Butt Rott And The Outhouse

Michael Kruse: DUNNELLON

A palm tree with butt rot fell over a few weeks back and crushed this community's historic three-hole outhouse.

Stop laughing. This is serious.

Good riddance? Not here.

Dunnellon is a south Marion County town of not quite 2,000 people. On the outskirts, it looks like so much of Florida, Wal-Mart, Sonic, billboards for car insurance, foot doctors and retirement homes. Get closer to the center, though, and that starts to change.

There's a blue-gray, rust-topped, way-cool water tower. There's a TV repair shop. There's a pastel-pink, single-story motel called the Two Rivers Inn.

There's also a house, now home to First Realty of Dunnellon, with creaky hardwood floors, and a silver metal roof, and a big, deep porch good for sitting on wicker chairs and drinking tea that's too sweet.

Behind the house is the outhouse.

And inside the house is the woman who says she's going to save it.