What is unique about this investigation is that it would be one of our last ghost towns PGS has ever visited in the state of FL. Like most ghost towns in FL all that remains are bricks...foundations...etc Just as each ghost town is a good hike in some of the most eerie forest in all of Florida. Being that we are relocating out west one of the things I will miss is these ghost towns Its so interesting and suspenseful to be able to journey in a place like Sumica in the middle of the night. 

Of course because of ghost towns like Sumica we have lost many investigators because people often want it handed to them but this is not the case. Sumica you see is an old Turpentine and Sawmill town. What it stands for is Society Universal Mining Industry Commerce and Agriculture. In 1917 the post office was installed into the area and by 1927 the town reached its peak.

Besides the sawmill there were roughly 50 houses, a train station, commissary, church, school and company store which had its own currency. Like most towns for example in the Pine Barrens of NJ Sumica died because the pine forest were all cut down surrounding the town. Since the time relied on its lumber to thrive once that disappeared so did the town as well. When the town started to die out the post office was relocated to the Lake Wales area.

At one time this town had over 500 residents living here even today you can hike down the various driveways and see clearings where homes use to be. We hiked along the old railroad grade...and well we only seen a few bricks but the town or what's left of it today has a few shallow wells...and the saw mill which we did not find. 

The area the town sits on is over 4,000 acres another wards its probably bigger then all 4 of Walt Disney's Theme Parks. So its a pretty large forested area. Most of the early towns worked with phosphate but Sumica was different since they worked with longleaf pines. The company that ran the town was French Societe Universelle des Mines, Industrie, Commerce et Agriculture which for short was Sumica if you put it together. 

The train rails were used to transport the logs to the saw mill....the town even had its own whistle which would go off at the beginning and end of each workday...lunch break and go off consistently if their was a fire occurrence. The town had a very good system and operation. It was not high tech it was what it was a town full of laborers just trying to survive in the earlier 1900s. 

The pine trees were brought down with two man handsaws. The large water tank had fueled the mill's steam powered saws for cutting up the logs. Alot of the workers were Seminole Indians which still today many natives have Seminole genealogy ties. Not only that but the area at one time was also inhibited by the Calusa Indians. Alot of those artifacts remain but the site is protected of course there are public hiking areas of this 4 million dollar land parcel purchased in 1999. 

The town also had alot of wild life to hunt for food in...wild turkeys...boars....rattle snakes...panthers....black bears.....bob cats etc today one can see areas of giant clearings where long leaf pines were once used for lumber.  Whether the area is haunted who knows.....but a visit through such a secluded place is good enough for The Paranormal & Ghost Society.

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Lord Rick