The Osceola Vault was in use from 1916 to about 1940. It is the only remaining structure remaining behind from the ghost town of Osceola which eventually was swallowed up by farm lands, houses, and overgrown fauna. The vault is an important piece of history to the country town of Geneva. 

The town of Osceola was quite large as it had housing for roughly 200 people. It also had a school, two story boarding house, post office, barber shop, general store, grocery store, bank and doctor's office. Its hard to believe all this once existed in this little area surrounding the vault. Today the vault sits over grown with vines and brush on a dark country road really in the middle of nowhere.

The vault was used by the Osceola Cypress Company which were originally from the Cedar Key Area built near Lake Harney around 1916-1917. The mill was very self sufficient as it had stores near it, offices, then of course this made it a community.  The Cypress company would cut trees in the Lake Okeechobee area then they were hauled off by railroad. The large cypress trees also came from Bithlo another small town in the area. When the mill was in operation it cut around 60,000 board feet per day. Eventually the town prospered in the 1920s and was expected to become the biggest town in Seminole county. The mill also had a generator which provided electricity for all the surrounding homes till 9pm at night. Electricity was very rare during this time period. Even  the sidewalks were made of cypress. The homes were made of mahogany and had indoor toilets not out houses. The company began to decline in productivity around 1939 and like most towns that thrive off its industry it failed cause the mill moved some of its equipment to Port Everglades. In order for this town to thrive the mill would have to for the sake of jobs when it failed Osceola was doomed.

The vault still remains today however the steel door was removed and taken to the company's offices in Fort Lauderdale. Nearby the vault was an old abandoned airfield which had for runways to serve this community. It served as an auxiliary field of the Sanford Naval Air Station during WWII. Now the airports site is a landfill but at one time this was a very active area not just in the community but even Hauntings from the settlement and abandoned airfield.

© By

Rick-LordOfThyNight

.