Dates of Stay: Two nights in January 2017
O’Leno State Park in High Springs, Florida is a lovely park with cabins, RV spaces, and a ghost town, six miles north of town.
The town was settled in the 1860s and named “Keno,” after the gambling game, telling you all you need to know about the town at that time. In 1876, religious and business pressure resulted in a name change to “Leno,” apparently for no other reason than the unimaginative townsfolk knew that “L” followed “K” in the alphabet.
By the 1890s the railroad bypassed the town. Old Leno (“O’Leno”) was purchased by the state of Florida as a park and forestry station in 1934, and FDR’s New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps whipped it into the beautiful park you see today. The CCC built eight flagship Florida parks from 1933 to 1942.
There are gopher turtles throughout the park.
O’Leno has two camping loops (Magnolia and Dogwood) with 61 sites, water, electricity, grill, picnic table and centrally-located restroom. The price is right at $18 per night.
