Florida Declared United States' Weirdest News State

Apr 27, 2011
Jill Stefko

Florida: Augustine Lighthouse has Weird Stuff - Public Domain

Many journalists maintain Florida is known as the state that engenders the most weird news and weirdest weird news; some of a paranormal genre.

Spanish Conquistador Juan Ponce de León discovered Florida while he was searching for the legendary Fountain of Youth. He named the land La Florida or "place of flowers." He dubbed the area where he coped with rough currents Cabo Canaveral, Cape of Currents. He sailed up Florida’s west coast into the Charlotte Harbor region where he and his crew encountered the hostile Calusa tribe. The explorers fled to their ships and returned to Puerto Rico.

In 1521, Ponce de León returned to Florida’s gulf coast to create a farming colony with over two hundred settlers, their horses, seeds and tools. The Calusas ambushed them. Ponce de León was seriously wounded by an arrow. The settlers abandoned the colony and returned to Cuba, where the conquistador died. The reason why Ponce de León discovered Florida is weird.

Florida Named Weirdest US State

Chuck Shepherd, Florida resident and weird news reporter, said the Sunshine State surfaced as a weird news hub around a decade ago. He’s given the credit for creating weird news reporting because of his syndicated News of the Weird column. Florida historian Gary Mormino, history professor at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, agrees that Florida surpassed California as the weird news center then. Many Americans noticed the change in 2000 when Florida made national news about the contested presidential Bush/Gore election.

Since then, an analysis of Associated Press articles has identified Florida as the nation's strangest state. Fark.com classifies news stories by tags, including weird. Florida is the only state that has a tag, a keyword on the website since 2001. Tony Deconinck, Fark administrator and AOL Weird News contributor, stated that when odd items are published, Florida is the ultimate in weirdness. AOL Weird News journalists have written more weird news stories about Florida than any other state.

Weird Creature Found on Beach near St. Augustine, Florida

November 1896 news: “Lusca Found near St. Augustine Beach.” The legendary creature is a half-shark, half-octopus, man-eating critter. The carcass was twenty-three feet long, eighteen feet wide, four feet high and appeared to have multiple appendages. Some of the few survivors of Lusca attacks agree with the description of the body.

The men told naturalist Dr. Dewitt Webb about their discovery. He examined the corpse. Webb photographed the creature’s body and took samples. He discovered that the three and a half inch thick skin was axe-proof and estimated the body weighed about six or seven tons. Four horses and a team of people had to drag it forty feet from the beach to keep the body safe from waves. The corpse remained a mystery for many years.

Florida’s Weird Fauna: Apes and Napes

Hairy hominid sightings, with the exception of Antarctica, are universal. Skunk Apes and Napes are Florida's Hairy Bipeds: Sightings in the Everglades Began in the Mid 1970s. Apes aren’t native to the US. Napes resemble chimpanzees. Skunk apes are larger: they can be up to seven feet tall and weigh more than four hundred pounds. The critters emit a stench that smells like rotten eggs, methane or a mixture of rotten eggs, moldy cheese and dung. Florida is unique in that both hairy bipeds make it their home.

Haunted St. Augustine Lighthouse: Weird Phenomena

Florida has ghosts. One of the most intriguing places is the Haunted St. Augustine Lighthouse where Ghosts Haunt the Tower, Keepers House, Oil Structure and Grounds. People have smelled cigar smoke in the oil-house.

Children’s ghosts have been sighted playing on the lighthouse grounds. A spectral young girl, dressed in old-fashioned clothing, appears in the keeper’s house where phantom footsteps are heard. Witnesses have heard mysterious footsteps climbing the tower steps that fade away and voices in the lighthouse. The staff has found the door at the top of the tower unlocked, although it was locked the previous night. People have seen a ghostly tall man in its basement. There’s a poltergeist in the gift shop. Employees named him Andrew.

Does Florida have More Weird News than other US States?

Will Greenlee, reporter for Treasure Coast Newspapers' "Off The Beat," said it's not clear if Florida has more weird news than other states or if more weird news stories are printed in its newspapers. He stated a contributory factor is that Florida has very liberal open records laws, so it’s easier to access police reports.

This is a debatable point. When odd news happens, there are usually news reports. A good example made Pennsylvania news about a decade ago. A man in the Scranton area was found not guilty of or given probation for theft. He was so delighted that he stole a stenographer’s computer, then hocked it at a nearby pawn shop. The shop’s owner told the thief that the cable was missing. After the man left, the proprietor called the police. The perp returned to the shop with the cable and was arrested.

There have been many paranormal cases when the police were contacted. When people see ghosts, have poltergeist phenomena, sight cryptids and experience anomalies, they often call the police because they’re usually scared and don’t know who else to call. If the police witness the incidents, they usually have no explanations. These incidents have made headlines.

Could it be that Greenlee’s suggestion about Florida’s open record laws being a factor in weird news is fallible? I’ve lived in five states since 1979 and remember reading weird news in all of them. The bottom line is that Florida has more weird news than other states. Does the reason why matter?