LENO (FORMER MILL TOWN)
Ghost Town — High Springs, Florida
Status: Historic site · Access: Open to public
Dossier: https://haunthunt.com/place/leno-former-mill-town-florida/

Former Santa Fe River mill settlement now within O'Leno State Park.

A ghost town in High Springs, Florida, Leno (former mill town) is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Former Santa Fe River mill settlement now within O'Leno State Park. HauntHunt files it with ghost towns. The dossier holds 1 documented fact — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. The site is open to visitors. Names, dates and reports are filed together here, so the record stays honest about which is which.

The town's name is still on the map — compressed. O'Leno State Park, on the Santa Fe River north of High Springs, occupies the ground of a nineteenth-century mill settlement the record first knew as Keno, reportedly named for a gambling game. When Colonel Whetstone's post-office application was refused in 1876 over the name's gaming association, the town was rechristened Leno and the post office granted.
At its working peak Leno held two grist mills, a sawmill, six cotton gins, a general store, a hotel, a livery stable, and a doctor's office — one of the earlier water-powered mill operations in the state, sited where the Santa Fe's natural land bridge made a crossing.

FROM GHOST TOWN TO STATE PARK
The end arrived by rail. In 1894 the railroad was diverted through Fort White instead of Leno, and by 1896 the town had emptied; the place that remained was affectionately called Old Leno, soon shortened to O'Leno.
The state bought the site in the mid-1930s for a Florida Forest Service training camp, built by WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps labor; the camp opened in 1938 and was handed to the park service two years later. O'Leno opened as a state park in 1940 — one of Florida's original nine. The file keeps the town distinct from the river's famous disappearing act nearby; what's buried here is industry, not mystery.

HISTORY — 1 documented facts
· Florida Geological Survey identifies the nineteenth-century mill town, originally Keno, beneath the later forestry camp and state park. Leno (former mill town)'s history is documented — boom, bust, and desertion all on record, the lore layered on top. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. 'Summer 2026 Florida Geological Survey News and Research' documents the entry. Documented ground is what separates this file from pure legend — this is part of it.

SOURCES — 1 cited
· Summer 2026 Florida Geological Survey News and Research — Florida Department of Environmental Protection
  https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/FLDEP/bulletins/417d410

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Methodology: https://haunthunt.com/methodology/ · Corrections: https://haunthunt.com/report/