Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
You can also spend two hours cruising the peaceful waters with
St Johns River
Cruises
( 386-917-0724;
www.sjrivercruises.com
; 2100 West French Ave, Orange City; adult/child
$22/16; tours 10am & 1pm)
, whose nature tours offer a thoughtful insight into this fragile
ecosystem.
Cassadaga
In 1894, 27-year-old New Yorker George Colby was suffering from tuberculosis. Seneca,
Colby's Native American spirit guide, told him to head south to a lake and establish a spir-
itualist community, where he'd be healed. Colby did it, and Cassadaga (pronounced kas-
suh-
day
-guh) was born.
Today, Colby's camp - a collection of mainly 1920s cracker cottages - is a registered
historic district, the oldest active religious community in the US, and home to the
South-
ern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association
( 386-228-3171;
www.cassadaga.org
; 1325 Stevens St)
, who believe in infinite intelligence, prophecy, healing
and communicating with the dead. Some say the area is part of an energy vortex where the
spirit and earth planes are exceptionally close, creating a 'portal' between the two. We've
been to some weird places before, and Cassadaga is right up there.
You wouldn't find the town if you weren't looking for it. At a rural crossroads about 2
miles off the main drag, the tiny camp doesn't have an ATM or gas station. Scattered
throughout the area are 30-some spiritual practitioners who offer a variety of 'psychic'
readings, starting at around $50 for 30 minutes.
The camp's heart is the
Cassadaga Camp Bookstore
( 386-228-2880;
www.cassadaga.org
; 1112 Stevens St; 10am-5pm Mon-Sat, 11.30am-5pm Sun)
, which sells New
Age books, crystals and incense, and serves as the visitor center for the town. The white-
board in the back room connects you with which psychics are working that day. The store
also organizes historical tours of the village (1pm and 3pm Saturday, $15) and orb tours
(8pm Saturday, $25), where photographers shoot glowing balls of light - reportedly spirits
from another world. A $1 donation gets you a camp directory, allowing you to take a
pretty good self-guided tour. Mandatory stop: spooky, serene Spirit Lake, where residents
scatter the ashes of the departed.
The original
Cassadaga Hotel
(
386-228-2323;
www.cassadagahotel.net
;
355 Cassadaga
Rd; r from $55;
)
burned down in 1926. Today, ghosts reportedly lurk in the shadows of
