A tractor-trailer crashed into and all but destroyed the historic Desert Inn and Restaurant in Yeehaw Junction, Florida, early Sunday morning.

According to Lt. Kim Montes of the Florida Highway Patrol, a semi-truck hauling orange juice drove into the building shortly after 3:00 a.m.

The driver – 50-year old Mareo Cawley of Chicago, Illinois – told troopers that he was driving northbound on U.S. 441 when he turned westbound and hit the building. “The road was dark” and he “didn’t realize” he left the road, Montes said.

The Desert Inn, the centerpiece of Yeehaw Junction, is located just west of the Florida Turnpike on State Road 60. Having closed in June, 2018, no one was inside the building at the time of the crash.

According to FHP, when tow trucks attempted to remove the semi-truck, part of the building collapsed.

Originally built as a trading post in the late 1880s for cowboys and lumbermen, the Desert Inn has served as a saloon, restaurant, gas station, dance hall – and – a brothel. The current building – dating back to 1925 – was added to the U.S. Register of Historic Places in 1994.

The accident remains under investigation and charges against Cawley are pending, trooper Lt. Kim Montes said.

[All pictures copywrite William Lewis]

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