The U.S Navy's Expedition to Lake Okeechobee: 1842

By Bob Davidsson
        For most of its 6,000-year history, Lake Okeechobee, also known as Florida's "Inland Sea," was a mystery to the outside world.
        Between 1824-45, most of Lake Okeechobee was included in Florida's "Mosquito County," a sparsely populated frontier province extending from modern Daytona Beach south to the Hillsboro River. It was not until the final months of the Second Seminole War in 1842 that a military expedition was organized by the U.S. Navy to explore the 730-square-mile lake and its unknown water sources and outlets.
        The primary goal of the expedition was to locate hostile Seminole villages along the shores of the lake, specifically to find an elusive medicine chief named Sam Jones (Abiaka). His last known hideout was reported near the mouth of the Kissimmee River.
        It was the sage advice of Sam Jones which led to the victory over U.S. troops Dec. 25, 1837 at the battle of Okeechobee near Taylor's Creek. His successful defensive strategies were repeated at the first battle of the Loxahatchee River fought three weeks later near Jupiter Inlet, and at the March 22, 1838 battle of Pine Island Ridge in Broward County.

A Lake with Many Names
        Lake Okeechobee has often been described as a shallow bowl, with an average depth of just 8 to 10 feet, with a base made of clay and limestone, and tilted on its southwest side to allow an outflow of water to the Everglades and Florida Bay.
        Perhaps the first European to view the wide nautical expanse of the largest freshwater lake within the borders of a single state was a Spanish captive of the Calusa Indians named Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda. In his 1572 "Memoirs," published in Spain after his rescue, he called it "Lake Mayaimi" after the name of the tribe living along its western shore.
        The Mayaimi (or Maymi) tribe were descendants of the Calusa mound building culture. Their neighbors to the east in the 16th century were the Santaluces Indians, another mound-building tribe, centered in their main village of Guacata near modern Pahokee on the southeast shore of the big lake, with villages extending north and east to the St. Lucie River.*
        The name "Lake Mayaimi" was used to identify the inland sea on Spanish maps during most of the 16th and 17th centuries in Spain's First Colonial Period in Florida (1513-1763). During Spain's Second Colonial Period (1783-1821), the lake also acquired a religious moniker, "Laguna de Espiritu Santo" (Lagoon of the Holy Spirit).
       Adding to the geographic confusion, Rene de Laudonniere, the French founder and governor of the short-lived Fort Caroline settlement, christened the big lake "Serrope" during a 1564 journey up the St. John's River. He rescued two Spanish captives of the Ais Indians, who gave him an interesting description of the lake included in his "L'Histaire Notable de la Florida," published in 1586.
        He wrote, "Near the middle of his route was a lake called 'Serrope' nigh five leagues about encircle an island, whereon dwelt a race of men valorous in war and opulent from a traffic in dates, fruits and a root 'so excellent well fitted for bread that you could not possibly eat better,' which formed the staple food of their neighbors."
        During Florida's British Colonial Period (1763-83), yet another name appeared on English maps of Florida - "Lake Mayacco (or Mayaca)". The lake was renamed for a small Indian village on its eastern shore that served as the last refuge for remnants of the Mayaca, Maymi and Santaluces tribes at the time of British rule.
        When the United States purchased Florida from Spain, the big lake was known as "Lake Macaco" on early Florida territorial maps. However, by the 1840's, most geographers adopted the Seminole tribe's Hitchiti dialect name - "Oki (water)-chubi (big) - transcribed as Lake Okeechobee.

The Rodgers Expedition to Lake Okeechobee
        After nearly seven years of inconclusive warfare between the U.S. Army and the Seminole nation from 1835 to 1841, the War Department desperately sought a military solution to end the costly stalemate in Florida.
        While the Army was successful in forcibly transporting most of the Seminole tribe and many of their Miccosukee allies to "Indian Territory" in Oklahoma, several hundred determined Indians and their principal war chiefs continued to elude pursuers in the vast Everglades of South Florida. The unique marsh environment of the Everglades required a radical change of tactics.
        Colonel William Jenkins Worth, and his naval counterpart, Captain J.T. McLaughlin, commander of the Navy's Florida Expedition, more commonly known as the "Mosquito Fleet," developed an ultimately successful strategy in the winter of 1841-42.
        Using native dugout canoes, Seminole guides, and a small picked force of soldiers, Army Capt. Richard Wade surprised a large band of Indians in their hunting camp on the Hillsboro River, south of the Boca Raton Inlet. He followed this success by raiding Cha-chi village, located west of  Hypoluxo Lake (later changed to Lake Worth), and exploring the entire 20-mile length of the waterway.*
        The Navy also adopted the use of a 19th century rapid deployment force consisting of hand-picked Marines and sailors from the brigs "USS Madison" and "USS Jefferson" of the Mosquito Fleet. Lt. John Rodgers was selected to lead an expedition to the uncharted inland lake called Okeechobee by its native inhabitants.
        Today, we are fortunate to have two detailed accounts of the two-month Rodgers expedition. The first is the "Official Report of Lt. John Rodgers" drafted and filed April 12, 1842 while aboard the brig "Jefferson." The second historic record is the "Diary of a Canoe Expedition into the Everglades of Florida". The journal was kept by Midshipman George Preble, an officer serving under Lt. Rodgers.
        Preparations for the Okeechobee expedition began Feb. 4, 1842 on the island of Indian Key, located five miles southeast of Islamorada, Florida. Indian Key, the county seat of Dade County during the Seminole war, was recovering from a devastating raid by the chieftain Chekika and his band of so-called "Spanish Indians" in August 1840.
        The Navy assumed temporary military control of Indian Key for the remainder of the Indian war to ensure the protection the surviving residents. The brig "Jefferson" transported Lt. Rodgers and 22 men Feb. 12 from Indian Key to Key Biscayne.
        They paddled their five dugout canoes from Key Biscayne to Fort Dallas (Miami), where they camped and were joined by a detachment of sailors and canoes from the brig "Madison". Rodgers divided his command into three divisions totaling 16 canoes, 51 sailors, 24 Marines, Seminole guide John Tigertail, one African-American aide-de-camp, one "squaw" and her "papoose".
        The canoes used in the expedition were described as "cypress dugout construction," 30 feet long and four feet wide, with six-foot lockers in the sterns for supplies and blankets. Each canoe also was issued a cotton sheet that served as a tent or boat cover at night.
        While crossing the Everglades, the expedition often failed to find dry ground at sunset. The sailors and Marines placed their oars broadside across the canoes and slept in their boats at night.
        On Feb. 14, Rodgers led his 87 Marines and sailors to the source of the New River which they followed east to the abandoned Army post of Fort Lauderdale. The next day they retraced their route upriver and began seven days of slogging north-by-northwest through the marshes, hammocks and reptile-infested gator holes of the Everglades.
        They reached their goal on Feb. 22. Midshipman Preble's expedition "Diary" reads, "At 4:30 p.m. left the Everglades, passed through a narrow belt of cypress swamp, hauled (the canoes) over a sandy ridge, and launched our canoes in the waters of Lake Okeechobee, or Big Water."
        "We camped under what was once Fort Dulray," the Diary states, "a cabbage-tree log fortress. The lake spread out before us, and to the west where the sun went down, no land visible."
        The "Dulray" ruins cited in Preble's Navy journal was Fort McRae, an Army post built in 1838 and decommissioned three years prior to the Rodgers expedition. It was located north of Port Mayaca, near the St. Lucie Canal.
        The expedition continued paddling west along the coast of Lake Okeechobee. They passed eight abandoned Seminole villages along the shore of he lake. Their guide, John Tigertail, reported the villages were deserted in 1837.

Exploring the Water Sources of Lake Okeechobee
        The expedition reached the mouth of Fisheating Creek, near the town of Lakeport in Glades County, on March 3. In his "Official Report," Lt. Rodgers wrote, "The 'Thlo-thlo-pop-ke' or Fisheating Creek runs through on an open prairie, to which it serves as a drain."
        "This stream is very tortuous, and sometimes swells to a river, and then dwindles into a brook. Its head is in a marshy prairie, where a number of streamlets run together about 20 miles in a straight line due east to Okeechobee, but following the course of the creek is about twice that distance."
        He concluded, "The banks of Fisheating Creek are covered with game, and its waters filled with fish."
        By March 11, the expedition reached the mouth of the Kissimmee River, the source of more than 60 percent of the water entering Lake Okeechobee. Rodger's command spent the next 18 days exploring the river, nearby lakes and tributaries, and Army posts in the area.
        Lt. Rodgers reported, "The Kissimmee is a deep, rapid stream, and generally running through a marshy plain, but sometimes the pine land approaches its borders, and sometimes beautiful live oak hammocks fringe its banks."
        "The Kissimmee is, I think, the natural drain of the immense plains what form this part of the country; but though deep and rapid, it is quite narrow. It is something strange that very often the surface of the river is covered by floating grass and weeds so strongly matted together that the men stood upon the mass and hauled our boats over it, as with our shoals."
        Rodgers observed "Indians once lived here in great numbers" prior to the Second Seminole War. In a futile attempt to capture the chieftain Sam Jones, the sailors and Marines surrounded the village of  "I-to-kee-tah" (Deer-Driving Place) for a dawn attack. They entered a town long deserted by its inhabitants.

The Long Journey Back to Indian Key
        Rodgers was perhaps the first explorer to identify the "River of Grass" (Pay-hai-o-ke) extending from the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay. In his "Official Report," he accurately concludes, "The Kissimmee runs into the Okeechobee, which fills its spongy sides into the Everglades, whose waters finally by many streams empty into the ocean."
        The expedition entered the deserted stockade of Fort Gardner near Lake Kissimmee on March 19. The next day they began the long journey down the Kissimmee River and retraced their nautical route along the west shore of Lake Okeechobee. They rested for three days, March 28-30, at Fort Center in Glades County. Rodgers left 12 weary Marines and eight sailors to help garrison the post.
        The remaining sailors and Marines in Rodgers' command returned to the ruins of  "Fort Dulray" on April 1, and the next day re-entered the Everglades. They emerged from swamps eight days later and drifted down the New River to Fort Lauderdale.
        In his "Official Report, Rodgers wrote, "We returned to Key Biscayne, having been living in our canoes for 58 days, with less rest, fewer luxuries, and harder work than fall to the lot of that estimable class of citizens who dig our canals. At Key Biscayne, the various detachments were disbanded, and returned to their several commands."
        Rodgers returned to Indian Key and filed his report on April 12. He would lead one final expedition against the Seminoles a few days before the end of the war. On June 4, 1842, an official notice arrived by ship at Indian Key. The President of the United States proclaimed the "Florida War" at an end.
        About 300 Seminole and Miccosukee Indians remained in the Everglades, including the elusive Sam Jones. They did not surrender.  Lt. Rodgers, a Virginia native, served the Union as the captain of three new ironclad warships during the Civil War. He later retired with the rank of rear admiral.
(c.) 2016.

*NOTE: View related articles entitled "Cha-chi's Village Rests Beneath West Palm Beach" and "Uncovering the History of the Santaluces Indians" archived in Older Posts.