THE STORY
Reported Haunting
The historic Smallwood Store is said to retain spirits from the isolated fishing and trading community that once surrounded it. Visitors and staff have reported unexplained footsteps, voices, apparitions, and other unusual activity within the century-old trading post.
The 1906 store established by Ted Smallwood is what remains of ghost town Chokoloskee. It was a general store, Seminole trading post, post office… and murder site. Outlaw Edgar Watson, killer of fellow outlaw Belle Starr, came here from South Carolina in 1910 to raise sugar cane ad make syrup. Many other murders were attributed to his temper; he was also notorious for hiring migrant workers, then murdering them so he wouldn’t have to pay them. One day Watson came to the store to buy ammo, saying he was about to kill a local man named Cox, with whom he had had a disagreement. Watson was gunned down in the store by a mob of angry locals who had had enough of Watson’s antics. But this local tale seems to have little to do with the haunting, as the ghost most often seen here is that of a woman, who appears in a bedroom dresser mirror.