Cross Creek is an odd bend on a country road out near the Ocala National Forest that cuts right through Orange Lake and Lochloosa Lake. Cross Creek is surrounded by marshes and water further up is a place called the River Styx. The spot is said to create an infinite space between Cross Creek and the horizon.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings came to Cross Creek in 1928 with her husband in 1928. She came to stay in this small rural Florida Community growing oranges, cooking on a wood burning stove, writing down her impressions of the scenery and enjoying moments with her neighbors who lived in a Cracker House. As soon as she arrived she made a life long commitment to the location making the farmhouse and old grove her home.

She use to sit on the veranda at her type writer and writing books that would endear her to the world and capture the forever beauty of Florida and the spirit of its people. May I add times have changed since then lol. Back just a half of century ago Florida was so rural that most of it was unpaved roads and even today half of the state still is unpaved. But Rawlings during this time lived in a world away from a world.

The Yearling an American Classic and winner of the Pulitzer Prize was one of her biggest novels. This is why I decided to investigate her farmstead because this investigation is tied into our Click Here: The Yearling Trail investigation which is the site of an old ghost town about 30 miles away from Rawlings residence.  So the trail and her farmstead truly are connected so this investigation really completes a chapter with both areas in our adventures.

Another story she wrote was called Cross Creek which is a chronicle of her life at the Creek. Then their is a Love Story she called it, where she reveals her favorite haunts, marvels at the passing of the seasons, introduces the reader to her friends and neighbors and shares with the whole world her love of Florida.

She is one of the best known names in America literature and most schools read her works today. Personally this investigation meant more to me then most like I said when I hiked out near the Yearling Trail for miles we spent hours being lost in the woods wandering around and so what I seen with my eyes Rawlings did also. But to visit a place where she lived out her years wrote her novels was a real treat for all of us. 

The farmstead sits under giant orange trees and was a simple but very large one story house. Their were other separate structures such as a bathroom, screened porches, open verandas etc. The house had 8 rooms and was built of cypress and heart pine. It has stood now for over 120 years in the surrounding Florida like Jungle withstanding winds, rain, and hot sun. 

It is a Cracker style home which was made to withstand the Florida heat and included all open porches, tall ceilings and alot of windows to collect the breeze. It also had four fireplaces and a wood burning stove throughout the home during the winter months when temperatures dropped down.

Outside the home was a citrus grove, grapefruit trees, and tangerine trees. She found the grove to be enchanting and said the grove was magical in her own way. She quoted "Enchantment lies in different things for each of us, For me, it is in this: to step out of the bright sunlight into the shade of orange trees; to walk under the arched canopy of their jade like leaves; to see the long aisles of lichened trunks stretch ahead in the geometric rhythm; to feel the mystery of seclusion that yet has shafts of light striking through it. This is the essence of an ancient and secret magic." In her groves Rawlings found peace and inspiration to write. 

In one of her books called Cross Creek it ends with these words: "It seems to me that the earth may be borrowed but not bought. It may be used but not owned. It gives itself in response to love an tending, offers its seasonal flowering and fruiting. But we are tenants and not possessors, lovers and not masters. Cross Creek belongs to the wind and the train, to the sun and the seasons, to the secrecy of seed, and beyond all, to time,"

In 1933 Marjorie Rawlings divorced from Charles Rawlings and she stayed on her farm stead by herself through the Great Depression and into more prosperous times. In 1941 she married Norton Baskin and divided her time between their St. Augustine home and her Cross Creek Farmstead where she kept writing novels until her death in 1953 where she died at 57 years of age.

Today the farmstead is 50 acres their is a duck coop, chicken coop, barn, out house, shed, farm stead, another cracker house near by perhaps where her neighbors lived, grove, garden with real vegetables growing in it, and jungle trail. When you enter the gate you hike on this fairly short trail and further back surrounded by  trees is an open area with the farmstead its gorgeous back here.

Its also very eerie and in my opinion Rawlings ghost is here I felt her watching us on the porch and as a psychic she was pretty excited to have our company unfortunately in some ways I felt like we had intruded on her. Very strong psychic connections I had with this place it was a near perfect investigation. But their are other things that happen back in these woods that also remain unknown and so I bring to you The very haunted Rawlings Farm!

© By

Lord Rick-LordOfThyNight

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