Abandoned Rails: Harrisburg to Everglades City

This abandoned railway line was built in the 1920s when Everglades City, at the southern end of Florida, was the headquarters of the Colliers' enterprises in the southwest part of the state.

The line was abandoned in sections: the line from Everglades City up north to Sunniland, about 22 miles, was abandoned in 1957, with the remainder of the line to Harrisburg following in 1980s. At Harrisburg, a still-active CSX line comes south out of Palmdale, wyes with this abandoned line, and then heads southeast to Moore Haven.

Today, nothing exists except for the grade crossing at US Route 41 and FL Route 29. The former turning wye at Everglades City can be easily made out in satellite imagery as it juts out into adjacent Lake Placid.

Lee Cypress Railroad: The Lee Cypress Railroad was a small logging operation that transported cypress trees for more than 40 years, ending after World War II. The LCRR crossed this abandoned line at Copeland, FL. Traces of it are hard to find today; only a small piece of the LCRR is marked on the map near Copeland.

Thanks to Don Printz for contributing information about this route.

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At Carnestown, Florida (four miles north of Everglades City) so much winter fruit and vegetables were shipped north that five refrigerator cars a day were leaving this one station.

Though the 60s and 70s, Immokalee was still shipping over two trains a day of refrigerator cars (some were pigs at the end of this) full of vegetables.

People driving Florida highway 80 between LaBelle and Clewiston can still see where this line crossed the highway. ROW on either side of the road is clearly visible for some distance on either side.

@John Boden: The rails were pulled up a long time ago - south of Immokalee I think they were pulled up in the 60's. In the 80's you could still find mileposts between US41 and Copeland, but I doubt they're still there. The right of way is still more or less visible from Copeland most of the way to Immokalee, parallel to FL29 - south of Copeland it has become a road, and near Immokalee it has been hidden by agricultural development.

Harrisburg to Everglades City

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