Sanford and Osteen
A Florida Backroads 'Ghost Story'

by GREG MAY
(Orlando, Florida)

Everybody knows that Apopka is called 'The Foliage Capitol of the World.'

But did you know Sanford was once known as 'The Celery Capitol?'

The road that ran between Sanford and the St. Johns River was once lined with celery fields, and was aptly named 'Celery Road'.

The east end of Celery Road ran through an old Indian burial ground.

There was once a blacksmith named Sligh Ernest who owned a horse which stood twenty-two hands high and weighed 3,200 pounds. When the horse died, it had to be hauled by a tractor to its burial pit beside Celery Avenue.

Since then, the road had been widenend over the horse's grave.

Now, everyone knows about the Osteen Bridge and the road from the bridge leading to Sanford.

But did you know that motorists driving at night were often accompanied by a phantom white horse that appeared to be galloping beside their vehicle?

This strange apparition has been sighted by motorists on several occasions.

One such motorist was a woman who lived in Altamonte Springs. One night as she was driving down that road she looked to her right and saw what appeared to be an Indian in full headdress riding a pure white horse!

The horse and rider appeared to be translucent, you could see through them as the spectre paced her car as she was doing about 40 mph.

Now that old Indian burial ground was covered over in the early 60's by Interstate 4. There is a section of I-4 that is known as "The Dead Zone" because of the many accidents that have occurred there and they say cell phones won't work in "The Dead Zone".

But that is another story . . .