business at the intersection.

Even the sign recognizing the Desert Inn as being on the National Register of Historic Places seems to be getting tired as it lists beside an abandoned addition project in the inn's back yard while traffic, these days, just whistles by in pursuit of pleasure in Florida's more glittering tourist venues.