In 1876, a close presidential contest was tilted by means of a few stuffed ballot boxes, one of which came from the village of Archer, Florida. That fraud is the departure point for Norman Gilliland's historical novel Sand Mansions, a remarkable story of carpetbag politics, get-rich-quick schemes, and hasty justice - a story based closely on events that shaped the history of northern Florida and the nation in the years 1876 to 1905.