Tom Gaskins’ Knees

Along U.S. 27 in Palmdale, which was once a major transportation artery, stands what remains of one of Florida’s lost tourist attractions: Tom Gaskins’ Cypress Knee Museum. For decades the site was home to the eccentric entrepreneur and his unique collection of cypress knees; those stalagmite-looking growths on the buttress roots of Bald Cypress trees that abound deep in the Florida swampland. The museum has fallen into neglect and disrepair since Gaskins’ death 17 years ago, but the historic site continues to contain small glimmers of its former glory as News-Press storyteller Amy Bennett Williams tells us in this week’s essay.