Florida

Florida! Some crazy stuff goes on there. It must be the humidity. I have two fun photos for you today, both from the Sunshine State. 

First up is this April 1964 photo of a mother and son next to the world's largest Hercules beetle, who was fed a steady diet of Wheaties cereal. But where are they? The suspense is killing me.

Thanks, vintage postcard! They were at the May Museum of the Tropics in Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida, Strangely, Wikipedia makes no mention of this museum when it was in Florida - according to another site, it eventually moved to Colorado Springs (John May loved those springs!) because the Florida humidity was ruining the family collection of thousands of insects from around the world. The name was changed to the May Museum of Natural History, and they brought the giant beetle (named "Herkimer") with them; he can still be seen today along Colorado State Highway 115. 

One story claims that Walt Disney visited the museum in 1956 and offered to buy the whole collection, but John May refused when he found out that the family would get no credit. 

Next, it's the OLD JAIL, In St. Augustine (from July, 1970). The building was designed and constructed by the P.J. Pauley Jail Building and Manufacturing Company of St. Louis, Missouri in 1891. The Old Jail served as the St Johns County Jail until 1953. After the jail facilities were moved to a new, more modern building, the vacant Old Jail building was sold to entrepreneur Henry "Slim" McDaniel who began operating the remarkably well preserved building as a roadside tourist attraction.

Vintage postcards give us a better look at some of the humorous tableaus on display. The Sweat Box was a sort of sauna for the prisoners. The pounds just melted away!

All of the prisoners drank the water, which was high in minerals, and that made their limbs rigid so that they stood like Frankenstein's Monster. Have you ever seen a genuine moonshine still? I haven't, and yet the example on display here looks pretty crude. My grandpappy would be ashamed. Say, that rock pile is pretty big, I'd like to see those big rocks turned into little ones.

Originally built to house up to 72 prisoners, the two-story northern wing of the Jail consists of a general population and maximum security area, a women's section and a lower level kitchen. Maximum Security housed the most dangerous prisoners held at the Jail and includes a Death Row cell, for those condemned to die. A total of eight men were hung from the Gallows on the Jail compound during its history. Overall conditions at the Jail for those serving varying sentences were quite poor by modern standards and prisoners were typically used as free farm laborers during the day. Baths were infrequent, toilet facilities consisted of one bucket per cell and diet was poor and was typically supplemented by any animals that the prisoners might catch while working on the fields. Segregation by race was steadfastly adhered to at the Jail and disease, violence and death were commonplace. The two-story southern wing of the Jail consists of an Office for the Sheriff and living quarters for his family.