Drive-Thru Towns

Portlock: The Village Everyone Fled FromDeep on the Gulf of Alaska coast, on the rugged southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula, lies a ghost town that didn't die because the fish ran out or the economy collapsed. It died because of fear.In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns, host Andrew Wilcox takes us to Portlock (also known as Port Chatham), a place so unsettling that an entire community abandoned it simultaneously in 1950. Settled in the 1920s as a thriving salmon cannery town, Portlock’s story took a dark turn in the 1940s when mutilated animal carcasses, missing hunters, and bodies with inexplicable wounds began to appear.We explore the legend of the Nantiinaq—a large, hairy, human-like creature rooted in Alutiiq tradition—and the chilling reality of a town that simply walked away, leaving buildings standing and artifacts scattered, never to return.The Cannery Boom: How Portlock briefly thrived as a commercial hub for the Gulf of Alaska’s fishing fleet.The "Nantiinaq" Reports: The chilling accounts from the late 1940s that led local elders to believe a traditional Indigenous cryptid had claimed the area.The Great Exodus: Why the entire population fled by 1950, leaving a working fishing village to rot in the salt air without an official explanation.Modern Echoes: The unsettling experience of modern visitors who find the "Unga-type" isolation of Portlock still carries the weight of its abandoned history.If you have a taste for the strange and the unexplained corners of the American map, follow the show on Spotify to catch every stop on our journey.Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected]: Andrew WilcoxTheme Music: Special thanks to Chloe Jones for the music. Discover more of her work at chloejonesmusic.co.uk.

Eagle: The Last American Town Before Everything Became CanadaSituated on the banks of the Yukon River, just 12 miles from the Canadian border, sits a town that was once the "Gateway to the Interior." Today, it is a quiet sentinel of history at the end of the Taylor Highway.In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns, host Andrew Wilcox explores Eagle, Alaska—the first incorporated city in the Interior and the last American stop for fortune-seekers heading to the Klondike. We trace Eagle’s journey from a bustling hub of 1,700 residents to a peaceful community of 87, where the median age is 70 and the log cabins settle slowly into the permafrost.We also recount the incredible 1905 detour of legendary explorer Roald Amundsen, who mushed 800 miles across the frozen wilderness just to reach Eagle’s telegraph station and tell the world he had finally conquered the Northwest Passage.The Border's Edge: Why Eagle became the seat of justice and the primary customs port for the entire Yukon River corridor.Fort Egbert: A look at the five surviving buildings of the military post that once maintained order on the edge of the world.Amundsen’s Telegram: The story of the Norwegian explorer who left his ship frozen in the ice to find the nearest "send" button—located right here in Eagle.The Melancholy Beauty of Aging: How Eagle watched the gold rushes of Nome and Fairbanks pass it by, choosing instead to grow old gracefully along the river.If you're drawn to the quiet corners of the map and the towns that time forgot, follow the show on Spotify for more stories from the edge of the frontier.Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected]: Andrew WilcoxTheme Music: Special thanks to Chloe Jones for the music. Explore her work at chloejonesmusic.co.uk.

Chicken: Too Remote to Spell PtarmiganDeep in the Interior of Alaska, at the end of the Taylor Highway, sits a town that owes its name to a spelling bee that never happened.In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns, host Andrew Wilcox takes us to Chicken, Alaska—a community founded by gold miners a full decade before the Klondike became a household name. When it came time to name the post office in 1902, the locals wanted to honor the ptarmigan, the ubiquitous game bird that kept them fed through brutal subarctic winters. There was just one problem: nobody could agree on how to spell it. Rather than risk the embarrassment of a misspelled official document, they settled on "Chicken."We explore the history of the "Sixteen Liars" (the area's first legendary storytellers), the life of Anne Hobbs Purdy (the famed schoolteacher known as "Tisha"), and the modern-day absurdity of a fast-food giant claiming to "buy" a town for 10,000 sandwiches.The "Sixteen Liars": Why the first 16 prospectors on the Fortymile River were more famous for their tall tales than their gold.Gold the Size of Cracked Corn: A look at the 1898 USGS report suggesting the name "Chicken" might actually refer to the size of the local gold nuggets.Anne Hobbs Purdy: The incredible story of the woman who arrived by pack train in 1927, married a miner, and raised 11 children in a town with no power grid.The Jack in the Box "Takeover": How a 2021 ad campaign "bought" the town to end the "Chicken Wars," and the $10,000 donation that actually helped the 12 year-round residents.If you’re ready to visit a place where outhouses are still the standard and the "Chickenstock" music festival is the highlight of the year, follow us on Spotify.Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected]: Andrew WilcoxTheme Music: Special thanks to Chloe Jones for the music. Hear more at chloejonesmusic.co.uk.

Seldovia: The Boardwalk Town the Highway Killed Before the Earthquake CouldThis is the only episode of Drive-Thru Towns where you actually cannot drive through the town. There is no road to Seldovia. To get here, you have to cross Kachemak Bay by boat or drop out of the sky by floatplane, arriving in a community that has been defined by its isolation since 1787.In this episode, host Andrew Wilcox explores the "herring bay" that was once the bustling commercial heart of the region. We tell the story of the lost Seldovia boardwalk—a wooden main street suspended above the tides—and how it was "killed" twice: first by the arrival of the Sterling Highway in neighboring Homer, and finally by the catastrophic 1964 Good Friday Earthquake.We also look at how Seldovia lives on in the popular imagination as the fictional town of "Kaneq" in Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone, and why the real-life residents still choose the "island that isn't an island" long after the herring and the original boardwalk have vanished.If you enjoyed this journey to a town beyond the pavement, please follow the show on Spotify to catch our next stop.Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected]: Andrew WilcoxTheme Music: A special thanks to Chloe Jones for the fluid, atmospheric score. Hear more of her work at chloejonesmusic.co.uk.Connect & FollowCredits

Hope: Named After a 17-Year-Old Boy, Forgotten Like One TooAt Mile 56.3 of the Seward Highway, a 17-mile spur road dead-ends into a town that time—and the gold rush—nearly left behind. While the rest of the world remembers the Klondike, the real story of Alaska’s first major gold strike began here, on the shores of Turnagain Arm.In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns, host Andrew Wilcox takes us down the Hope Highway to a community of 70 people that outlasted its own history. We trace the steps of Alexander King, the mysterious prospector who found the first "color" and then vanished, and Percy Hope, the 17-year-old traveler who gave the town its name before fading into obscurity.We compare the quiet survival of Hope with the ghost of Sunrise City, which was briefly the largest city in Alaska in 1898 with 800 residents, two saloons, and a brewery—only to be swallowed by the spruce forest just a few years later. It’s a story of "sister towns," lopsided luck, and the original path of the Iditarod Trail.If you enjoyed this detour into the birthplace of the Alaska Gold Rush, please follow the show on Spotify to ensure you never miss a stop.Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected]: Andrew WilcoxTheme Music: Special thanks to Chloe Jones for the evocative, rolling score. Visit her at chloejonesmusic.co.uk.Connect & FollowCredits

Eklutna: The Oldest Living Place No One Drives ToTwenty-six miles from the glass towers of Anchorage sits a village that has been continuously inhabited for over 800 years. While thousands of commuters blast past the Eklutna exit at 65 miles per hour every morning, they are passing a site that was already ancient when Marco Polo left Venice.In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns, host Andrew Wilcox invites you to hit the brakes at the oldest inhabited place in the metropolitan area. We explore the vibrant, painted Spirit Houses of the Eklutna cemetery—a unique architectural synthesis of Dena’ina Athabascan tradition and Russian Orthodox ritual.We also uncover the heavy history of the 1915 influenza epidemic that silenced seven of the eight Dena'ina villages in the region, leaving Eklutna as a lone, resilient survivor. From the 1870s log church (the oldest building in the Anchorage area) to the diverted waters of Eklutna Lake, this episode is a meditation on continuity, memory, and the radical act of staying put.If you enjoyed this look at the intersection of ancient history and modern highways, please follow the show on Spotify.Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected]: Andrew WilcoxTheme Music: A special thanks to Chloe Jones for the spare, haunting score that mirrors the Alaskan landscape. Discover her music at chloejonesmusic.co.uk.

Ninilchik: Where Russia Never Really LeftHigh on a bluff overlooking Cook Inlet, five gold onion domes catch the Alaskan sun, looking like a piece of the Old World that drifted across the Pacific and simply took root. This is Ninilchik, a town that the Russian Empire retired from—and then forgot to take with it.In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns, host Andrew Wilcox explores the "pensioner settlement" established in 1847 by the Russian-American Company. While the Tsar sold Alaska to the U.S. in 1867, the people of Ninilchik remained in a state of crystalline isolation for another century. We dive into the mystery of Ninilchik Russian, a unique linguistic "time capsule" spoken nowhere else on Earth, and the haunting local legend of the Moose Lady—a folklore warning about the dangers of drifting too far into the wilderness.Join us as we pull off the Sterling Highway to hear the stories of a community that stayed put while empires rose and fell around them.If you enjoyed this journey into the Kenai Peninsula's hidden history, please follow the show on Spotify and join our community of road-trippers and history buffs.Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected]: Andrew WilcoxTheme Music: Special thanks to Chloe Jones for the evocative music that brings these landscapes to life. Hear more of her work at chloejonesmusic.co.uk.Connect & FollowCredits

Whittier: The Town That Was a Secret, Then a Bunker, Then ItselfMost towns have a "welcome" sign. Whittier has a schedule. To enter this town, you must drive through a single-lane, two-and-a-half-mile mountain tunnel that only opens for cars once an hour. If you miss your window, the mountain simply says "no."In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns, host Andrew Wilcox takes us through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel and into a vertical community tucked away in a radar-invisible Alaskan fjord. Originally built as a top-secret WWII military base to provide a deep-water, ice-free port, Whittier was designed for isolation. Today, nearly the entire population lives under one roof in the 14-story Begich Towers, a former Army barracks turned civilian "city."From the haunting, asbestos-filled ruins of the Buckner Building to the interior hallways that connect the school, post office, and police station, we explore what happens when a military fortress becomes a hometown.If you’re fascinated by the "City Under One Roof," follow the show on Spotify for more stories from the road less traveled.Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected]: Andrew WilcoxTheme Music: Special thanks to Chloe Jones for the atmospheric and resonant score. Visit her at chloejonesmusic.co.uk.Connect & FollowCredits

Portage: The Town the Earth SwallowedAt Mile Marker 79 on the Seward Highway, a skeletal "ghost forest" stands frozen in the tidal mudflats. These white, salt-drowned trees are the only remaining headstones for Portage, Alaska—a town that quite literally sank into the earth.In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns, host Andrew Wilcox uncovers the story of a roadside junction where travelers once drank bourbon chilled with 1,000-year-old glacier ice. That all changed on Good Friday, 1964, when the second-largest earthquake in recorded history struck. In just four minutes and thirty-eight seconds, the ground beneath Portage liquefied, dropping the entire town eight to ten feet and handing it over to the relentless tides of Turnagain Arm.We explore the terrifying geology of liquefaction, the irony of a town built on a recurring disaster site, and the quiet erasure of a place that infrastructure created and nature reclaimed.If you enjoyed this deep dive into Alaska’s sunken history, please follow the show on Spotify to catch every stop on our journey through America's disappeared places.Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected]: Andrew WilcoxTheme Music: Special thanks to Chloe Jones for providing the atmospheric score. Discover more of her music at chloejonesmusic.co.uk.

Dyea, Alaska: The Town That Lost a Race and Died of ItThere is a cemetery in Southeast Alaska where almost every headstone shares the same date: April 3, 1898.In this episode of Drive-Thru Towns, host Andrew Wilcox takes us to a flat river delta near Skagway that was once home to 8,000 people. During the height of the Klondike Gold Rush, Dyea was the gateway to the brutal Chilkoot Pass—the "Golden Stairs" to wealth or ruin.We explore the "Palm Sunday Avalanche," a disaster that buried dozens of stampeders under walls of white, and the subsequent rise of the railroad that ultimately rendered the town obsolete. It wasn't the mountain that killed Dyea; it was a surveyor’s decision ten miles away.If you enjoyed this journey into Alaska’s "ghost" geography, please follow the show on Spotify to catch every stop on our map.Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected]: Andrew WilcoxTheme Music: A special thanks to Chloe Jones for the hauntingly beautiful score. Explore more of her work at chloejonesmusic.co.uk.

Drive Thru Towns — Season 2 Trailer: AlaskaWelcome to Drive Thru Towns.Season 2 is here — and we're heading somewhere bigger, wilder, and colder than anywhere we've been before.Alaska.This season, we leave the moss-draped back roads of Florida behind and drive north — all the way to the edge of the continent, and sometimes beyond it. We're talking about a town the earth swallowed whole in under five minutes. A road built in eight months by soldiers whose names were literally erased from the photographs. A village everyone abandoned — and nobody can fully explain why. A bunker city carved into a mountain by a Cold War military that needed a secret. And the very top of the world, where America simply runs out of road.Alaska has always been the place where history went to disappear. This season, we're going to find it.This season covers:The earthquake ghost town of Portage — swallowed by the tides of Turnagain Arm in 1964Dyea — the gold rush boomtown that lost a race to its neighbor and vanished inside a single seasonWhittier — the secret WWII bunker city where most of the town still lives under one roofNinilchik — a Russian colonial settlement where an Imperial-era dialect of Russian is still spoken todayThe ALCAN — the highway that connected a continent, built on a history it spent 75 years trying to eraseUtqiagvik (Barrow) — 1,500 years of continuous habitation at the top of the world, where America ends and the dark beginsAnd much moreSeason 2 of Drive Thru Towns drops soon. Follow now so you don't miss the first episode.Connect with the ShowHost: Andrew WilcoxFollow for more episodes: [Click Follow on Spotify]Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected] thanks to Chloe Jones for the music: chloejonesmusic.co.uk

Havana & Quincy: The Millionaires of Shade TobaccoWelcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we travel the rolling hills of Gadsden County to explore Havana and Quincy, Florida—two towns built on the "green gold" of shade tobacco and a single, legendary investment that changed the face of the American South.This isn't just a story about farming; it’s a masterclass in risk, vision, and the "fads" that end up defining centuries. We pull over to look at:The Shade Tobacco Empire: How a specific, fragile leaf grown under massive tapestries of cheesecloth turned Gadsden County into the cigar-wrapper capital of the world.The Coca-Cola Millionaires: The incredible true story of Pat Munroe, the Quincy banker who pressured his neighbors to buy shares of a "failing" soda company during the Great Depression—turning a small Florida town into the wealthiest per-capita community in the United States.The "Fad" That Lasted: A personal look at the skepticism of those who passed on the Coca-Cola stock, including the host's own family history at the Salem cemetery.The Architecture of Wealth: From the grand Victorian "Coca-Cola Mansions" of Quincy to the repurposed tobacco barns of Havana that now house the state's premier antique collections.A Landscape of Ghosts: Moving through the "Havana Curves" where the ghosts of the tobacco industry still whisper from the shadows of abandoned curing barns.Havana and Quincy remind us that history is often made by the things we can’t see coming—and that sometimes, the best move you can make is betting on the thing everyone else calls a "fad."Host: Andrew WilcoxFollow for more episodes: [Click Follow on Spotify]Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected] thanks to Chloe Jones for the music: chloejonesmusic.co.uk

Micanopy: The Town That Time ForgotWelcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we pull off US-441 and move under a canopy of ancient live oaks to visit Micanopy, Florida—a place where the humidity feels like history and the light moves as slow as the traffic.Micanopy isn't just an antique capital; it is the oldest inland town in Florida and a landscape that has inspired Pulitzer Prize winners and Hollywood directors alike. We explore the deep layers of the "Florida Gothic" aesthetic, including:The Namesake Chief: The story of Micanopy, the "High Chief" of the Seminole Nation, and the fierce resistance that defined the Second Seminole War.A Lost Utopia: The 1820s experiment of "Alachua," one of the few Jewish communitarian agricultural colonies in the antebellum South.The Hollywood Transformation: How this quiet village stood in for South Carolina in the 1991 film Doc Hollywood, and why its "moss-draped perfection" made it the ultimate cinematic backdrop.The Literary Edge: The town’s connection to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and the rugged, beautiful "scrub" life that defined her world-famous writing.Bison in the Prairie: The prehistoric feel of the adjacent Paynes Prairie, where wild horses and bison still roam a landscape documented by naturalists over 250 years ago.Micanopy is a town that doesn't just preserve the past; it lives in it. It’s a place where you don't go to see sights—you go to remember a version of Florida that existed long before the first theme park was even a dream.Host: Andrew WilcoxFollow for more episodes: [Click Follow on Spotify]Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected] thanks to Chloe Jones for the music: chloejonesmusic.co.ukConnect with the ShowCredits

Cedar Key & Rosewood: Pencils, Clams, and a Buried TownWelcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we travel to the end of State Road 24 to visit two towns forever linked by a railroad, a swamp, and a silence that took decades to break: Cedar Key and Rosewood, Florida.This isn't just a trip to a quiet fishing village; it’s a journey through the tools that wrote American history and the stories that were nearly erased from it. We explore:The Pencil Capital of the World: How the towering cedar forests of these islands provided the wood for billions of pencils, fueling American education and bureaucracy until the trees simply ran out.Atsena Otie: The "original" Cedar Key, now a ghost island of ruins and cisterns, abandoned after the devastating hurricane of 1896 proved that nature always has the final say.The Tragedy of Rosewood: A somber look at the self-sufficient, prosperous African American community that was destroyed in a week of violence in 1923—and the brave railroad conductor who risked everything to spirit women and children to safety.Breaking the Silence: How a town "erased" from the map for sixty years finally had its story told, leading to a historic act of state restitution.The Clam Resurrection: How a community that lost its timber and its nets reinvented itself as a world-class aquaculture hub, proving that resilience is the true local industry.The road into Cedar Key is the same road out, but after hearing these stories, you’ll never look at the Florida hammock—or a Number Two pencil—the same way again.Host: Andrew WilcoxFollow for more episodes: [Click Follow on Spotify]Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected] thanks to Chloe Jones for the music: chloejonesmusic.co.uk

Fernandina Beach: The Isle of Eight FlagsWelcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we steer toward the northeastern tip of Florida to Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island—a place that has seen more flags, more pirates, and more reinventions than perhaps any other spot in America.Fernandina Beach isn't just a charming Victorian escape; it is a survivor of centuries of global tug-of-war. We explore the high-stakes history of this deep-water harbor, including:The Pirate Republic: The wild story of Luis Aury, a French privateer who claimed the island for a Mexican Republic that didn't even know he existed, just to provide cover for his smuggling operations.The Eight Flags: Why this small island holds the unique distinction of having been under eight different national flags—from France and Spain to the short-lived "Republic of the Floridas."The Manhattan of the South: How Senator David Levy Yulee built the state's first cross-peninsula railroad and envisioned a metropolis that would rival New York, only to have his dreams derailed by the Civil War.The Palace Saloon: A look inside the oldest continuously operated bar in Florida, which survived Prohibition by selling "medicinal" ice cream and gasoline, and where a ghost bartender reportedly still keeps watch.Victorian Resilience: How a town that once thrived on shrimping and shipping preserved its stunning "gingerbread" architecture to become a masterclass in historic preservation.Fernandina Beach is a town that empires wanted, pirates stole, and locals saved. It’s a reminder that even the most beautiful places are often forged in the fires of conflict and ambition.Host: Andrew WilcoxFollow for more episodes: [Click Follow on Spotify]Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected] thanks to Chloe Jones for the music: chloejonesmusic.co.uk

Mount Dora: Where the Map LiesWelcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we climb to one of the highest points in Florida to discover Mount Dora—a town that defies every geological and cultural expectation of the Sunshine State.Mount Dora isn't just a quaint village of antique shops and bed-and-breakfasts; it is a place of inland lighthouses, cinematic history, and Cold War secrets. We explore the fascinating contradictions of this lakeside "mountain" town, including:The Mountain and the Light: How a town at 184 feet above sea level became a Florida "peak" and why it maintains a proud, freshwater lighthouse miles from any coastline.The Catacombs of Mount Dora: The incredible story of the "Catacombs," a 5,000-square-foot private bomb shelter built during the height of nuclear anxiety—complete with a 2,000-pound steel door hidden beneath a croquet court.The Pinkest Disaster in Hollywood: A look back at the time Hollywood painted the entire town Pepto-Bismol pink for the film Honky Tonk Freeway, and how the town survived the movie’s spectacular box-office failure.Pat Alasnas’s Ghost: The literary legacy of the novel Alas, Babylon, which used Mount Dora as the inspiration for a town surviving nuclear annihilation.A Legacy of Stubbornness: How Mount Dora has maintained its identity—and its afternoon tea—against the relentless pull of nearby Orlando’s theme park gravity.Mount Dora is a masterclass in being exactly yourself, regardless of what the map or the neighbors say. It is a town built on a ridge that looks out over a landscape it refuses to conform to.Host: Andrew WilcoxFollow for more episodes: [Click Follow on Spotify]Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected] thanks to Chloe Jones for the music: chloejonesmusic.co.uk

Port St. Joe: The Town That Wrote Florida’s Soul—Then VanishedWelcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we explore the "Forgotten Coast" to uncover the story of a city that was once the largest and most ambitious in Florida—only to be wiped off the map in less than a decade.Port St. Joe (formerly St. Joseph) isn't just a quiet waterfront town; it is the birthplace of Florida’s legal identity. We look at the rise, fall, and resurrection of a city that refused to stay buried:The Rivalry of the Century: How a group of defiant businessmen built St. Joseph from scratch just to spite the neighboring town of Apalachicola.The Constitutional Convention: The incredible story of how the legal soul of Florida was written in 1838 in a grand hall that no longer exists.The Triple Crown of Disaster: A harrowing look at how yellow fever, a devastating fire, and a massive storm surge erased a city of 12,000 residents in a matter of years.The Great Migration: How the few surviving houses were literally floated on barges across the bay to start over in other cities.Modern Resilience: A visit to the Port St. Joe of today—a place of pristine scallops, working waterfronts, and a museum where mannequins tell the story of a vanished empire.Port St. Joe reminds us that while cities can be erased by the elements, the ideas and laws they leave behind can govern for centuries.Host: Andrew WilcoxFollow for more episodes: [Click Follow on Spotify]Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected] thanks to Chloe Jones for the music: chloejonesmusic.co.uk

Welcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we journey to the edge of the map to Everglades City, Florida—a town where the line between the wilderness and the law has always been as thin as a mangrove leaf.Everglades City isn't just a gateway to a National Park; it’s a monument to stubbornness, isolated ambition, and a local history that reads like a thriller. We dive into:The Vision of Barron Collier: How a self-made advertising tycoon bought a county’s worth of swamp and tried to build a corporate utopia in the middle of nowhere.The Tamiami Trail: The brutal, explosive saga of building the "Impossible Road," a feat of engineering that required millions of pounds of dynamite to blast through solid limestone.The "Square Grouper" Era: A look at the 1970s and 80s, when the town’s labyrinth of mangroves became the primary entry point for a multi-million dollar marijuana smuggling trade.Operation Everglades: The 1983 federal raid that saw nearly every able-bodied man in town arrested, leaving a legacy of local defiance and silence.Survival and Stone Crabs: How a community that has survived world-changing hurricanes and massive federal stings continues to reinvent itself as the "Stone Crab Capital of the World".Everglades City is a place where nature eventually wins every argument, but the people here have never stopped talking back. It is a town defined by what it chose to keep out—and what it was brave enough to let in.Host: Andrew WilcoxFollow for more episodes: [Click Follow on Spotify]Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected] thanks to Chloe Jones for the music: chloejonesmusic.co.uk

Apalachicola: The Town That Froze the WorldWelcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we travel to the "Forgotten Coast" to visit Apalachicola, Florida—a place that proves you don't need a theme park to have a world-changing story.Apalachicola isn't just a picturesque fishing village; it’s a town built on ice, cotton, and a fierce sense of survival. We explore the layers of history hidden beneath the oyster shells, including:The Ice Man of Florida: How Dr. John Gorrie accidentally invented mechanical refrigeration and the air conditioner in 1844 while trying to cure yellow fever.A National Tragedy: The story of the "Apalachicola Ice Queen"—the ship that was supposed to bring Gorrie's invention to the world but sank, leaving him to die in poverty and obscurity.The Cotton Kingdom: How this small port once handled more cotton than almost anywhere else in the South, creating a skyline of brick warehouses that still stand today.The Oyster Capital: The rise and fall of the legendary Apalachicola Bay oyster industry and the town's ongoing battle to save its ecological heart.Botany and Rebellion: The legacy of Alvan Wentworth Chapman, the world-famous botanist who stayed in Apalachicola through the Civil War despite his Union sympathies.Apalachicola is a town that the 20th century largely forgot to pave over. It remains a masterclass in "Florida Gothic"—weathered, beautiful, and deeply human.Host: Andrew WilcoxFollow for more episodes: [Click Follow on Spotify]Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected] thanks to Chloe Jones for the music: chloejonesmusic.co.uk

Cassadaga: Where Mayberry Meets the Twilight ZoneWelcome back to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we venture off the fluorescent path of Florida’s theme parks and into a 57-acre historic community that has spent over 130 years talking to the other side.Cassadaga, Florida, isn't your typical roadside attraction. It is a National Register of Historic Places site and the oldest continuously active Spiritualist community in the Southeast. We go beyond the "Certified Medium On Duty" signs to explore:The Founding Ghost: How a young medium named George Colby followed a spirit guide named Seneca from the frozen lakes of Minnesota to the healing springs of Florida to cure his tuberculosis.The "Seer of Spiritualism": The story of a man who built a town on land shown to him in a séance and then deeded it all to the community.A Religion, Not a Gimmick: Understanding Spiritualism as a recognized religion that believes in the survival of personality after death and the healing power of communication.The Legend of the Devil’s Chair: Uncovering the true, heartbreaking history of a cemetery bench built for a grieving man with arthritis—and the urban legends that followed.The Golden Age and the Hotel: A look at the Cassadaga Hotel, its 1926 fire, and "Arthur," the cigar-smoking spirit who reportedly never checked out.Cassadaga was built on the universal human ache of grief, born from a need to prove that the people we love do not simply cease to exist. Whether you're a skeptic or a seeker, the silence here has something to say.Host: Andrew WilcoxFollow for more episodes: [Click Follow on Spotify]Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected] thanks to Chloe Jones for the music: chloejonesmusic.co.uk

St. Marks: Small Town, Enormous TabWelcome to Drive Thru Towns. In this episode, we pull over at the end of the road in North Florida to explore St. Marks—a town of 300 people with enough history to fill a library.From Spanish forts plastered in lime to look like stone to a pirate who declared his own sovereign nation in a swamp , St. Marks is a place where geography becomes destiny. We dive deep into:The "New Pocahontas": The tragic and heroic story of Milly Francis, a fifteen-year-old girl who saved a soldier's life only to have her own father executed at the same fort.The Railroad that Killed a Town: How a simple track alignment in 1837 caused the neighboring town of Magnolia to vanish into thin air.The Lighthouse that Refused to Die: A structure built from the ruins of a "recycled empire" that survived hurricanes, Civil War shelling, and a direct attempt at demolition.The Modern Refuge: How a mosquito-choked "fever swamp" transformed into a world-class restorative landscape for migratory birds and monarch butterflies.History isn't behind glass in St. Marks—it's under your feet. Next time you see the sign, don’t just drive through. Pull over.Host: Andrew WilcoxFollow for more episodes: [Click Follow on Spotify]Instagram: @50statefamilyLinkedIn: Andrew WilcoxEmail: [email protected] thanks to Chloe Jones for the music: chloejonesmusic.co.uk

Drive‑Thru Towns – TrailerHosted by: Andrew WilcoxMusic by: Chloe JonesEver blown past a tiny town, slowed only by a red light or a gas pump, and thought, “There’s nothing there”?Drive‑Thru Towns is here to prove you wrong.I’m Andrew Wilcox, a sixth‑generation Floridian who grew up on the back roads while my mom made me read every historical marker out loud. Season One stays in Florida, but not the theme‑park, brochure version. We dive into forgotten ports and ghosted boomtowns, island villages that went from pencil wood to world‑champion chowder, back‑road crossroads where entire communities were erased and later remembered, swamp outposts built on stone crab claws and smuggling, psychic camps with “Medium On Duty” signs in the yard, lakeside “mountains” that once let Hollywood paint downtown pink, and hill towns where shade‑grown tobacco and Coca‑Cola stock quietly made millionaires.Each episode starts in the driver’s seat—what you’d see through the windshield today if you blew right past. Then we pull over, wander the streets, find one local food you have to try and exactly where to sit a spell, and dig into the odd, human, often ridiculous stories underneath—how these towns rose, fell, got weird, and why they still matter.If you love back roads, overlooked history, and the feeling that every dot on the map is hiding something, you’re in the right place.Hosted byAndrew WilcoxMusic byChloe Jones – hear more at: https://www.chloejonesmusic.co.uk/Connect with AndrewInstagram: @50StatefamilyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilcoxlegal/Email: [email protected]: Wilcox‑legal.comIf you enjoyed the trailer:Follow Drive‑Thru Towns on Spotify so you don’t miss Season One.Rate and review the show to help other curious travelers find it.Share the trailer with a friend who always takes the scenic route—or should.