By Bob Davidsson
Fort McRae was a hastily built wooden frontier outpost on Lake Okeechobee serving the U.S. Army as a supply depot and reconnaissance reporting station during both the Second and Third Seminole Indian Wars.
It was one of only two blockhouses built by the Army to observe movements by the Seminole tribe around the big lake. Fort McRae was established about five miles north of Port Mayaca in Martin County. Its sister outpost, Fort Center, was a stockade built 40 miles due west across the lake near the mouth of Fisheating Creek in Glades County.
Based upon later 19th century reports, the ruins of Fort McRae were located on the Okeechobee Ridge, a natural barrier that formed the original shoreline of the lake. The ridge separated the lake from low marshlands to the east. A small stream entered Lake Okeechobee near the fort, according to 1838 military maps.
A May 20, 1882, article published in Jacksonville's "Florida Dispatch" newspaper, entitled "Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee Canal," provided a detailed description of the topography of the land near the ruins of Fort McRae during the late 19th century.
"On the east side of Lake Okeechobee is Fort McRae, the newspaper reported, "which is on the borders of the lake and inside the sawgrass, which is two miles wide. The country is low prairie, with cypress, pine and cabbage palmetto islands."
"From Fort McRae, north to the mouth of the Kissimmee (River), there is a large body of hammock bays, that are immensely rich, covered with live oak, red bay, cypress and cabbage palmetto," the article concludes.
The history element of the "Dupuis Natural Area Future Management Plan, 2008-13, describes Fort McRae as "little more than a rough cabbage palm trunk stockade designed to store supplies and house a small garrison to defend the supplies."
In fact, there is much more to report about the history of Fort McRae and the people who built and served in the frontier outpost during two Indian wars.
Fort McRae in the Second Seminole War
Fort McRae was built as a supply encampment during Gen. Thomas Sidney Jesup's failed winter campaign of 1837-8 to bring the Second Seminole War (1835-42) to a close. His military strategy was to trap hostile Seminoles in a pincer movement between his east coast and interior armies. The plan almost worked.
As Jesup advanced south from Fort Pierce, down the Indian River to the Jupiter Inlet, a second force under the command of Col. Zachary Taylor moved south along the east bank of the Kissimmee River to the north shore of Lake Okeechobee. The Seminoles made their stand near a stream that would later be named Taylor Creek
The ensuing Battle of Okeechobee was fought on Christmas Day, 1837. It was a pyrrhic victory for the U.S. Army. The federal troops and militia won the field of battle, but sustained higher casualties and allowed their hostile adversaries to escape along the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee.
Col. Taylor pursued the Seminoles as far south as the ancient Big Mound City site in western Palm Beach County before halting his offensive. Along his march, he ordered the construction of the supply depot that was christened Fort McRae.
For the past 180 years there has been uncertainty and confusion about the naming of the military post. Who exactly was "McRae"? Adding to the confusion were two other military bases in Florida sharing the same name.
The best known Fort McRae (or McRee) guarded the entrance to Pensacola Bay during the Civil War. For a brief period, there also was a blockhouse named Fort McRae near the Turtle Mound site in Volusia County during the Second Seminole War.
No military document has been found recording the dedication of Fort McRae. Based upon the Army's tradition of naming forts in honor of fallen war heroes, it is likely the outpost was named for Major Archibald McRae of the Second Brigade, Florida Volunteers.
Captain McRae of Hamilton County enlisted with the Mounted Company, Second Regiment of the East Florida Volunteers on June 20, 1837. His enlistment document stated he joined the state militia with two servants and three horses.
McRae was promoted to the rank of major on July 20. His Florida Volunteers joined Col. Taylor Nov. 29 during his winter offensive. The militia officer was one of the casualties of this campaign.
After the Battle of Okeechobee, the Seminoles retreated before Col. Taylor's force and eluded their pursuers in the Loxahatchee Slough. They joined several other bands west of the Jupiter Inlet in time to fight in the Battle of Loxahatchee against advance units of General Jesup's eastern army on Jan. 24, 1838.
Once again the Seminoles were forced into a temporary refuge in the Loxahatchee Slough, with Col. Taylor to the west, General Jesup to the north, and a new "Military Trail" cleared to their east by Major William Lauderdale during his advance south to the New River.
General Jesup offered the Seminoles enticements if they surrendered at the newly built Fort Jupiter. Medicine chief Sam Jones (Abaika) flatly refused, and slipped past the Army's tightening pincer with his followers into the sanctuary of the Everglades. However, 527 Indians, the majority women and children, surrendered at Fort Jupiter. They were transported to St. Augustine then deported to Oklahoma.
In February 1838, Lt. W.G. Freeman, the officer in charge of the Seminole captives, was so concerned about the number of prisoners overflowing available facilities at Fort Jupiter that he sent 100 Indians under escort to Fort McRae. They were detained at the outpost until transports arrived to deport them.
General Jesup's failure to end the conflict resulted in his reassignment in May 1838. He was replaced by none other than Zachary Taylor, who likewise failed to win the Seminole war after two years as the Army's commanding officer in Florida.
Unlike Jesup, Taylor escaped the endless war with his reputation intact. He was hailed as the hero of the Battle of Okeechobee, received a promotion to the rank of general, and earned the endearing public moniker of "Old Rough and Ready." The Florida war was a stepping stone on the trail leading to his election as President of United States in 1848.
As for Fort McRae, its usefulness as a supply base waned as the Army discontinued large military campaigns in favor of small raids by picked units. The post was abandoned and fell into disrepair before the end of the war in 1842.
Capt. Martin Burke of the 3rd Artillery Regiment used the deserted outpost, which he described as the "old palmetto fortification" of Fort McRae, as a base of operations for three days during his September 1841 expedition to Lake Okeechobee.
In February 1842, Navy Lt. John Rodgers led an expedition of 87 sailors and marines to the site of Fort McRae. Midshipman George Preble described the event in his "Diary of a Canoe Expedition into the Everglades."
"At 4:30 p.m. (Feb. 22, 1842), left the Everglades," his diary states, "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 (McRae)," the midshipman reported, "a cabbage tree log fortress. The lake spread before us, and to the west the sun went down, no land visible."
Fort McRae in the Third Seminole War, 1855-58
The same year the Second Seminole War ended, Congress passed the "Armed Occupation Act of 1842" as an incentive to encourage settlers to move into the thinly populated Florida peninsula. The act granted 100 acres of unsettled land to any head of a family.
Some of the grants were on land formerly occupied by the Seminole nation. The tribe was not consulted prior to the passage of the act. Many members of Congress and the Florida Legislature hoped new settlements would pressure the Seminoles to move to reservations in Oklahoma.
In the months prior to the renewal of the Seminole war, the U.S. Army further pressured the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes by reactivating Forts McRae and Jupiter on the fringes of their Everglades sanctuary. The "Memoir of Lt. Col. John T. Greble," published by author Benson J. Lossim in 1870, describes the rebuilding of Fort McRae.
The Memoir states, "Late in February (1855) Lt. Greble was ordered to Fort McRae, on the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee, where a blockhouse was being built. He left Fort Myers with 10 men."
"The journey by land and water was wearisome," the Memoir continues. "They went up the Caloosahatchee to Fort Thompson, thence across the wet prairie to Fisheating Creek, and down the stream into and across Lake Okeechobee, a sheet of water covering about 1,200 square miles. They had a rough and perilous voyage across it, and found inhospitable camping grounds on its margin, for dreary swamps pressed close upon its border."
"They reached Fort McRae in safety and were then joined by another party detached for similar duty. The blockhouse was soon built, and the eastern shore of the lake explored and mapped," the Memoir concludes, "and Lt. Greble and his party returned by the way they went, reaching Fort Myers on the fifteenth of March."
The Greble Memoir is supported by a military record entitled "A Letter from Brevet Col. John Munroe to Col. Samuel Cooper and Col. Lorenzo Thomas, Fort Brooke, July 15, 1855." The report summarizes the second expedition sent to Fort McRae for its restoration.
"After having established his command at Fort Deynaud." the report states, "Major Mays will detach an officer with a party of men to construct a blockhouse upon the Fisheating Creek, near the site of old Fort Centre. Another blockhouse will also be constructed upon the east side of Lake Okeechobee and as far south as practicable."
"While these operations were being carried on south of the Caloosahatchee, the military record continues, "blockhouses had been constructed near the sites of old Forts McRae and Centre by a detachment under command of Captain Allen and Lt. Vincent, 2nd Artillery, the former completed early in April and the latter in February (1855), and both were garrisoned until the season was so far advanced as to render their temporary abandonment advisable."
Military posts during the Seminole wars were abandoned and reoccupied based upon the season of the year and needs of military commanders. The campaign season was fall, winter and spring. Due to diseases spread by insects, garrisons were often reassigned during the summer months.
Fort Denaud, located on the Caloosahatchee River, served as the supply base for the Lake Okeechobee outposts at Forts McRae and Center. Fort Brooke, built in 1824, was the main base of operations for west coast and interior regions of Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades during the Third Seminole War. Fort McRae was supplied by boats sent from Fort Denaud.
The Army sent armed surveying expeditions into the Everglades sanctuaries of the Seminole tribe. One surveying unit raided a plantation owned by Chief Billy Bowlegs, which sparked the beginning of Third Seminole War in December 1855.
During the war, Fort McRae was garrisoned by a company of the Florida Mounted Volunteers. As the war progressed, the U.S. Army relied heavily on Florida militia units to man its outposts. During the seven-year Second Seminole War, for example, 6,854 Florida volunteers were activated as U.S. militia units.
The Army's plan of action was to confine the Seminoles to the Everglades in South Florida by building a chain of forts, spaced about 20 miles apart, between the Jupiter Inlet and the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River. From east to west, garrisons were posted in Forts Jupiter, McRae, Shackleford, Center, Thompson, Denaud, Myers and Dulaney.
Communications between its scattered Army outposts was key to the success of military operations during the Third Seminole War. The route used between Forts McRae and Jupiter is described in the April 1856 "Memoir to Accompany a Military Map of the Peninsula of Florida South of Tampa Bay," published for use by the U.S. Department of War.
The 26-page report includes the following narrative: "The only continuous route between the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee and Fort Jupiter, that has so far been traversed and reported upon, leads nearly west from Fort McRae to the General Eustis Road and along that road to the fort."
Gen. Abraham Eustis (1786 - 1843) served as an Army surveyor and military mapmaker in Florida. He supervised the construction of several Florida military roads later used during the Second and Third Seminole Wars.
"The old bridge at the crossing of the Lochahatchee (Loxahatchee River) being now impractical, it is necessary to ford the stream at a place a mile above. The present site of Fort Jupiter being to the east of the new road leaves the old trail to the left and crosses the creek at a point three miles south of Fort Jupiter."
"The crossing is easy, and the remainder of the distance is over good country," the 1856 Memoir concludes.
The U.S. Department of War declared the Third Seminole War at an end on May 8, 1858, following the surrender and deportation of Seminole leader Billy Bowlegs (Holata Micco) to Oklahoma aboard the steam ship "Grey Cloud".
The Army's network of forts, including Fort McRae, were abandoned to the elements. The wooden blockhouses became the domain of termites, with their ruins erased by wildfires and the ravages of time.
(c.) Davidsson, 2018.
*NOTE: See related article about "Fort Jupiter" below, and additional articles archived in Older Posts.
Friday, December 7, 2018
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Fort Jupiter During the Third Seminole War, 1855-58
By Bob Davidsson
Unrelenting heat, an overextended supply line, swarms of mosquitoes and sand flies, debilitating "Jupiter Fever," and the constant threat of Indian raids made garrison duty at Fort Jupiter one of the least popular Army postings during the Third Seminole War, 1855-58.
The Army post was the second to bear the name Fort Jupiter. The original Fort Jupiter was established in 1838 following two pitched battles near the Loxahatchee River between U.S. Army and Navy units against the Seminole tribe in the Second Seminole War, 1835-42.
When the "Old Fort Jupiter" was decommissioned at the end of the seven-year conflict in 1842, the Jupiter Inlet was without a military presence until Congress approved funding for a lighthouse in 1853. Lt. George G. Meade, an Army engineer, designed the brick and mortar tower and selected the site where construction began a year later.
Work on the Jupiter Lighthouse was interrupted by renewed warfare between the United States and the Seminole nation on Dec. 20,1855. The direct cause of the Third Seminole War was a foolish raid on an Indian plantation by an Army surveying party deep in the Seminole's Everglades sanctuary.
The Building of 'New Fort Jupiter'
In the months prior to the renewed hostilities, New York native Major Joseph A. Haskin and the First Artillery Regiment were stationed in Key West. Haskin received orders to sail to the Indian River Inlet with Company D and assume command of Fort Capron.
Haskin was an 1839 West Point graduate. During the Mexican War, he was cited for bravery after losing his left arm in battle. Despite his disability, Haskin continued his military career until 1870, serving as the general officer in charge of artillery fortifications outside of Washington, D.C. during the Civil War.
On Jan. 14, 1855, Major Haskin received a letter from Lt. Ambrose Powell "A.P." Hill reporting his observations about the best site for the construction of a second Fort Jupiter. Lt. Hill was sent from Fort Capron on a scouting mission to survey the inland water route to the Jupiter Inlet and report on the status of the old fort.
He reported "Old Fort Jupiter" was "bare of timber and further away from the Jupiter bar (inlet) than the new post, which is a half a mile nearer, has a convenience of timber, good soil for gardening, loading and unloading of boats, and preferable to Old Fort Jupiter or any other location in the vicinity."
After completing his mission, Lt. Hill was employed as an engineer-surveyor by the U.S. Coastal Survey from 1855-60. He joined the Confederate army a year later and served as one of General Robert E. Lee's division commanders during several of his campaigns.
Major Haskin received orders from Col. Thomas Haines, assistant adjutant at the Headquarters of Troops in Fort Brooke, to sail south with Company D of the First Artillery and establish the new outpost. Its purpose was to observe the activities of Indians and provide protection to civilians during the construction of the Jupiter Lighthouse.
The Feb. 2, 1855 orders for Major Haskin stated, "In accordance with instructions from the War Department, the Colonel Commander directs you to move with your command to Old Fort Jupiter, or such other point in the vicinity as you deem advisable."
"It is hoped that after you arrive at Fort Jupiter," the letter concludes, "more frequent and expeditious communications may be established with you via Fort Myers and Lake Okeechobee."
An advance force of three officers an 38 enlisted men arrived at the Jupiter Inlet in February 1855 to begin construction of a stockade at the site recommended by Lt. Hill. Within eight months the garrison was at full strength, and a small contingent marched across the state to supplement the Army units at Fort Myers.
A field artillery company in the 19th century consisted of 100 officers and enlisted men when under full authorized strength. The actual muster rolls were often less than the maximum. A company was commanded by a captain or "brevet major" in the case of Major Haskin.
During most of the 1850s, Jupiter Inlet was sealed by sandbars and closed to shipping. Both Major Haskin and lighthouse workers had to use an inland water route to reach their destination.
The route used by the Fort Jupiter garrison was to sail and paddle south of Fort Capron along the Indian River to the mouth of the St. Lucie River. They then had to navigate a torturous tangle of mangroves in a shallow estuary known as "the Narrows" until reaching Hobe Sound.
In April 1856, Capt. A .A. Humphries and Lt. J. C. Ives of the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers published a 26-page "Memoir to Accompany a Military Map of the Peninsula of Florida South of Tampa Bay" for use by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and the U.S. War Department during the Third Seminole War.
The document contains a descriptive profile of the Jupiter Inlet and the military paths and waterways connecting Fort Jupiter to other outposts in southern Florida and west of Lake Okeechobee. The Memoir includes the route used by Major Haskin and the U.S. Army to supply Fort Jupiter.
"The Sound (Hobe Sound) is sufficiently exposed to the wind to admit the use of sails," the Memoir states, "and is in most places easily navigated by vessels of four feet draught. It extends for eight miles to Jupiter River, from the mouth of which it is about two and half miles to the site of Fort Jupiter."
"The total distance from Fort Capron to Fort Jupiter is 40 miles," the Memoir continues. "The Mackinac boats sometimes employed upon this route are said to be unsuitable for the transportation of troops and supplies between the two posts; having to lay by during high winds and under most favorable circumstances requiring four days to complete the trip."
"The kind of vessel recommended, as likely most serviceable, is a small sloop, not drawing over three feet in water fully loaded, and most after the pattern of the old surf boats used during the Mexican War at Vera Cruz," the Memoir concludes.
Life at the Second Fort Jupiter.
Both the new Fort Jupiter and future Jupiter Lighthouse were built within the 9,088-acre Jupiter Military Reservation. The military zone was established during the Second Seminole War, and was located northwest of the inlet.
The 1856 Military Memoir states, "Half a mile distant from the old fort, upon an eastern point made by the creek and river, is the new post, now called Fort Jupiter. Here the pine land is still more elevated and continues for five miles back; the timber coming down to the water's edge, and water itself being of sufficient depth for small boats, close to shore."
"Abundance of wood, suitable for building purposes, can be conveniently obtained," the Memoir continues. "The soil is fertile. There is an excellent anchorage and a good place for loading and unloading boats, making the site at the present fort preferable to that of the old one or any other location in the vicinity."
A post office was established at the fort, and a mail carrier was assigned to carry correspondence between Forts Capron and Jupiter, and south to Cape Florida.
The commencement of the Third Seminole War delayed work on the Jupiter Lighthouse for three years. Lt. Meade, the chief engineer for Florida's lighthouse projects, was so concerned about the safety of his civilian workers that he petitioned the Key West Navy Base commander for arms and ammunition on Jan. 7, 1856.
Just 12 days later, Meade informed the U.S. Light House Board of his decision to store supplies for the Jupiter Lighthouse on Key Biscayne and "postpone for the present the commencement of the work." He then boarded a ship in Key West and departed Florida, never to return to the Jupiter Inlet.
Seven years in the future, Meade would command the U.S. Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Gettysburg, and while serving under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, continued to lead the army during the final two years of the Civil War.
The garrison at Fort Jupiter patrolled the waterways in boats between Fort Capron to the north, and south to Fort Dallas near Miami, searching the lakes and rivers along these routes for Seminole encampments.
The closing of the Jupiter Inlet by sandbars in the 1850s disrupted the natural tidal flows and flushing of its estuaries. As a result, some of the waterways near the fort became stagnant. Health conditions at the outpost were poor. The problem was analyzed and reported in the 1856 Memoir.
"The closing of the inlet causes the locality - at other times salubrious - to be an unhealthy one," the Memoir states, "the water on the inside of the bar thus becoming fresh, and inducing a rapid growth of vegetable matter, which decaying taints the atmosphere and engenders disease."
The disease cited in the Military Memoir was called "Jupiter Fever". The ailment encompassed a number of infectious diseases spread not by "the atmosphere," but by a plague of mosquitoes and sand flies at the fort. "Jupiter Fever" may have been an outbreak of malaria or possibly yellow fever.
At one point it was reported 60 of the 68 soldiers in the garrison were listed on sick call. A visiting Army surgeon in May 1855 also reported two cases of "scorbutus" (scurvy) at Fort Jupiter caused by poor diet.
Due to the unhealthy conditions at Fort Jupiter, its officers and enlisted men were often rotated between Fort Jupiter and Fort Capron, where there were better medical facilities and fewer insect carriers of disease.
Efforts to Open the Jupiter Inlet
One solution to the unhealthy conditions at Fort Jupiter was to reopen the Jupiter Inlet. The garrison attempted to dig a channel twice without success.
The 1856 Military Memoir reported, "Objections exist to it (Fort Jupiter) now as a military position, from the fact that the inlet is closed, and the post rendered inaccessible from the sea to the smallest coasting vessels."
According to the Memoir, the inlet stayed open until 1847, when it closed. During the year 1853 it briefly opened itself, but "remained in that condition only a short time."
"In 1855, Major Haskin, First Artillery, in command of the post endeavored again to clear the channel," the Memoir reports. "Sand hills of considerable size which had accumulated were cut through, and the attempt would have doubtless been successful but for the low condition of water during an unusually dry year."
"A small amount of labor expended under favorable circumstances would in all probability effortlessly open the inlet," the Military Memoir concludes, "and render the harbor one of the best upon the eastern coast. At times it has admitted vessels drawing eight feet, and the entrance is protected from north winds by a ridge of rocks."
In his history of the "First Regiment of Artillery," William L. Haskin, the son of Fort Jupiter's first commander, wrote the following commentary: "The Florida war brought little glory to any unit taking part in it. The climate was an enemy more successful than the Seminoles, and its victims counted not by single files, but by platoons if not battalions."
In February 1858, Lt. Charles H. Webb of Company E, First Artillery, took command at Fort Jupiter during the final months of the Third Seminole War. The conflict was declared over by the U.S. Department of War on May 8, 1858, following the deportation of tribal leader Billy Bowlegs (Holata Micco) to Oklahoma on the steamer "Gray Cloud".
It is estimated less than 300 Seminole and Miccosukee Indians remained in the Everglades. Fort Jupiter was permanently evacuated a short time after the war's end.
(c.) Davidsson, 2018.
*NOTE: This article also was published in the Nov. 29 edition of the Jupiter Courier and the Gannett/USA Today Treasure Coast Network. See additional articles archived below and in Olders Posts.
Unrelenting heat, an overextended supply line, swarms of mosquitoes and sand flies, debilitating "Jupiter Fever," and the constant threat of Indian raids made garrison duty at Fort Jupiter one of the least popular Army postings during the Third Seminole War, 1855-58.
The Army post was the second to bear the name Fort Jupiter. The original Fort Jupiter was established in 1838 following two pitched battles near the Loxahatchee River between U.S. Army and Navy units against the Seminole tribe in the Second Seminole War, 1835-42.
When the "Old Fort Jupiter" was decommissioned at the end of the seven-year conflict in 1842, the Jupiter Inlet was without a military presence until Congress approved funding for a lighthouse in 1853. Lt. George G. Meade, an Army engineer, designed the brick and mortar tower and selected the site where construction began a year later.
Work on the Jupiter Lighthouse was interrupted by renewed warfare between the United States and the Seminole nation on Dec. 20,1855. The direct cause of the Third Seminole War was a foolish raid on an Indian plantation by an Army surveying party deep in the Seminole's Everglades sanctuary.
The Building of 'New Fort Jupiter'
In the months prior to the renewed hostilities, New York native Major Joseph A. Haskin and the First Artillery Regiment were stationed in Key West. Haskin received orders to sail to the Indian River Inlet with Company D and assume command of Fort Capron.
Haskin was an 1839 West Point graduate. During the Mexican War, he was cited for bravery after losing his left arm in battle. Despite his disability, Haskin continued his military career until 1870, serving as the general officer in charge of artillery fortifications outside of Washington, D.C. during the Civil War.
On Jan. 14, 1855, Major Haskin received a letter from Lt. Ambrose Powell "A.P." Hill reporting his observations about the best site for the construction of a second Fort Jupiter. Lt. Hill was sent from Fort Capron on a scouting mission to survey the inland water route to the Jupiter Inlet and report on the status of the old fort.
He reported "Old Fort Jupiter" was "bare of timber and further away from the Jupiter bar (inlet) than the new post, which is a half a mile nearer, has a convenience of timber, good soil for gardening, loading and unloading of boats, and preferable to Old Fort Jupiter or any other location in the vicinity."
After completing his mission, Lt. Hill was employed as an engineer-surveyor by the U.S. Coastal Survey from 1855-60. He joined the Confederate army a year later and served as one of General Robert E. Lee's division commanders during several of his campaigns.
Major Haskin received orders from Col. Thomas Haines, assistant adjutant at the Headquarters of Troops in Fort Brooke, to sail south with Company D of the First Artillery and establish the new outpost. Its purpose was to observe the activities of Indians and provide protection to civilians during the construction of the Jupiter Lighthouse.
The Feb. 2, 1855 orders for Major Haskin stated, "In accordance with instructions from the War Department, the Colonel Commander directs you to move with your command to Old Fort Jupiter, or such other point in the vicinity as you deem advisable."
"It is hoped that after you arrive at Fort Jupiter," the letter concludes, "more frequent and expeditious communications may be established with you via Fort Myers and Lake Okeechobee."
An advance force of three officers an 38 enlisted men arrived at the Jupiter Inlet in February 1855 to begin construction of a stockade at the site recommended by Lt. Hill. Within eight months the garrison was at full strength, and a small contingent marched across the state to supplement the Army units at Fort Myers.
A field artillery company in the 19th century consisted of 100 officers and enlisted men when under full authorized strength. The actual muster rolls were often less than the maximum. A company was commanded by a captain or "brevet major" in the case of Major Haskin.
During most of the 1850s, Jupiter Inlet was sealed by sandbars and closed to shipping. Both Major Haskin and lighthouse workers had to use an inland water route to reach their destination.
The route used by the Fort Jupiter garrison was to sail and paddle south of Fort Capron along the Indian River to the mouth of the St. Lucie River. They then had to navigate a torturous tangle of mangroves in a shallow estuary known as "the Narrows" until reaching Hobe Sound.
In April 1856, Capt. A .A. Humphries and Lt. J. C. Ives of the U.S. Army Topographical Engineers published a 26-page "Memoir to Accompany a Military Map of the Peninsula of Florida South of Tampa Bay" for use by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and the U.S. War Department during the Third Seminole War.
The document contains a descriptive profile of the Jupiter Inlet and the military paths and waterways connecting Fort Jupiter to other outposts in southern Florida and west of Lake Okeechobee. The Memoir includes the route used by Major Haskin and the U.S. Army to supply Fort Jupiter.
"The Sound (Hobe Sound) is sufficiently exposed to the wind to admit the use of sails," the Memoir states, "and is in most places easily navigated by vessels of four feet draught. It extends for eight miles to Jupiter River, from the mouth of which it is about two and half miles to the site of Fort Jupiter."
"The total distance from Fort Capron to Fort Jupiter is 40 miles," the Memoir continues. "The Mackinac boats sometimes employed upon this route are said to be unsuitable for the transportation of troops and supplies between the two posts; having to lay by during high winds and under most favorable circumstances requiring four days to complete the trip."
"The kind of vessel recommended, as likely most serviceable, is a small sloop, not drawing over three feet in water fully loaded, and most after the pattern of the old surf boats used during the Mexican War at Vera Cruz," the Memoir concludes.
Life at the Second Fort Jupiter.
Both the new Fort Jupiter and future Jupiter Lighthouse were built within the 9,088-acre Jupiter Military Reservation. The military zone was established during the Second Seminole War, and was located northwest of the inlet.
The 1856 Military Memoir states, "Half a mile distant from the old fort, upon an eastern point made by the creek and river, is the new post, now called Fort Jupiter. Here the pine land is still more elevated and continues for five miles back; the timber coming down to the water's edge, and water itself being of sufficient depth for small boats, close to shore."
"Abundance of wood, suitable for building purposes, can be conveniently obtained," the Memoir continues. "The soil is fertile. There is an excellent anchorage and a good place for loading and unloading boats, making the site at the present fort preferable to that of the old one or any other location in the vicinity."
A post office was established at the fort, and a mail carrier was assigned to carry correspondence between Forts Capron and Jupiter, and south to Cape Florida.
The commencement of the Third Seminole War delayed work on the Jupiter Lighthouse for three years. Lt. Meade, the chief engineer for Florida's lighthouse projects, was so concerned about the safety of his civilian workers that he petitioned the Key West Navy Base commander for arms and ammunition on Jan. 7, 1856.
Just 12 days later, Meade informed the U.S. Light House Board of his decision to store supplies for the Jupiter Lighthouse on Key Biscayne and "postpone for the present the commencement of the work." He then boarded a ship in Key West and departed Florida, never to return to the Jupiter Inlet.
Seven years in the future, Meade would command the U.S. Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Gettysburg, and while serving under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, continued to lead the army during the final two years of the Civil War.
The garrison at Fort Jupiter patrolled the waterways in boats between Fort Capron to the north, and south to Fort Dallas near Miami, searching the lakes and rivers along these routes for Seminole encampments.
The closing of the Jupiter Inlet by sandbars in the 1850s disrupted the natural tidal flows and flushing of its estuaries. As a result, some of the waterways near the fort became stagnant. Health conditions at the outpost were poor. The problem was analyzed and reported in the 1856 Memoir.
"The closing of the inlet causes the locality - at other times salubrious - to be an unhealthy one," the Memoir states, "the water on the inside of the bar thus becoming fresh, and inducing a rapid growth of vegetable matter, which decaying taints the atmosphere and engenders disease."
The disease cited in the Military Memoir was called "Jupiter Fever". The ailment encompassed a number of infectious diseases spread not by "the atmosphere," but by a plague of mosquitoes and sand flies at the fort. "Jupiter Fever" may have been an outbreak of malaria or possibly yellow fever.
At one point it was reported 60 of the 68 soldiers in the garrison were listed on sick call. A visiting Army surgeon in May 1855 also reported two cases of "scorbutus" (scurvy) at Fort Jupiter caused by poor diet.
Due to the unhealthy conditions at Fort Jupiter, its officers and enlisted men were often rotated between Fort Jupiter and Fort Capron, where there were better medical facilities and fewer insect carriers of disease.
Efforts to Open the Jupiter Inlet
One solution to the unhealthy conditions at Fort Jupiter was to reopen the Jupiter Inlet. The garrison attempted to dig a channel twice without success.
The 1856 Military Memoir reported, "Objections exist to it (Fort Jupiter) now as a military position, from the fact that the inlet is closed, and the post rendered inaccessible from the sea to the smallest coasting vessels."
According to the Memoir, the inlet stayed open until 1847, when it closed. During the year 1853 it briefly opened itself, but "remained in that condition only a short time."
"In 1855, Major Haskin, First Artillery, in command of the post endeavored again to clear the channel," the Memoir reports. "Sand hills of considerable size which had accumulated were cut through, and the attempt would have doubtless been successful but for the low condition of water during an unusually dry year."
"A small amount of labor expended under favorable circumstances would in all probability effortlessly open the inlet," the Military Memoir concludes, "and render the harbor one of the best upon the eastern coast. At times it has admitted vessels drawing eight feet, and the entrance is protected from north winds by a ridge of rocks."
In his history of the "First Regiment of Artillery," William L. Haskin, the son of Fort Jupiter's first commander, wrote the following commentary: "The Florida war brought little glory to any unit taking part in it. The climate was an enemy more successful than the Seminoles, and its victims counted not by single files, but by platoons if not battalions."
In February 1858, Lt. Charles H. Webb of Company E, First Artillery, took command at Fort Jupiter during the final months of the Third Seminole War. The conflict was declared over by the U.S. Department of War on May 8, 1858, following the deportation of tribal leader Billy Bowlegs (Holata Micco) to Oklahoma on the steamer "Gray Cloud".
It is estimated less than 300 Seminole and Miccosukee Indians remained in the Everglades. Fort Jupiter was permanently evacuated a short time after the war's end.
(c.) Davidsson, 2018.
*NOTE: This article also was published in the Nov. 29 edition of the Jupiter Courier and the Gannett/USA Today Treasure Coast Network. See additional articles archived below and in Olders Posts.
Saturday, November 3, 2018
WPB Episcopal Church Becomes Historic Landmark
By Bob Davidsson
For more than 100 years, the St. Patrick's Episcopal Church has served the spiritual needs of its congregation in the predominately African-American Northwest Historic District of West Palm Beach.
By an ordinance unanimously passed by the West Palm Beach City Commission on Oct. 22, the church itself became a municipal landmark by its inclusion on the city's Local Register of Historic Places. The city's staff recommendation states, "For the last 90 years, the church has served the community as a beacon of religious and community support."
"St. Patrick's Episcopal Church derives its significance from its architectural style, its function as a religious organization with targeted community engagement, and its importance to the Northwest District," the city's staff report concludes.
Bahamian Community in the Palm Beaches
Bahamian settlers and their descendants have been an important element in the history of the St. Patrick's Episcopal Church from its beginning.
In the late 19th century, Bahamian fishermen sailed to the Palm Beaches where they helped establish the region's early fishing industry. Camps were set up on Singer Island for use by the estimated 12 to 25 fishermen.
The community was known as "Inlet City," which became an early name for a section of what is today Palm Beach Shores. The Bahamian fishermen were joined by local squatters at the impromptu settlement.
A sharp decline in agricultural production in the Bahamas in the 1890s hastened an influx of Bahamian migration extending from the Palm Beaches south to the Florida Keys. White Bahamians, primarily from Eleuthera Island, settled in the Keys and Key West. Many black Bahamians migrated to the fledgling communities along Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway.
By the turn of the 20th century, between 75 and 100 Bahamian families formed settlements on both shores of the Lake Worth Lagoon. These included the Coconut Grove, Inlet Cove, Acrehome Park and Santry communities in the then unincorporated area north of West Palm Beach.
An early nick name for Riviera Beach, incorporated in 1922, was "Conch Town". Bahamian migrants in South Florida were commonly called "Conchs" by other native Floridians. In the Florida Keys, the name became a symbol of self-identification and pride. However, in the Palm Beaches, it was considered pejorative and most residents self-identified as Bahamians.
By the year 1922, an estimated 75 Bahamian families, both black and white, resided in "Conch Town," where they were employed in the thriving commercial fishing industry. Fish processing and distribution began in Riviera Beach in 1919, via the new FEC Railway, to destinations as far north as New York City. The Richardson's market, R.R. Recou & Sons and Riviera Fish Company were established in the 1920s.
Bahamian migration to the Palm Beaches continued through the boom years of the 1920s, then declined during the Great Depression. The Bahamian ties to the history of the Palm Beaches were acknowledged by Riviera Beach in 2012 when it become an official sister city of Freeport on Grand Bahamas Island.
As former subjects of Great Britain, many of the Bahamian settlers were members of Anglican and Episcopal parishes. They brought their religious traditions with them to the Palm Beaches.
St. Patrick's Episcopal Church Established
The black Episcopalian congregation originally met on the island of Palm Beach as part of the Missionary District of South Florida. It was affiliated with the Bethesda-by-the-Sea Church, established in 1889. Due to segregation policies in the early 1900s, separate services were held for African-American members of the Episcopal church.
The congregation's first church in West Palm Beach was built in 1921 and served the parish for seven years. The original church building was destroyed by the Hurricane of 1928.
A new "Gothic Revival" style church was designed by the local architectural firm of Harvey & Clarke of West Palm Beach. It was built at its current location of 418 Sapodilla Avenue in 1929.
St. Patrick Episcopal Church was one of 11 historical buildings designed by Henry Stephen Harvey and L. Philip Clarke in West Palm Beach. It would become the final project completed by the architectural firm before the company was dissolved during the Great Depression.
Other local historic landmark buildings designed by Harvey & Clarke during the 1920s included the Pine Ridge Hospital, the West Palm Beach Train Station on Tamarind, the former Pennsylvania Hotel, the Comeau Building and the Alfred Comeau house.
As an historic landmark, the city staff report stated the church is "associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of the city's history."
St. Patrick's Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Episcopalian Church and Anglican Communion. The Anglican/Catholic parish celebrates a high mass on Sundays, with the Rev. Canon Winston B. Joseph, rector, and the Rev. Hal O. Hurley currently officiating.
In addition to meeting the spiritual needs of its congregation, for many years St. Patrick's has sponsored a Seniors Activities Center, and provides a Community Youth Program and weekly "Soup Kitchen" for those in need.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
For more than 100 years, the St. Patrick's Episcopal Church has served the spiritual needs of its congregation in the predominately African-American Northwest Historic District of West Palm Beach.
By an ordinance unanimously passed by the West Palm Beach City Commission on Oct. 22, the church itself became a municipal landmark by its inclusion on the city's Local Register of Historic Places. The city's staff recommendation states, "For the last 90 years, the church has served the community as a beacon of religious and community support."
"St. Patrick's Episcopal Church derives its significance from its architectural style, its function as a religious organization with targeted community engagement, and its importance to the Northwest District," the city's staff report concludes.
Bahamian Community in the Palm Beaches
Bahamian settlers and their descendants have been an important element in the history of the St. Patrick's Episcopal Church from its beginning.
In the late 19th century, Bahamian fishermen sailed to the Palm Beaches where they helped establish the region's early fishing industry. Camps were set up on Singer Island for use by the estimated 12 to 25 fishermen.
The community was known as "Inlet City," which became an early name for a section of what is today Palm Beach Shores. The Bahamian fishermen were joined by local squatters at the impromptu settlement.
A sharp decline in agricultural production in the Bahamas in the 1890s hastened an influx of Bahamian migration extending from the Palm Beaches south to the Florida Keys. White Bahamians, primarily from Eleuthera Island, settled in the Keys and Key West. Many black Bahamians migrated to the fledgling communities along Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway.
By the turn of the 20th century, between 75 and 100 Bahamian families formed settlements on both shores of the Lake Worth Lagoon. These included the Coconut Grove, Inlet Cove, Acrehome Park and Santry communities in the then unincorporated area north of West Palm Beach.
An early nick name for Riviera Beach, incorporated in 1922, was "Conch Town". Bahamian migrants in South Florida were commonly called "Conchs" by other native Floridians. In the Florida Keys, the name became a symbol of self-identification and pride. However, in the Palm Beaches, it was considered pejorative and most residents self-identified as Bahamians.
By the year 1922, an estimated 75 Bahamian families, both black and white, resided in "Conch Town," where they were employed in the thriving commercial fishing industry. Fish processing and distribution began in Riviera Beach in 1919, via the new FEC Railway, to destinations as far north as New York City. The Richardson's market, R.R. Recou & Sons and Riviera Fish Company were established in the 1920s.
Bahamian migration to the Palm Beaches continued through the boom years of the 1920s, then declined during the Great Depression. The Bahamian ties to the history of the Palm Beaches were acknowledged by Riviera Beach in 2012 when it become an official sister city of Freeport on Grand Bahamas Island.
As former subjects of Great Britain, many of the Bahamian settlers were members of Anglican and Episcopal parishes. They brought their religious traditions with them to the Palm Beaches.
St. Patrick's Episcopal Church Established
The black Episcopalian congregation originally met on the island of Palm Beach as part of the Missionary District of South Florida. It was affiliated with the Bethesda-by-the-Sea Church, established in 1889. Due to segregation policies in the early 1900s, separate services were held for African-American members of the Episcopal church.
The congregation's first church in West Palm Beach was built in 1921 and served the parish for seven years. The original church building was destroyed by the Hurricane of 1928.
A new "Gothic Revival" style church was designed by the local architectural firm of Harvey & Clarke of West Palm Beach. It was built at its current location of 418 Sapodilla Avenue in 1929.
St. Patrick Episcopal Church was one of 11 historical buildings designed by Henry Stephen Harvey and L. Philip Clarke in West Palm Beach. It would become the final project completed by the architectural firm before the company was dissolved during the Great Depression.
Other local historic landmark buildings designed by Harvey & Clarke during the 1920s included the Pine Ridge Hospital, the West Palm Beach Train Station on Tamarind, the former Pennsylvania Hotel, the Comeau Building and the Alfred Comeau house.
As an historic landmark, the city staff report stated the church is "associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of the city's history."
St. Patrick's Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Episcopalian Church and Anglican Communion. The Anglican/Catholic parish celebrates a high mass on Sundays, with the Rev. Canon Winston B. Joseph, rector, and the Rev. Hal O. Hurley currently officiating.
In addition to meeting the spiritual needs of its congregation, for many years St. Patrick's has sponsored a Seniors Activities Center, and provides a Community Youth Program and weekly "Soup Kitchen" for those in need.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Close Encounters with Cryptid 'Skunk Apes': 1972-78
By Bob Davidsson
During the 1970s, more than a dozen sightings of the elusive "Skunk Ape," the Everglades version of the Himalayan "Yeti" and Oregon's "Sasquatch" (Bigfoot), were reported in suburban Palm Beach County.
Why the legendary creature was observed in such large numbers during the decade of the 1970s is a mystery. However, not unlike the rash of reported UFO encounters in the 1960s, one Skunk Ape sighting tends to fuel the overactive imaginations of other observers.
Another factor contributing to the upswing of Skunk Ape encounters was the widespread news coverage of the sightings by the Palm Beach Post, Miami Herald and especially in Lantana's National Enquirer and Weekly World News tabloids.
The decade also was a period of rapid population growth in Palm Beach County, with developers creating many communities west of Military Trail and in the new Village of Wellington. Loss of natural habitat confines wildlife to smaller green spaces and increases human contacts.
The Everglades Skunk Ape has many nicknames - Swamp Cabbage Man, Swampsquatch, and the Florida Bigfoot. Eyewitnesses claim the creature measures six to eight feet in height and weighs an estimated 500 pounds. It has a shaggy coat of fur ranging from rust color to dark brown.
Unlike Florida's black bears, the Skunk Ape walks upright on two legs. Observers say it could move rapidly when frightened or pursued. As its name implies, the Skunk Ape is best known for its rank odor. Eyewitnesses describe the stench as a cross between a skunk and aged road kill.
The Skunk Ape is classified as a "cryptid". A cryptid is "an animal where its existence or survival to the present day is disputed or unsubstantiated by the scientific community," according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
As such, the Skunk Ape joins the company of such cryptid celebrities as the Loch Ness Monster, the Florida Keys Devil Men and the recently observed Lake Worth Lagoon Muck Monster.
Eyewitnesses who have encountered a Skunk Ape disagree with the scientific experts. So do "crypto zoologists" - alternative pseudoscientists and adventurers whose aim it is to prove the existence of entities from the folklore records and evidence reported about the Skunk Ape.
Strange Cryptid Encounters in Palm Beach County
In 1977 a bill was introduced in the Florida Legislature that would make it illegal to "take, possess, harm or molest anthropoids or humanoid animals." It failed to pass.
Reports of Skunk Ape sightings were so common statewide in the 1970s that even our Florida lawmakers took notice. Palm Beach County had more than its share of alleged close encounters with the Everglades creature.
For example, in 1972 a Skunk Ape sighting was reported in the Meadowbrook subdivision of West Palm Beach,. The same year a Pahokee resident said he and his dog fled from a "hairy eight-foot monster" in western Palm Beach County.
In June 1974, farmer Buddy Sterrett reported a Skunk Ape picked up one his 110-pound hogs and attacked it. He said," It had the smell that would make the hair on the back of your head stand up."
Thee months later, security guard Cary Kantor said he shot at a Skunk Ape in the Wellington construction site where he was posted. "It smelled like it had taken a bath in rotten eggs," he reported. In the autumn of 1974, a Greenacres family reported seeing strange footprints outside of their home left by the Skunk Ape.
Two workers reported seeing a "seven-foot tall hairy creature" in 1977 as it was drinking from a lake at a suburban Delray Beach golf course. They notified the Palm Beach County Animal Control of their sighting. No report was filed.
In 1978 a Lantana resident said he spotted a creature at 5 a.m. in his back yard. He was alerted by the barking of his dogs. The same year two Boca Raton youths reported to police "a creature resembling the notorious Skunk Ape" stalking in the woods by the Hillsboro Canal.
The prestigious "Smithsonian" journal published a feature article in March 2014 entitled "On the Trail of Florida's Bigfoot." The story highlighted the "Skunk Ape Research Center," established in 1999 by Dave Shealy, an eyewitness and true believer in the Skunk Ape, near the tiny Everglades community of Ochopee.
His collection of artifacts includes alleged photographs of the Skunk Ape, which many cryptid critics believe look more like a fugitive orangutan than an Everglades monster. Whether fact or fiction, the legend lives on in Florida today.
Key Largo: An Island Paradise for Cryptids
Without question the most famous and widely investigated Skunk Ape encounter was the month-long ordeal experienced by the Charles Stoeckman family of Key Largo. Among those investigating the bazaar series of encounters were the Monroe County Sheriffs Office, the Florida Marine Patrol, a team from the Florida Technical Institute, photographers from the National Enquirer, and interested news media from Palm Beach County to Key West.
The island of Key Largo forms the southeastern tip of the so-called Bermuda Triangle, which may help explain preternatural sightings of the "Devil Men," seen floating over Florida Bay prior to electrical storms, or visions of the Virgin Mary in a grotto near the St. Justin Martyr Catholic Church.
One enthusiastic resident in 1978 even claimed to have discovered the lost city of Atlantis just offshore of Key Largo. However, upon close inspection at low tide, his "Atlantis" turned out to be an ancient reef of consisting of fossilized brain coral.*
Charles Stoeckman, his wife, and three children lived in a home at mile marker 94.5 Oceanside on Key Largo. On July 14, 1977 Stoeckman and his son saw what he said was an eight or nine-foot tall Skunk Ape while they were collecting rare bottles in the mangroves near his home.
"It had a huge head and shoulders," he later reported, "long fur all over, and he stank like a dirty wet dog. The noise he made was a high-pitched wailing."
Stoeckman cleared 30 feet of brush from around his home to discourage a return visit by the Skunk Ape. It didn't work. The Skunk Ape returned for several night visits. Mrs. Stoeckman and her children fled to Homestead after seeing the creature outside her window.
Responding to terrorized pleas for help were Monroe County Sheriffs Deputy Bill Haase and Sgt. Randall Chinn from the Plantation Key Substation. Florida Marine Patrol Capt. Jack Gillen also inspected the Stoeckman property. No trace of the Skunk Ape was found.
Charles Stoeckman remained at his home for about a month, armed with a shotgun. He later joined his family in south Dade County.
A short time after the Stoeckman encounter, four Tavernier residents formed a Skunk Ape posse. Armed with flash lights, lanterns, a camera and snake bite medication they began what a local newspaper called a "Skunk Ape Safari". The posse met at Harry Harris Park in Tavernier and followed the shoreline north to the Dove Creek Estates.
As with all Skunk Ape adventures, the Everglades monster eluded its pursuers.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
*NOTE: This article also was published in the Oct.31, 2018 edition of the Okeechobee News. The author of this article was a reporter for the Florida Keys Keynoter from 1977-80. See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
During the 1970s, more than a dozen sightings of the elusive "Skunk Ape," the Everglades version of the Himalayan "Yeti" and Oregon's "Sasquatch" (Bigfoot), were reported in suburban Palm Beach County.
Why the legendary creature was observed in such large numbers during the decade of the 1970s is a mystery. However, not unlike the rash of reported UFO encounters in the 1960s, one Skunk Ape sighting tends to fuel the overactive imaginations of other observers.
Another factor contributing to the upswing of Skunk Ape encounters was the widespread news coverage of the sightings by the Palm Beach Post, Miami Herald and especially in Lantana's National Enquirer and Weekly World News tabloids.
The decade also was a period of rapid population growth in Palm Beach County, with developers creating many communities west of Military Trail and in the new Village of Wellington. Loss of natural habitat confines wildlife to smaller green spaces and increases human contacts.
The Everglades Skunk Ape has many nicknames - Swamp Cabbage Man, Swampsquatch, and the Florida Bigfoot. Eyewitnesses claim the creature measures six to eight feet in height and weighs an estimated 500 pounds. It has a shaggy coat of fur ranging from rust color to dark brown.
Unlike Florida's black bears, the Skunk Ape walks upright on two legs. Observers say it could move rapidly when frightened or pursued. As its name implies, the Skunk Ape is best known for its rank odor. Eyewitnesses describe the stench as a cross between a skunk and aged road kill.
The Skunk Ape is classified as a "cryptid". A cryptid is "an animal where its existence or survival to the present day is disputed or unsubstantiated by the scientific community," according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
As such, the Skunk Ape joins the company of such cryptid celebrities as the Loch Ness Monster, the Florida Keys Devil Men and the recently observed Lake Worth Lagoon Muck Monster.
Eyewitnesses who have encountered a Skunk Ape disagree with the scientific experts. So do "crypto zoologists" - alternative pseudoscientists and adventurers whose aim it is to prove the existence of entities from the folklore records and evidence reported about the Skunk Ape.
Strange Cryptid Encounters in Palm Beach County
In 1977 a bill was introduced in the Florida Legislature that would make it illegal to "take, possess, harm or molest anthropoids or humanoid animals." It failed to pass.
Reports of Skunk Ape sightings were so common statewide in the 1970s that even our Florida lawmakers took notice. Palm Beach County had more than its share of alleged close encounters with the Everglades creature.
For example, in 1972 a Skunk Ape sighting was reported in the Meadowbrook subdivision of West Palm Beach,. The same year a Pahokee resident said he and his dog fled from a "hairy eight-foot monster" in western Palm Beach County.
In June 1974, farmer Buddy Sterrett reported a Skunk Ape picked up one his 110-pound hogs and attacked it. He said," It had the smell that would make the hair on the back of your head stand up."
Thee months later, security guard Cary Kantor said he shot at a Skunk Ape in the Wellington construction site where he was posted. "It smelled like it had taken a bath in rotten eggs," he reported. In the autumn of 1974, a Greenacres family reported seeing strange footprints outside of their home left by the Skunk Ape.
Two workers reported seeing a "seven-foot tall hairy creature" in 1977 as it was drinking from a lake at a suburban Delray Beach golf course. They notified the Palm Beach County Animal Control of their sighting. No report was filed.
In 1978 a Lantana resident said he spotted a creature at 5 a.m. in his back yard. He was alerted by the barking of his dogs. The same year two Boca Raton youths reported to police "a creature resembling the notorious Skunk Ape" stalking in the woods by the Hillsboro Canal.
The prestigious "Smithsonian" journal published a feature article in March 2014 entitled "On the Trail of Florida's Bigfoot." The story highlighted the "Skunk Ape Research Center," established in 1999 by Dave Shealy, an eyewitness and true believer in the Skunk Ape, near the tiny Everglades community of Ochopee.
His collection of artifacts includes alleged photographs of the Skunk Ape, which many cryptid critics believe look more like a fugitive orangutan than an Everglades monster. Whether fact or fiction, the legend lives on in Florida today.
Key Largo: An Island Paradise for Cryptids
Without question the most famous and widely investigated Skunk Ape encounter was the month-long ordeal experienced by the Charles Stoeckman family of Key Largo. Among those investigating the bazaar series of encounters were the Monroe County Sheriffs Office, the Florida Marine Patrol, a team from the Florida Technical Institute, photographers from the National Enquirer, and interested news media from Palm Beach County to Key West.
The island of Key Largo forms the southeastern tip of the so-called Bermuda Triangle, which may help explain preternatural sightings of the "Devil Men," seen floating over Florida Bay prior to electrical storms, or visions of the Virgin Mary in a grotto near the St. Justin Martyr Catholic Church.
One enthusiastic resident in 1978 even claimed to have discovered the lost city of Atlantis just offshore of Key Largo. However, upon close inspection at low tide, his "Atlantis" turned out to be an ancient reef of consisting of fossilized brain coral.*
Charles Stoeckman, his wife, and three children lived in a home at mile marker 94.5 Oceanside on Key Largo. On July 14, 1977 Stoeckman and his son saw what he said was an eight or nine-foot tall Skunk Ape while they were collecting rare bottles in the mangroves near his home.
"It had a huge head and shoulders," he later reported, "long fur all over, and he stank like a dirty wet dog. The noise he made was a high-pitched wailing."
Stoeckman cleared 30 feet of brush from around his home to discourage a return visit by the Skunk Ape. It didn't work. The Skunk Ape returned for several night visits. Mrs. Stoeckman and her children fled to Homestead after seeing the creature outside her window.
Responding to terrorized pleas for help were Monroe County Sheriffs Deputy Bill Haase and Sgt. Randall Chinn from the Plantation Key Substation. Florida Marine Patrol Capt. Jack Gillen also inspected the Stoeckman property. No trace of the Skunk Ape was found.
Charles Stoeckman remained at his home for about a month, armed with a shotgun. He later joined his family in south Dade County.
A short time after the Stoeckman encounter, four Tavernier residents formed a Skunk Ape posse. Armed with flash lights, lanterns, a camera and snake bite medication they began what a local newspaper called a "Skunk Ape Safari". The posse met at Harry Harris Park in Tavernier and followed the shoreline north to the Dove Creek Estates.
As with all Skunk Ape adventures, the Everglades monster eluded its pursuers.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
*NOTE: This article also was published in the Oct.31, 2018 edition of the Okeechobee News. The author of this article was a reporter for the Florida Keys Keynoter from 1977-80. See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Summer of 'Rockreation' in Palm Beach County: 1970
By Bob Davidsson
On Nov. 28, 1969, Palm Beach County law enforcement and pubic health agencies were stretched to the limit by the sudden arrival of more than 40,000 young people at the old Palm Beach International Speedway to attend the "First Annual (and only) Palm Beach International Music and Arts Festival."
The determined Baby Boomers braved near record-cold temperatures and heavy rains to hear Iron Butterfly, Jefferson Airplane, Sly Stone, Janis Joplin and the last-minute arrival of the Rolling Stones for the three-day event.
Most of the young music fans attending the festival paid the $20 entry fee. However, many opted to swim across an alligator infested canal for free access to the concert.
It is estimated promoter Dave Rupp lost between $300,000 and $500,000 sponsoring the rock festival. County taxpayers picked up much of the tab for emergency Fire-Rescue medical services to treat 130 drug overdoses and 42 cases of intestinal disease caused by poor sanitation. Security and traffic control required 150 Sheriffs Office deputies.
The county attempted to deny Rupp a permit to hold the music festival, but the concert promoter prevailed in an appeal. Ironically, less than six months later, the County Commission would reverse its policy by supporting summer rock concerts in several of its public parks.
The Summer of 'Rockreation'
The lingering image of 40,000 young Baby Boomers assembled en mass at one venue left a lasting impression with county leaders. Record numbers of the post-World War II generation were attending county high schools and colleges in 1969-70.
When the school year ended in June 1970, would thousands of idle but socially active young people be content with another summer of love, beaches and surfing, or would it become a season of discontent sparked by the endless Vietnam War and unresolved societal issues.
The County Commission approved a unique cure for their summertime blues - "Rockreation".
An editorial first published in the Palm Beach Post, then reprinted in the Boca Raton News for the benefit of south county readers on March 20, 1970, reported, "The County Commission rightly gave a boost to youth by arranging facilities for ad hoc Sunday rock concerts in county parks."
"Commissioners agreed to make electricity available at some county facilities each Sunday between 1:30 and 5:30 p.m. As little as that is, at least Palm Beach County youth now have a popular form of recreation on county property."
The editorial concludes, "The county has earned plus marks for its decision. Now if it could bend a little further to provide even more activities for its residents who are too old for seesaws and too young for night clubs."
The loose-knit events actually began a number of weeks prior to the county's decision. Local bands got together for jam sessions at John Prince Park. The number of spectators increased weekly. Occasionally, the musicians would rent group barbecue pavilions to obtain access to electricity.
The County Commission wisely codified an activity already taking place in its parks.
The Violent End to 'The Peoples Park'
In sharp contrast to the county's policy of toleration in the use of public parks by area youths, the City of West Palm Beach cracked down on unauthorized gatherings of young people through strict enforcement of city policies.
The main target of the West Palm Beach Police was a colony of Hippies and their cadre of weekend student supporters encamped at the so-called "Peoples Park".
The Peoples Park was an open area at Phillips Point, fronting Flagler Drive. It was across the street from "The Hut," a favorite counter-culture eatery and gathering place during the 1960s and early 1970s.
After more than a month of clashes between the Hippies and police over noise, drug use and zoning violations, on July 7, 1970 the police swept into the Peoples Park, arresting 64 young people and closing the area to public use.
"Keep Off" signs were posted at the park site. The city passed an ordinance closing all city parks at 9 p.m. to prevent future gatherings of young people.
In a 1978 Palm Beach Post interview, former West Palm Beach Police Chief William Barnes recalled, "The park was a damned national disgrace - pot smoking, hell raising, fornicating on the ground, bottle throwing. You name it."
The editors of the Palm Beach Junior College "Beachcomber" student newspaper had a different perspective on the closing of the Peoples Park. Their lament was published in a Aug. 31, 1970 column entitled "Summertime Blues".
"The violent purge in the Peoples Park at The Hut, the shutdown of the Summerfaze in Miami, the demise of live rock Sundays at John Prince Park, when will it end," the editorial stated. "When will people be allowed to gather in free assembly granted by our Constitution?"
The County Commission's experiment with "Rockreation" ended with the beginning of the 1970-71 school year. While the music died, impromptu weekend gatherings (Happenings) by young people continued in the John Prince and Phil Foster parks well into the fall and winter.
So ended the summer of 1970 in Palm Beach County. Today, outdoor rock concerts have become a regular feature along the West Palm Beach waterfront, at Bryant Park in Lake Worth and venues across the county.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: The author was a junior at Lake Worth High School in the summer of 1970. He attended events at John Prince and Phil Foster parks. See additional articles archived below and in Older Posts.
On Nov. 28, 1969, Palm Beach County law enforcement and pubic health agencies were stretched to the limit by the sudden arrival of more than 40,000 young people at the old Palm Beach International Speedway to attend the "First Annual (and only) Palm Beach International Music and Arts Festival."
The determined Baby Boomers braved near record-cold temperatures and heavy rains to hear Iron Butterfly, Jefferson Airplane, Sly Stone, Janis Joplin and the last-minute arrival of the Rolling Stones for the three-day event.
Most of the young music fans attending the festival paid the $20 entry fee. However, many opted to swim across an alligator infested canal for free access to the concert.
It is estimated promoter Dave Rupp lost between $300,000 and $500,000 sponsoring the rock festival. County taxpayers picked up much of the tab for emergency Fire-Rescue medical services to treat 130 drug overdoses and 42 cases of intestinal disease caused by poor sanitation. Security and traffic control required 150 Sheriffs Office deputies.
The county attempted to deny Rupp a permit to hold the music festival, but the concert promoter prevailed in an appeal. Ironically, less than six months later, the County Commission would reverse its policy by supporting summer rock concerts in several of its public parks.
The Summer of 'Rockreation'
The lingering image of 40,000 young Baby Boomers assembled en mass at one venue left a lasting impression with county leaders. Record numbers of the post-World War II generation were attending county high schools and colleges in 1969-70.
When the school year ended in June 1970, would thousands of idle but socially active young people be content with another summer of love, beaches and surfing, or would it become a season of discontent sparked by the endless Vietnam War and unresolved societal issues.
The County Commission approved a unique cure for their summertime blues - "Rockreation".
An editorial first published in the Palm Beach Post, then reprinted in the Boca Raton News for the benefit of south county readers on March 20, 1970, reported, "The County Commission rightly gave a boost to youth by arranging facilities for ad hoc Sunday rock concerts in county parks."
"Commissioners agreed to make electricity available at some county facilities each Sunday between 1:30 and 5:30 p.m. As little as that is, at least Palm Beach County youth now have a popular form of recreation on county property."
The editorial concludes, "The county has earned plus marks for its decision. Now if it could bend a little further to provide even more activities for its residents who are too old for seesaws and too young for night clubs."
The loose-knit events actually began a number of weeks prior to the county's decision. Local bands got together for jam sessions at John Prince Park. The number of spectators increased weekly. Occasionally, the musicians would rent group barbecue pavilions to obtain access to electricity.
The County Commission wisely codified an activity already taking place in its parks.
The Violent End to 'The Peoples Park'
In sharp contrast to the county's policy of toleration in the use of public parks by area youths, the City of West Palm Beach cracked down on unauthorized gatherings of young people through strict enforcement of city policies.
The main target of the West Palm Beach Police was a colony of Hippies and their cadre of weekend student supporters encamped at the so-called "Peoples Park".
The Peoples Park was an open area at Phillips Point, fronting Flagler Drive. It was across the street from "The Hut," a favorite counter-culture eatery and gathering place during the 1960s and early 1970s.
After more than a month of clashes between the Hippies and police over noise, drug use and zoning violations, on July 7, 1970 the police swept into the Peoples Park, arresting 64 young people and closing the area to public use.
"Keep Off" signs were posted at the park site. The city passed an ordinance closing all city parks at 9 p.m. to prevent future gatherings of young people.
In a 1978 Palm Beach Post interview, former West Palm Beach Police Chief William Barnes recalled, "The park was a damned national disgrace - pot smoking, hell raising, fornicating on the ground, bottle throwing. You name it."
The editors of the Palm Beach Junior College "Beachcomber" student newspaper had a different perspective on the closing of the Peoples Park. Their lament was published in a Aug. 31, 1970 column entitled "Summertime Blues".
"The violent purge in the Peoples Park at The Hut, the shutdown of the Summerfaze in Miami, the demise of live rock Sundays at John Prince Park, when will it end," the editorial stated. "When will people be allowed to gather in free assembly granted by our Constitution?"
The County Commission's experiment with "Rockreation" ended with the beginning of the 1970-71 school year. While the music died, impromptu weekend gatherings (Happenings) by young people continued in the John Prince and Phil Foster parks well into the fall and winter.
So ended the summer of 1970 in Palm Beach County. Today, outdoor rock concerts have become a regular feature along the West Palm Beach waterfront, at Bryant Park in Lake Worth and venues across the county.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: The author was a junior at Lake Worth High School in the summer of 1970. He attended events at John Prince and Phil Foster parks. See additional articles archived below and in Older Posts.
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Dutch Privateers Prowl the Treasure Coast: 1627-28
By Bob Davidsson
For a period of two years in 1627-28, fleets of Dutch warships used the Jupiter and Indian River inlets as a staging area and source of provisions for raids on Spanish treasure fleets entering the Florida Straits.
Although Spanish authorities in St. Augustine and Havana considered these Dutch interlopers as pirates, the squadrons of warships lurking in Florida coastal waters were not the typical freebooting buccaneers of the 17th century.
In 1621 the Dutch West Indies Company (WIC) received a charter to establish colonies and promote trade in the Caribbean and Brazil. To finance their operations, the Dutch merchant-adventurers targeted Spanish and Portuguese shipping with the goal of eliminating their competition.
By the year 1627, the new United Provinces of the Netherlands and the Spanish Hapsburg empire were engaged in the 59th year of the bloody Dutch War of Independence, a conflict commonly called the "80 Years' War (1568 - 1648)."
The West Indies Company expanded the war to the New World by licensing privateers to prey on merchant shipping flying the flag of the unified Kingdom of Spain and Portugal (1580 - 1640). The crews of the Dutch privateers were the descendants of the "Sea Beggars," fishermen turned nautical freedom fighters defending the flooded estuaries and canals of Holland and Zeeland from Spanish invaders in the 16th century.
Most of the privateers were Calvinists, adding a religious element to the conflict. The Dutch sailors held a special hatred for their Spanish Catholic opponents - a feeling shared by their adversaries in this pitiless war at sea.
The Dutch Fleet Arrives in Florida
The directors of the West Indies Company were aware of the routes used by Spanish silver fleets from Mexico known as the "Flota," and convoys carrying the gold mined in South America annually and transported in the "Galleones" along the east coast of Florida.
In the year 1598, Dutch historian John Huigehen Van Linschoten reported, "Gold and silver wherewith the Indians trafficke, they had it out of ships which fall on ground upon the Cape of Florida (Canaveral), because most of the ships lost here are lost on this said coast..."
In anticipation of future raids by Dutch or English pirates, Florida Governor Luis De Rojas y Borja (1624-29) wisely recommended the establishment of a fortified sentinel station at Jupiter Inlet in his Feb. 13, 1627 "Letter from the Governor of Florida to his Majesty."
"I should warn and advise your Majesty to build a fort at the bar (Jupiter Inlet)," he wrote, "at a place they call Jega (Jeaga), it being a place where vessels all come to cast anchor when they want to take on water, wood and wait for the merchant ships they wish to capture."
"A fort at this place would act as an sentinel and guard against their landing and helping themselves," the concerned governor reported. "It would also be well to have it in case of vessels being wrecked upon this coast, as so many are, to be able to rescue and save the crews and passengers, who so often perish at the hands of pirates and cruel Indians..."
This sage advice was ignored, at great cost and loss to the Kingdom of Spain.
In the spring of 1627, Spanish Captain-General Thomas Larraspuru sighted a fleet of 13 Dutch warships in the Florida Straits while escorting a convoy of ships to Havana. He reported the Dutch withdrew as he prepared for battle near Coximer, Cuba.
In fact, the Dutch privateers, under the command of Piet Heyn (1577-1629), remained in Cuban waters until July, charting Spanish trade routes and capturing prizes. Larraspuru stated 55 vessels were boarded or sunk by Dutch "pirates" in 1627.
On their return voyage to Holland, the Dutch ships anchored offshore of the Indian River inlet, near the main village of the Ais Indians called "Jece". As the Dutch landed, the Indians fled their village until enticed to return by gifts offered by the privateers.
The Dutch remained at the village, gathering wood and barrels of water for the long journey home. A few of the Ais villagers, loyal to the Spanish, traveled to St. Augustine to request help from Governor Rojas.
It so happened that the presence of the Dutch fleet off the coast of Florida prevented the Spanish from sending the "Situado" or annual royal subsidy to St. Augustine. The subsidy supported the garrison and administration of the Florida outpost and was main source of hard currency in he colony.
Governor Rojas dispatched a small frigate, also known as a "presidio boat," to Havana to inquire on the Situado's delay. The Spanish frigate discovered the 13 Dutch warships at anchor and fled north to report their presence to the governor.
The report by the excited crew confirmed the story told by the friendly Ais Indians. Governor Rojas mustered a force of 150 Spaniards and 300 Indians and marched south to confront the Dutch interlopers. He was too late. The Ais told the governor that the Dutch fleet had already set sail.
In his 1628 report, Governor Rojas wrote, "And they (the Indians) have come to give me the news that there were enemy on the coast. And on two occasions when they landed to obtain water, they abandoned their places and withdrew into the woods, and others came to give the report and to ask for help."
Piet Heyn and the Spanish Silver Fleet
Encouraged by profits made in the 1627 expedition to the Florida Straits, the West Indies Company dispatched four squadrons of warships to the Caribbean in 1628. They were led by Captains Pieter Adriaanszoon Ita, Witte de With, Joost Benckert (known as the Scourge of the Portuguese), and the return of Piet Heyn.
Captain Ita was the first to appear off the coast of Cuba in May 1628. The privateer captured two great galleons bound for Cuba from Honduras with 12 barges and several smaller vessels under their escort.
The Spanish galleon "Nossa Senhora de Remedios" was boarded as a prize and sailed with the Dutch privateers to the southeast coast of Florida. Following the example of the 1627 fleet, Ita provisioned his ships for the voyage back to Holland.
The captured "Remedios" was unfit for further sailing, so its cargo was transferred to the Dutch warships. Captain Ita scuttled the "Remedios" one mile off the Treasure Coast of Florida and set sail for home.
The privateer captain arrived in Holland in September 1628. His captured cargo was valued at 1.2 million guilders.
With the departure of the Dutch squadron, the governor of Cuba assumed it was safe for the annual silver fleet to make the voyage from Mexico to Spain. It was a fatal decision.
On July 27, 1628, Piet Heyn gathered 31 Dutch warships near Hispaniola, including the squadrons of Witte de With and Joost Benckert, and sailed for the Florida Straits and the northern coast of Cuba. Joining the Dutch fleet was the buccaneer Moses Cohen Henriques, an exiled Portuguese Sephardic Jew wanted by the Spanish Inquisition for piracy but never caught during his 30-year illicit career at sea.
Their unexpected arrival caught the Cadiz-bound silver fleet at anchor in the Bay of Matanzas, Cuba, on Sept. 9. Captain-General Juan de Benevides fled to the mainland and his fleet surrendered after just token resistance.
For Piet Heyn the victory was especially sweet. It was the same Captain Benevides who was the sailing master of a ship where Heyn rowed as a captive galley slave between the years 1598 and 1602. For his cowardice and loss of the silver fleet, Benevides was imprisoned in Cuba.
The 17 ships captured in Matanzas Bay yielded a silver haul valued at 11.9 million guilders. It marked the first and only time an entire Mexican silver Flota was captured intact.
Piet Heyn's fleet was sighted by curious Ais and Jeaga Indians on Sept. 30 as it assembled for one last time off Florida's Treasure Coast for the voyage home. The privateers followed the Gulf Stream to Europe, arriving in Holland on Jan. 9, 1629. The Dutch fleets never returned to Florida.
Ironically, Piet Heyn was allotted little time to bask in the glory of his victory. After a promotion to vice admiral, he was killed a few months later in a naval battle against his Flemish co-religionists in the service of Spain.
The capture of the Spanish silver fleet financed the beginning of Holland's golden age of commerce and world colonization. However, the Dutch were never able to repeat their total victory at Matanzas Bay. Spain upgraded the quality and number of warships escorting future Flota treasure convoys to Spain.
With the loss of the silver fleet, King Phillip IV could not pay his armies and many creditors in 1629-30. The Kingdom of Spain was bankrupt.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
*NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
For a period of two years in 1627-28, fleets of Dutch warships used the Jupiter and Indian River inlets as a staging area and source of provisions for raids on Spanish treasure fleets entering the Florida Straits.
Although Spanish authorities in St. Augustine and Havana considered these Dutch interlopers as pirates, the squadrons of warships lurking in Florida coastal waters were not the typical freebooting buccaneers of the 17th century.
In 1621 the Dutch West Indies Company (WIC) received a charter to establish colonies and promote trade in the Caribbean and Brazil. To finance their operations, the Dutch merchant-adventurers targeted Spanish and Portuguese shipping with the goal of eliminating their competition.
By the year 1627, the new United Provinces of the Netherlands and the Spanish Hapsburg empire were engaged in the 59th year of the bloody Dutch War of Independence, a conflict commonly called the "80 Years' War (1568 - 1648)."
The West Indies Company expanded the war to the New World by licensing privateers to prey on merchant shipping flying the flag of the unified Kingdom of Spain and Portugal (1580 - 1640). The crews of the Dutch privateers were the descendants of the "Sea Beggars," fishermen turned nautical freedom fighters defending the flooded estuaries and canals of Holland and Zeeland from Spanish invaders in the 16th century.
Most of the privateers were Calvinists, adding a religious element to the conflict. The Dutch sailors held a special hatred for their Spanish Catholic opponents - a feeling shared by their adversaries in this pitiless war at sea.
The Dutch Fleet Arrives in Florida
The directors of the West Indies Company were aware of the routes used by Spanish silver fleets from Mexico known as the "Flota," and convoys carrying the gold mined in South America annually and transported in the "Galleones" along the east coast of Florida.
In the year 1598, Dutch historian John Huigehen Van Linschoten reported, "Gold and silver wherewith the Indians trafficke, they had it out of ships which fall on ground upon the Cape of Florida (Canaveral), because most of the ships lost here are lost on this said coast..."
In anticipation of future raids by Dutch or English pirates, Florida Governor Luis De Rojas y Borja (1624-29) wisely recommended the establishment of a fortified sentinel station at Jupiter Inlet in his Feb. 13, 1627 "Letter from the Governor of Florida to his Majesty."
"I should warn and advise your Majesty to build a fort at the bar (Jupiter Inlet)," he wrote, "at a place they call Jega (Jeaga), it being a place where vessels all come to cast anchor when they want to take on water, wood and wait for the merchant ships they wish to capture."
"A fort at this place would act as an sentinel and guard against their landing and helping themselves," the concerned governor reported. "It would also be well to have it in case of vessels being wrecked upon this coast, as so many are, to be able to rescue and save the crews and passengers, who so often perish at the hands of pirates and cruel Indians..."
This sage advice was ignored, at great cost and loss to the Kingdom of Spain.
In the spring of 1627, Spanish Captain-General Thomas Larraspuru sighted a fleet of 13 Dutch warships in the Florida Straits while escorting a convoy of ships to Havana. He reported the Dutch withdrew as he prepared for battle near Coximer, Cuba.
In fact, the Dutch privateers, under the command of Piet Heyn (1577-1629), remained in Cuban waters until July, charting Spanish trade routes and capturing prizes. Larraspuru stated 55 vessels were boarded or sunk by Dutch "pirates" in 1627.
On their return voyage to Holland, the Dutch ships anchored offshore of the Indian River inlet, near the main village of the Ais Indians called "Jece". As the Dutch landed, the Indians fled their village until enticed to return by gifts offered by the privateers.
The Dutch remained at the village, gathering wood and barrels of water for the long journey home. A few of the Ais villagers, loyal to the Spanish, traveled to St. Augustine to request help from Governor Rojas.
It so happened that the presence of the Dutch fleet off the coast of Florida prevented the Spanish from sending the "Situado" or annual royal subsidy to St. Augustine. The subsidy supported the garrison and administration of the Florida outpost and was main source of hard currency in he colony.
Governor Rojas dispatched a small frigate, also known as a "presidio boat," to Havana to inquire on the Situado's delay. The Spanish frigate discovered the 13 Dutch warships at anchor and fled north to report their presence to the governor.
The report by the excited crew confirmed the story told by the friendly Ais Indians. Governor Rojas mustered a force of 150 Spaniards and 300 Indians and marched south to confront the Dutch interlopers. He was too late. The Ais told the governor that the Dutch fleet had already set sail.
In his 1628 report, Governor Rojas wrote, "And they (the Indians) have come to give me the news that there were enemy on the coast. And on two occasions when they landed to obtain water, they abandoned their places and withdrew into the woods, and others came to give the report and to ask for help."
Piet Heyn and the Spanish Silver Fleet
Encouraged by profits made in the 1627 expedition to the Florida Straits, the West Indies Company dispatched four squadrons of warships to the Caribbean in 1628. They were led by Captains Pieter Adriaanszoon Ita, Witte de With, Joost Benckert (known as the Scourge of the Portuguese), and the return of Piet Heyn.
Captain Ita was the first to appear off the coast of Cuba in May 1628. The privateer captured two great galleons bound for Cuba from Honduras with 12 barges and several smaller vessels under their escort.
The Spanish galleon "Nossa Senhora de Remedios" was boarded as a prize and sailed with the Dutch privateers to the southeast coast of Florida. Following the example of the 1627 fleet, Ita provisioned his ships for the voyage back to Holland.
The captured "Remedios" was unfit for further sailing, so its cargo was transferred to the Dutch warships. Captain Ita scuttled the "Remedios" one mile off the Treasure Coast of Florida and set sail for home.
The privateer captain arrived in Holland in September 1628. His captured cargo was valued at 1.2 million guilders.
With the departure of the Dutch squadron, the governor of Cuba assumed it was safe for the annual silver fleet to make the voyage from Mexico to Spain. It was a fatal decision.
On July 27, 1628, Piet Heyn gathered 31 Dutch warships near Hispaniola, including the squadrons of Witte de With and Joost Benckert, and sailed for the Florida Straits and the northern coast of Cuba. Joining the Dutch fleet was the buccaneer Moses Cohen Henriques, an exiled Portuguese Sephardic Jew wanted by the Spanish Inquisition for piracy but never caught during his 30-year illicit career at sea.
Their unexpected arrival caught the Cadiz-bound silver fleet at anchor in the Bay of Matanzas, Cuba, on Sept. 9. Captain-General Juan de Benevides fled to the mainland and his fleet surrendered after just token resistance.
For Piet Heyn the victory was especially sweet. It was the same Captain Benevides who was the sailing master of a ship where Heyn rowed as a captive galley slave between the years 1598 and 1602. For his cowardice and loss of the silver fleet, Benevides was imprisoned in Cuba.
The 17 ships captured in Matanzas Bay yielded a silver haul valued at 11.9 million guilders. It marked the first and only time an entire Mexican silver Flota was captured intact.
Piet Heyn's fleet was sighted by curious Ais and Jeaga Indians on Sept. 30 as it assembled for one last time off Florida's Treasure Coast for the voyage home. The privateers followed the Gulf Stream to Europe, arriving in Holland on Jan. 9, 1629. The Dutch fleets never returned to Florida.
Ironically, Piet Heyn was allotted little time to bask in the glory of his victory. After a promotion to vice admiral, he was killed a few months later in a naval battle against his Flemish co-religionists in the service of Spain.
The capture of the Spanish silver fleet financed the beginning of Holland's golden age of commerce and world colonization. However, the Dutch were never able to repeat their total victory at Matanzas Bay. Spain upgraded the quality and number of warships escorting future Flota treasure convoys to Spain.
With the loss of the silver fleet, King Phillip IV could not pay his armies and many creditors in 1629-30. The Kingdom of Spain was bankrupt.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
*NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Friday, August 10, 2018
The British Expedition to the 'Hobe River': April 1772
By Bob Davidsson
Upon his arrival as the first chief administrator of the new British colony of East Florida, Governor James Grant (1763-71) poetically described its primal coastal frontier as a "New World in a State of Nature."
Nine years later, in one of his last acts before returning to England, the ailing Scottish governor authorized an expedition to explore the Indian River, and the inland estuaries between the St. Lucie Inlet and Biscayne Bay. The official report forwarded to Governor Grant includes a rare 18th century look at the Jupiter Inlet and Loxahatchee River basin, referred to as "Hobe River," during the British colonial period (1763-83),
The colonial official charged with leading the expedition in the spring of 1772 was Frederick George Mulcaster (1739-97), the newly appointed Surveyor General of East Florida. He also held the rank of lieutenant in the British Army's Royal Engineers at the time of the journey.
Mulcaster's orders were to examine the potential of the vast coastal wilderness for future farming and colonization. He specifically was assigned the task of evaluating the 20,000-acre tract of land acquired by William Legge, the second Earl of Dartmouth, at Biscayne Bay.
The Dual Identity of Frederick George Mulcaster
Lt. Mulcaster was born in the year 1739. His March 12, 1739 christening was recorded at St. James church, Westminster, Middlesex, England. It lists William and Jane Mulcaster as his parents.
Throughout his life, it was rumored that Mulcaster was in fact the illegitimate son of his royal namesake - Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King George II. If the rumor was true, his half brother was none other than the future King George III of England.
William Mulcaster was an officer in the household of Prince Frederick, so there was ample opportunity for a secrete liaison between his wife and the amorous Prince of Wales.
The royal family refused to acknowledge Frederick Mulcaster's kinship, so any claims to royalty were judged "illegitimate". He began a career in the military as a Mulcaster instead of a member of the British Hannover dynasty when he graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, England.
The young engineer was posted to British East Florida. Governor Grant appointed him as the deputy to East Florida's first Surveyor General, William G. DeBrahm. Mulcaster married DeBrahm's daughter in 1769, and succeeded his father-in-law in 1770 as Surveyor General when Governor Grant removed him from office.
Mulcaster was stationed in East Florida at the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775. East Florida remained loyal to the British crown and Mulcaster served as an officer in the British army. He would file several reports on rebel activities in Georgia and South Carolina as the war progressed.
Lt. Mulcaster left the province of East Florida in March 1776 to begin active military service. He resigned his post as Surveyor General, and set sail to Charleston, South Carolina.
His career in the British army continued after the American Revolution. Mulcaster retired with the rank of a major-general, a rare achievement for a "commoner" in class-conscious 18th century England.
The British Expedition to South Florida
Lt Mulcaster began his three-month expedition at the Minorcan settlement of New Smyrna, established in 1768 near the Mosquito (Ponce de Leon) Inlet 80 miles south of St. Augustine. He was accompanied by several sailors hired to man his two vessels.
The larger ship was a schooner used as the supply vessel for the expedition. Within its cargo hold were food and cooking provisions, axes, surveyor measuring chains and two horses. A smaller shallow-draft, sailing skiff also was acquired for navigating the Indian River and other tidal estuaries encountered during the journey.
The Surveyor General ordered the schooner to sail south along the Atlantic coastline, then wait for a rendezvous with its smaller companion vessel at the St. Lucie Inlet. Mulcaster portaged the skiff across the narrow "Haulover" separating Mosquito Bay from the Indian River and sailed south along the 100-mile inland waterway.
The two vessels reunited at "Point St. Lucea" where Mulcaster established a base camp. He left two of his men, the horses and a catch of supplies for the return journey, then sailed south along the Atlantic coast to Biscayne Bay.
Lt. Mulcaster reported, "I reached the Bay of Biscayne on the 13th of March with both boats, having left my horses upon the Point of St. Lucea about a hundred miles to the northward of this bay and about 140 miles to the southward of Captain Ross's plantation."
Mulcaster remained in Biscayne Bay for nearly four weeks, exploring coastal estuaries in Dade and Broward counties as far north as the mouth of the "New Hillsborough" (New) River in what is today Fort Lauderdale. He surveyed tracts of land suitable for future plantations.
The Surveyor General was impressed with the region's natural abundance, and reported in his journal; "Everything carried the face of spring." With supplies running low, Mulcaster sailed north in his two vessels. The next stop in the voyage was Jupiter Inlet.
"The 10th of April at 10 at night I passed the barr (at Jupiter Inlet), Mulcaster reported, "the schooner following me the day after and having a fair wind I got into Jupiter's Inlet at the mouth of the Hobe River the next afternoon."
In his report, Mulcaster used the geographic names of Jupiter Inlet and the Hobe River to describe the Jupiter Narrows and Loxahatchee River. He did not call them the "Grenville Inlet and Grenville River," names that appeared on later British maps.
The Surveyor General makes no mention of the Grenville plantation on the north shore of Jupiter Inlet. The brothers George and Richard Grenville acquired the site as a land grant and sent a team to survey the site in the late 1760s. The plantation project was abandoned after the death of George Grenville in 1770.
In his description of the Hobe River, Mulcaster reported, "This river divides itself in three branches. The south river I examined on my way to the southward. It runs almost parallel to the sea, has fine fresh water and plenty of fish."
"The middle branch I could not now examine, the Surveyor General reported, "having been away from my people and horses (at the St. Lucie Inlet) fifty days, which was longer than I expected. I was therefore anxious to get to them for fear they might suffer from want of provisions."
"The north branch (Jupiter Narrows) is rather an arm of the sea, with banks and shoals which leads to the south head of the Indian River, Mulcaster recorded. "I therefore ordered the schooner to the Indian (River) Inlet and came by that way up to St. Lucea to meet me which took place, which place I arrived at the 13th (of April) at 11 at night, but the horses and people were gone."
With supplies exhausted at the St. Lucie base camp, the two frightened men headed north to St. Augustine with the horses. They scratched a message with a penknife on a sable palm frond describing their plight and decision to leave.
"I therefore gave up all thoughts of looking at St. Lucea," Mulcaster wrote, "which I had all along determined to strictly search and make the best of my way along the banks of the river to look for them."
"I therefore set off at one-o-clock in the morning and the same day met the schooner and directed her to go to the Mosquito (inlet) and wait my arrival. I proceeded myself up the Indian River and about 50 miles south of the plantation of Capt. Ross saw a blue flag on the shore. Upon going nearer I perceived it as an Indian blanket and saw the Indians beckoning me."
Relations between the British and the lower Creek nation in Florida (soon known as the Seminole) were generally cordial. Governor Grant met with 50 chieftains at Fort Picolata in November 1765 and signed a treaty allowing settlement along the St. John's and Indian rivers.
Mulcaster reached "Capt. Ross's Plantation" on April 25. Capt. John Ross was resident foreman for two land grant tracts south of New Smyrna owned by London merchant William Eliott which were under cultivation as a sugar cane plantation. After a brief stay, Mulcaster sailed north to St. Augustine, completing his expedition.
Lt. Gov. John Moultrie (1771-74) was serving as interim governor of the East Florida colony when Mulcaster returned. The Surveyor General forwarded a copy of his report as a letter to absentee Gov. James Grant in England on May 6, 1772.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Upon his arrival as the first chief administrator of the new British colony of East Florida, Governor James Grant (1763-71) poetically described its primal coastal frontier as a "New World in a State of Nature."
Nine years later, in one of his last acts before returning to England, the ailing Scottish governor authorized an expedition to explore the Indian River, and the inland estuaries between the St. Lucie Inlet and Biscayne Bay. The official report forwarded to Governor Grant includes a rare 18th century look at the Jupiter Inlet and Loxahatchee River basin, referred to as "Hobe River," during the British colonial period (1763-83),
The colonial official charged with leading the expedition in the spring of 1772 was Frederick George Mulcaster (1739-97), the newly appointed Surveyor General of East Florida. He also held the rank of lieutenant in the British Army's Royal Engineers at the time of the journey.
Mulcaster's orders were to examine the potential of the vast coastal wilderness for future farming and colonization. He specifically was assigned the task of evaluating the 20,000-acre tract of land acquired by William Legge, the second Earl of Dartmouth, at Biscayne Bay.
The Dual Identity of Frederick George Mulcaster
Lt. Mulcaster was born in the year 1739. His March 12, 1739 christening was recorded at St. James church, Westminster, Middlesex, England. It lists William and Jane Mulcaster as his parents.
Throughout his life, it was rumored that Mulcaster was in fact the illegitimate son of his royal namesake - Frederick, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King George II. If the rumor was true, his half brother was none other than the future King George III of England.
William Mulcaster was an officer in the household of Prince Frederick, so there was ample opportunity for a secrete liaison between his wife and the amorous Prince of Wales.
The royal family refused to acknowledge Frederick Mulcaster's kinship, so any claims to royalty were judged "illegitimate". He began a career in the military as a Mulcaster instead of a member of the British Hannover dynasty when he graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, England.
The young engineer was posted to British East Florida. Governor Grant appointed him as the deputy to East Florida's first Surveyor General, William G. DeBrahm. Mulcaster married DeBrahm's daughter in 1769, and succeeded his father-in-law in 1770 as Surveyor General when Governor Grant removed him from office.
Mulcaster was stationed in East Florida at the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775. East Florida remained loyal to the British crown and Mulcaster served as an officer in the British army. He would file several reports on rebel activities in Georgia and South Carolina as the war progressed.
Lt. Mulcaster left the province of East Florida in March 1776 to begin active military service. He resigned his post as Surveyor General, and set sail to Charleston, South Carolina.
His career in the British army continued after the American Revolution. Mulcaster retired with the rank of a major-general, a rare achievement for a "commoner" in class-conscious 18th century England.
The British Expedition to South Florida
Lt Mulcaster began his three-month expedition at the Minorcan settlement of New Smyrna, established in 1768 near the Mosquito (Ponce de Leon) Inlet 80 miles south of St. Augustine. He was accompanied by several sailors hired to man his two vessels.
The larger ship was a schooner used as the supply vessel for the expedition. Within its cargo hold were food and cooking provisions, axes, surveyor measuring chains and two horses. A smaller shallow-draft, sailing skiff also was acquired for navigating the Indian River and other tidal estuaries encountered during the journey.
The Surveyor General ordered the schooner to sail south along the Atlantic coastline, then wait for a rendezvous with its smaller companion vessel at the St. Lucie Inlet. Mulcaster portaged the skiff across the narrow "Haulover" separating Mosquito Bay from the Indian River and sailed south along the 100-mile inland waterway.
The two vessels reunited at "Point St. Lucea" where Mulcaster established a base camp. He left two of his men, the horses and a catch of supplies for the return journey, then sailed south along the Atlantic coast to Biscayne Bay.
Lt. Mulcaster reported, "I reached the Bay of Biscayne on the 13th of March with both boats, having left my horses upon the Point of St. Lucea about a hundred miles to the northward of this bay and about 140 miles to the southward of Captain Ross's plantation."
Mulcaster remained in Biscayne Bay for nearly four weeks, exploring coastal estuaries in Dade and Broward counties as far north as the mouth of the "New Hillsborough" (New) River in what is today Fort Lauderdale. He surveyed tracts of land suitable for future plantations.
The Surveyor General was impressed with the region's natural abundance, and reported in his journal; "Everything carried the face of spring." With supplies running low, Mulcaster sailed north in his two vessels. The next stop in the voyage was Jupiter Inlet.
"The 10th of April at 10 at night I passed the barr (at Jupiter Inlet), Mulcaster reported, "the schooner following me the day after and having a fair wind I got into Jupiter's Inlet at the mouth of the Hobe River the next afternoon."
In his report, Mulcaster used the geographic names of Jupiter Inlet and the Hobe River to describe the Jupiter Narrows and Loxahatchee River. He did not call them the "Grenville Inlet and Grenville River," names that appeared on later British maps.
The Surveyor General makes no mention of the Grenville plantation on the north shore of Jupiter Inlet. The brothers George and Richard Grenville acquired the site as a land grant and sent a team to survey the site in the late 1760s. The plantation project was abandoned after the death of George Grenville in 1770.
In his description of the Hobe River, Mulcaster reported, "This river divides itself in three branches. The south river I examined on my way to the southward. It runs almost parallel to the sea, has fine fresh water and plenty of fish."
"The middle branch I could not now examine, the Surveyor General reported, "having been away from my people and horses (at the St. Lucie Inlet) fifty days, which was longer than I expected. I was therefore anxious to get to them for fear they might suffer from want of provisions."
"The north branch (Jupiter Narrows) is rather an arm of the sea, with banks and shoals which leads to the south head of the Indian River, Mulcaster recorded. "I therefore ordered the schooner to the Indian (River) Inlet and came by that way up to St. Lucea to meet me which took place, which place I arrived at the 13th (of April) at 11 at night, but the horses and people were gone."
With supplies exhausted at the St. Lucie base camp, the two frightened men headed north to St. Augustine with the horses. They scratched a message with a penknife on a sable palm frond describing their plight and decision to leave.
"I therefore gave up all thoughts of looking at St. Lucea," Mulcaster wrote, "which I had all along determined to strictly search and make the best of my way along the banks of the river to look for them."
"I therefore set off at one-o-clock in the morning and the same day met the schooner and directed her to go to the Mosquito (inlet) and wait my arrival. I proceeded myself up the Indian River and about 50 miles south of the plantation of Capt. Ross saw a blue flag on the shore. Upon going nearer I perceived it as an Indian blanket and saw the Indians beckoning me."
Relations between the British and the lower Creek nation in Florida (soon known as the Seminole) were generally cordial. Governor Grant met with 50 chieftains at Fort Picolata in November 1765 and signed a treaty allowing settlement along the St. John's and Indian rivers.
Mulcaster reached "Capt. Ross's Plantation" on April 25. Capt. John Ross was resident foreman for two land grant tracts south of New Smyrna owned by London merchant William Eliott which were under cultivation as a sugar cane plantation. After a brief stay, Mulcaster sailed north to St. Augustine, completing his expedition.
Lt. Gov. John Moultrie (1771-74) was serving as interim governor of the East Florida colony when Mulcaster returned. The Surveyor General forwarded a copy of his report as a letter to absentee Gov. James Grant in England on May 6, 1772.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Mango Grove Shaped Early History of Mangonia Park
By Bob Davidsson
In an effort to avoid future annexation by the neighboring City of West Palm Beach, Charles Roebuck and a delegation of neighbors living near Voss Road (Australian Avenue) petitioned the State of Florida in 1947 to incorporate a new city called "Magnolia Park".
As fate would have it, the state denied the petition. Magnolia Park already was designated as an unincorporated neighborhood on the eastern shore of Lake Apopka in Orange County.
As a compromise, the fledgling city was incorporated as "Mangonia Park". Within the newly named city was a largely overgrown grove of mango trees. This grove, neglected by the passage of time, became the name origin for the town - "Mangonia" or mango park.
By the late 1940s, few residents remembered the origin of the mango grove or the name of the person who planted them. By tracing their roots, the early history of Mangonia Park is discovered,
The Mango Grove of Rev. Elbridge Gale
"Mangonia" was originally the name given to 160 acres of homesteaded land by the Rev. Elbridge Gale in what is today the Northwood Hills.
After a career as a professor of agriculture at Kansas State Agricultural College, Rev. Gale, a native New Englander, retired and traveled from his McPherson, Kansas, home to the mainly unsettled west shore of Lake Worth in November 1884 for the purpose of applying farming techniques learned in the academic world in South Florida's subtropical climate.
Gale experimented with the creation of hybrid mangos at his Mangonia homestead. He produced the Haden mango by crossing native varieties with imported Indian mango seedlings.
Between 1885 and 1890, he was joined by his wife, Elizabeth; his son, George; and daughters Ella and Hattie with their families at his Northwood Hills homestead.
Hattie Gale was 16 years old and a student at Kansas State Agricultural College in 1885 when she arrived in the Palm Beaches. She taught school for three months at the "Little Red School House" which opened in March 1886. She became the first school teacher on the isle of Palm Beach.
Hattie returned to Kansas to complete her college education. She became engaged to faculty member William Sanders in Manhattan, Kansas. The couple were married by her father, Rev. Gale, upon their return Palm Beaches on Aug. 24, 1890.
The Short Life of 'Mangonia'
Rev. Gale's son, George, was a carpenter and helped his family build the first log cabin in Mangonia's Northwood Hills. The site of homestead was later designated as 29th Street by the Postal Service.
George Gale cut pine logs for the cabin and hauled them from the west shore of Lake Worth. Shingles were salvaged from ship wrecks along the ocean shore of Palm Beach. The homestead was topped by a steep roof made of woven palmetto fronds.
The ambitious son of Rev. Gale arrived in "Mangonia" in February 1885. He established a pineapple farm in the Northwood Hills, and was soon platting the family's land for sale as parcels in the community he hoped to incorporate as the town of "Mangonia".
The creation of the City of West Palm Beach in 1894 ended the short life of the Gale family's "Mangonia" as an independent community. Most of the Gale property in the Northwood Hills was within the West Palm Beach city limits, with the remainder becoming part of Mangonia Park after 1947.
Elbridge Gale continued his interest in education by serving one term as the Dade County Superintendent of Schools. Prior to the creation of Palm Beach County in 1909, Dade County encompassed a vast area from the St. Lucie Inlet south to Biscayne Bay. The town of Juno was the county seat from February 1889 through 1899 when it returned to Miami.
The Dade County Board of Education was established June 27, 1885. At its organizational meeting, it consisted of a superintendent of schools and three board members.
The first order of business of the Board of Education was the division of Dade County schools into four districts. District #1 included the Palm Beaches and its early schoolhouses built along the shores of Lake Worth during the 1880s and 1890s.
Rev. Gale also served as the first president of the "Christian Union," a nonsectarian league of churches established in the fledgling communities along Lake Worth. The organization met in the Mangonia school, established by the Gale family.
The Gale homestead and neighboring farms were purchased by the Pinewood Development Corporation in 1920. A year later the corporation platted the first phase of the "Northwood" subdivision which would become known as "Old Northwood".
The founder of "Mangonia" died Nov. 4, 1907. Both Rev. Gale and his wife are buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in West Palm Beach. Two of their children, George and Hattie, joined them at this final resting place in 1922.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below or archived in Older Posts.
In an effort to avoid future annexation by the neighboring City of West Palm Beach, Charles Roebuck and a delegation of neighbors living near Voss Road (Australian Avenue) petitioned the State of Florida in 1947 to incorporate a new city called "Magnolia Park".
As fate would have it, the state denied the petition. Magnolia Park already was designated as an unincorporated neighborhood on the eastern shore of Lake Apopka in Orange County.
As a compromise, the fledgling city was incorporated as "Mangonia Park". Within the newly named city was a largely overgrown grove of mango trees. This grove, neglected by the passage of time, became the name origin for the town - "Mangonia" or mango park.
By the late 1940s, few residents remembered the origin of the mango grove or the name of the person who planted them. By tracing their roots, the early history of Mangonia Park is discovered,
The Mango Grove of Rev. Elbridge Gale
"Mangonia" was originally the name given to 160 acres of homesteaded land by the Rev. Elbridge Gale in what is today the Northwood Hills.
After a career as a professor of agriculture at Kansas State Agricultural College, Rev. Gale, a native New Englander, retired and traveled from his McPherson, Kansas, home to the mainly unsettled west shore of Lake Worth in November 1884 for the purpose of applying farming techniques learned in the academic world in South Florida's subtropical climate.
Gale experimented with the creation of hybrid mangos at his Mangonia homestead. He produced the Haden mango by crossing native varieties with imported Indian mango seedlings.
Between 1885 and 1890, he was joined by his wife, Elizabeth; his son, George; and daughters Ella and Hattie with their families at his Northwood Hills homestead.
Hattie Gale was 16 years old and a student at Kansas State Agricultural College in 1885 when she arrived in the Palm Beaches. She taught school for three months at the "Little Red School House" which opened in March 1886. She became the first school teacher on the isle of Palm Beach.
Hattie returned to Kansas to complete her college education. She became engaged to faculty member William Sanders in Manhattan, Kansas. The couple were married by her father, Rev. Gale, upon their return Palm Beaches on Aug. 24, 1890.
The Short Life of 'Mangonia'
Rev. Gale's son, George, was a carpenter and helped his family build the first log cabin in Mangonia's Northwood Hills. The site of homestead was later designated as 29th Street by the Postal Service.
George Gale cut pine logs for the cabin and hauled them from the west shore of Lake Worth. Shingles were salvaged from ship wrecks along the ocean shore of Palm Beach. The homestead was topped by a steep roof made of woven palmetto fronds.
The ambitious son of Rev. Gale arrived in "Mangonia" in February 1885. He established a pineapple farm in the Northwood Hills, and was soon platting the family's land for sale as parcels in the community he hoped to incorporate as the town of "Mangonia".
The creation of the City of West Palm Beach in 1894 ended the short life of the Gale family's "Mangonia" as an independent community. Most of the Gale property in the Northwood Hills was within the West Palm Beach city limits, with the remainder becoming part of Mangonia Park after 1947.
Elbridge Gale continued his interest in education by serving one term as the Dade County Superintendent of Schools. Prior to the creation of Palm Beach County in 1909, Dade County encompassed a vast area from the St. Lucie Inlet south to Biscayne Bay. The town of Juno was the county seat from February 1889 through 1899 when it returned to Miami.
The Dade County Board of Education was established June 27, 1885. At its organizational meeting, it consisted of a superintendent of schools and three board members.
The first order of business of the Board of Education was the division of Dade County schools into four districts. District #1 included the Palm Beaches and its early schoolhouses built along the shores of Lake Worth during the 1880s and 1890s.
Rev. Gale also served as the first president of the "Christian Union," a nonsectarian league of churches established in the fledgling communities along Lake Worth. The organization met in the Mangonia school, established by the Gale family.
The Gale homestead and neighboring farms were purchased by the Pinewood Development Corporation in 1920. A year later the corporation platted the first phase of the "Northwood" subdivision which would become known as "Old Northwood".
The founder of "Mangonia" died Nov. 4, 1907. Both Rev. Gale and his wife are buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in West Palm Beach. Two of their children, George and Hattie, joined them at this final resting place in 1922.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below or archived in Older Posts.
Monday, June 11, 2018
Historic WPB Medical Lab Fought Disease Epidemics
By Bob Davidsson
The last great disease pandemic to impact Palm Beach County - the "Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918-19" - resulted in draconian actions by local government to control the outbreak, and the placement of one of just three State of Florida diagnostic laboratories in West Palm Beach.
At its June 4, 2018 meeting, the West Palm Beach Commission designated the 1921 neoclassical building at 415 5th Street, formerly the Florida State Board of Health (SBH) Laboratory, as a landmark on the city's Register of Historic Places.
An historic marker fronting the building, currently housing the First Bank of the Palm Beaches, reads; "With the construction of the Board of Health Laboratory in 1921, Palm Beach County secured its first state building. Still considered an area of the country that was just being settled, establishing an outpost for public health was an essential component of community upbuilding for West Palm Beach."
Florida was still a rural state in 1920 with a population of just 968,470. Established in 1909, the total population of Palm Beach County, which included portions of Broward and Martin counties at that time, was just 18,654.
The State Board of Health was established by an act of the Florida Legislature on Feb. 29, 1889. The understaffed SBH faced major budget cuts in 1920 by populist Governor Sidney J. Catts, an ordained minister elected to state office in 1916 as head of the "Prohibition Party" ticket.
It took intense lobbying efforts by the Palm Beach Post and its editor, Joe Earman, and a series of devastating outbreaks of Spanish flu, bubonic plague and dengue fever in the state, to convince the parsimonious governor of the need for a new research laboratory.
The two-story SBH lab in West Palm Beach was designed by Pensacola architect Walker D. Willis as a prototype model reproduced several times across the State of Florida. The architect envisioned its neoclassical design "as a symbol of civilization" in the largely rural Sunshine State.
"Constructed by E.H. Barto in 100 days at a cost of $34,700," the historic marker reads, "this landmark structure retains much of its original Bedford Limestone fenestration, St. Louis brick façade and decorative classical interior. The well-preserved interior includes extensive promenade mosaic tile, Dade Pine floors, and a wrought iron and marble central staircase."
The SBH laboratory in West Palm Beach was one of three early diagnostic and treatment centers for communicable diseases in Florida. Together with its sister labs in Pensacola and Jacksonville, the local medical research center controlled the spread of diseases such as influenza, diphtheria and tuberculosis.
The medical labs were hard-pressed to meet the public health needs of the state in the early 20th century. Outbreaks of malaria were endemic in the Suwannee River valley. Dengue fever ravaged Dade County in 1921, eventually spreading to Tampa Bay.
In the year 1920, an unidentified ship anchored in Pensacola's harbor carrying rats infested with the bubonic plague virus. The vermin with their disease carrying fleas disembarked from the ship, spreading the "pestis" virus to rodents throughout the city.
Ten residents contracted the disease and seven died before the pestilence was brought under control. The outbreak highlighted the first systematic use of state public health services to control an epidemic.
Spanish Flu Epidemic in Palm Beach County, 1918-19
The one catastrophe that galvanized public opinion in support of statewide SBH laboratories to fight communicable diseases in Florida was the deadly arrival of the so-called "Spanish flu" in 1918.
While the exact geographic origin of the influenza strain is still debated, its impact was felt worldwide. The scourge killed 50 million people, including between 500,000 and 650,000 in the United States.
Close communal living conditions necessary during World War I quickly spread the flu virus from the frontline trenches to staging areas, hospitals and military bases in Europe and America. It is believed the first cases in the U.S. were at Fort Riley, Kansas, from where the virus soon infected the general population.*
An estimated 4,000 residents succumbed to the Spanish flu in the thinly populated State of Florida. The first report of the epidemic reaching Florida was Sept. 27, 1918 in Key West. The disease was reported in Pensacola less than one week later. Florida's new rail systems carried the pestilence throughout the state.
By the second week of October 1918, there 158 flu-related deaths in Florida. The number of confirmed Spanish flu cases in the state reached 12,944 by January 1919. Drastic steps were taken to control the epidemic in West Palm Beach and across the state.
On Oct. 9, 1918, an ordinance was passed by the City of West Palm Beach to close all public meetings, schools, theaters, churches and public gatherings during the proclaimed emergency.
The Palm Beach Post reported, "It was stipulated in the ordinance that there shall be no loitering in billiard halls, that barber shops shall be conducted in a strictly sanitary manner, and soda fountains shall serve drinks only in paper containers."
The draconian city ordinance assessed first-time violators a $100 fine or 30 days in jail. It was not an unusual sight to see residents covering their faces with masks or handkerchiefs as they shopped downtown during the 1918-19 epidemic.
The Spanish flu targeted younger victims who lacked partial immunity from earlier flu outbreaks in the 1890's. The flu arrived in two waves. The first outbreak in 1918 was more virulent and was commonly called "the three-day fever". Many flu patients died by contracting secondary pneumonia in an age when antibiotics were not available.
A milder second wave of Spanish flu mutated and spread across the country in 1919. By the end of the year, the pandemic was becoming a horrible memory.
Public Health Becomes a Statewide Concern
The SBH laboratory in West Palm Beach filled a much needed gap in medical diagnostic services in the early history of Palm Beach County. It wasn't until 1948 that Palm Beach County established a public health unit with the State of Florida providing matching funds..
Today, the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County, with its staff of 750 employees, provides a wide range of community services including disease prevention and control.
The original SBH labs created in the 1920's have evolved into the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Public Health Laboratories. The Jacksonville-based agency provides diagnostic screening, monitoring, research and emergency public health laboratory services to county health departments.
(c.) Davidsson 2018.
*NOTE: The author's great aunt died in the Spanish flu epidemic. See additional articles archived below and in Older Posts.
The last great disease pandemic to impact Palm Beach County - the "Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918-19" - resulted in draconian actions by local government to control the outbreak, and the placement of one of just three State of Florida diagnostic laboratories in West Palm Beach.
At its June 4, 2018 meeting, the West Palm Beach Commission designated the 1921 neoclassical building at 415 5th Street, formerly the Florida State Board of Health (SBH) Laboratory, as a landmark on the city's Register of Historic Places.
An historic marker fronting the building, currently housing the First Bank of the Palm Beaches, reads; "With the construction of the Board of Health Laboratory in 1921, Palm Beach County secured its first state building. Still considered an area of the country that was just being settled, establishing an outpost for public health was an essential component of community upbuilding for West Palm Beach."
Florida was still a rural state in 1920 with a population of just 968,470. Established in 1909, the total population of Palm Beach County, which included portions of Broward and Martin counties at that time, was just 18,654.
The State Board of Health was established by an act of the Florida Legislature on Feb. 29, 1889. The understaffed SBH faced major budget cuts in 1920 by populist Governor Sidney J. Catts, an ordained minister elected to state office in 1916 as head of the "Prohibition Party" ticket.
It took intense lobbying efforts by the Palm Beach Post and its editor, Joe Earman, and a series of devastating outbreaks of Spanish flu, bubonic plague and dengue fever in the state, to convince the parsimonious governor of the need for a new research laboratory.
The two-story SBH lab in West Palm Beach was designed by Pensacola architect Walker D. Willis as a prototype model reproduced several times across the State of Florida. The architect envisioned its neoclassical design "as a symbol of civilization" in the largely rural Sunshine State.
"Constructed by E.H. Barto in 100 days at a cost of $34,700," the historic marker reads, "this landmark structure retains much of its original Bedford Limestone fenestration, St. Louis brick façade and decorative classical interior. The well-preserved interior includes extensive promenade mosaic tile, Dade Pine floors, and a wrought iron and marble central staircase."
The SBH laboratory in West Palm Beach was one of three early diagnostic and treatment centers for communicable diseases in Florida. Together with its sister labs in Pensacola and Jacksonville, the local medical research center controlled the spread of diseases such as influenza, diphtheria and tuberculosis.
The medical labs were hard-pressed to meet the public health needs of the state in the early 20th century. Outbreaks of malaria were endemic in the Suwannee River valley. Dengue fever ravaged Dade County in 1921, eventually spreading to Tampa Bay.
In the year 1920, an unidentified ship anchored in Pensacola's harbor carrying rats infested with the bubonic plague virus. The vermin with their disease carrying fleas disembarked from the ship, spreading the "pestis" virus to rodents throughout the city.
Ten residents contracted the disease and seven died before the pestilence was brought under control. The outbreak highlighted the first systematic use of state public health services to control an epidemic.
Spanish Flu Epidemic in Palm Beach County, 1918-19
The one catastrophe that galvanized public opinion in support of statewide SBH laboratories to fight communicable diseases in Florida was the deadly arrival of the so-called "Spanish flu" in 1918.
While the exact geographic origin of the influenza strain is still debated, its impact was felt worldwide. The scourge killed 50 million people, including between 500,000 and 650,000 in the United States.
Close communal living conditions necessary during World War I quickly spread the flu virus from the frontline trenches to staging areas, hospitals and military bases in Europe and America. It is believed the first cases in the U.S. were at Fort Riley, Kansas, from where the virus soon infected the general population.*
An estimated 4,000 residents succumbed to the Spanish flu in the thinly populated State of Florida. The first report of the epidemic reaching Florida was Sept. 27, 1918 in Key West. The disease was reported in Pensacola less than one week later. Florida's new rail systems carried the pestilence throughout the state.
By the second week of October 1918, there 158 flu-related deaths in Florida. The number of confirmed Spanish flu cases in the state reached 12,944 by January 1919. Drastic steps were taken to control the epidemic in West Palm Beach and across the state.
On Oct. 9, 1918, an ordinance was passed by the City of West Palm Beach to close all public meetings, schools, theaters, churches and public gatherings during the proclaimed emergency.
The Palm Beach Post reported, "It was stipulated in the ordinance that there shall be no loitering in billiard halls, that barber shops shall be conducted in a strictly sanitary manner, and soda fountains shall serve drinks only in paper containers."
The draconian city ordinance assessed first-time violators a $100 fine or 30 days in jail. It was not an unusual sight to see residents covering their faces with masks or handkerchiefs as they shopped downtown during the 1918-19 epidemic.
The Spanish flu targeted younger victims who lacked partial immunity from earlier flu outbreaks in the 1890's. The flu arrived in two waves. The first outbreak in 1918 was more virulent and was commonly called "the three-day fever". Many flu patients died by contracting secondary pneumonia in an age when antibiotics were not available.
A milder second wave of Spanish flu mutated and spread across the country in 1919. By the end of the year, the pandemic was becoming a horrible memory.
Public Health Becomes a Statewide Concern
The SBH laboratory in West Palm Beach filled a much needed gap in medical diagnostic services in the early history of Palm Beach County. It wasn't until 1948 that Palm Beach County established a public health unit with the State of Florida providing matching funds..
Today, the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County, with its staff of 750 employees, provides a wide range of community services including disease prevention and control.
The original SBH labs created in the 1920's have evolved into the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Public Health Laboratories. The Jacksonville-based agency provides diagnostic screening, monitoring, research and emergency public health laboratory services to county health departments.
(c.) Davidsson 2018.
*NOTE: The author's great aunt died in the Spanish flu epidemic. See additional articles archived below and in Older Posts.
Friday, May 25, 2018
Many County Roads Honor the Famous or the Obscure
By Bob Davidsson
Since Palm Beach County was established in 1909, the State of Florida has designated 33 roads and bridges as memorials to famous residents, the not-so-famous, and people whose names are long forgotten with the passage of time.
It is not just highways and bridges that are so honored by our state lawmakers. Two trails, an expressway, a turnpike, causeway, plaza and even a cable barrier system have been deemed worthy of memorial recognition by the State of Florida in Palm Beach County.
Commuters driving to work on I-95 may be interested to learn their overburdened travel route is actually the "Dwight David Eisenhower Veterans Memorial Highway." By an act of the Florida Legislature (86-309), the section of I-95 (SR 9) from Miami to the Georgia line was so designated in October 1986.
"Ike" isn't the only president honored. The Florida Turnpike also became the "Ronald Reagan Turnpike" from SR 821 north to its intersection with I-75 at Wildwood. The Florida Legislature passed Session Law 98-435 in 1998.
The turnpike's Palm Beach Plaza was dedicated as the "Charles B. Costar Service Plaza" in 1999. Costar was a businessmen who lobbied for the creation of a highway toll system to finance the building of the Florida Turnpike.
The Florida Turnpike's cable barrier in Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Miami-Dade counties was designated as the "Alexander Alden Ware Memorial Cable Barrier System" in 2005. It is named for a child who drowned when the family's car flipped into a canal.
These memorial names attached to our county streets, highways and bridges are voted on and approved by the state senators and representatives we send to Tallahassee. They are introduced as house and senate bills, or as concurrent resolutions approved and placed in the Laws of Florida.
The Florida Legislature has the authority to designate transportation facilities "for honorary or memorial purposes." Beginning in 1922, and with few exceptions, honorary designations "were accomplished as they are today, through an act of the Legislature," according to the Florida Senate's Committee on Transportation's 2011 Interim Report.
After session laws are enacted, it is up to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to print and place signage for the memorial bridges or designated sections of Florida's state roads. Memorials passed before the year 1969 were the responsibility of the State Road Board, the oversight agency for the State Road Department, first established in 1915.
FDOT classifies a transportation memorial by its designated name, county, state route number, U.S. route number, local street description, type of facility, dedication source and effective date.
Memorial designations often overlap on the same section of road. The "Kenneth C. Mock Highway (SR 80) extends from the Henry County line to the Atlantic Ocean. However, it overlaps with the "Lawton Chiles Trail" between South Bay and West Palm Beach.
Kenneth Mock was an engineer from Pahokee who spearheaded efforts to expand SR 80 to a four-lane highway in Palm Beach County. Former two-term Governor and U.S. Senator Lawton Chiles is known for walking across the State of Florida in his political campaigns. The "Lawton Chiles Trail" is the route "Walkin' Lawton" followed along the state's roads.
The Dixie Highway (U.S. 1) has earned three patriotic memorial titles in Palm Beach County. It became the "Blue Star Memorial Highway" in 1957, the "Constitution Highway" in 1987, and received the additional designation as the "POW-MIA Blue Star Memorial Highway" in 1991.
In May 1947, the Florida Legislature proclaimed sections of SR 80 from Henry County to West Palm Beach, and U.S. 1 south of Southern Blvd. to the Broward County line, as the "United Spanish War Veterans Memorial Highway" to honor surviving Florida volunteers who served in the Spanish-American War and Philippines conflict.
Some memorial highways are named for deceased local politicians. The "Ben Sunday Memorial Highway" (SR 806), extending from the west Delray city limits to the Florida Turnpike, is named for a Palm Beach County commissioner who served in the 1950s.
The "Charles Minor Expressway" was designated in 1961 as the section of U.S. 27 and SR80 between the Hendry County line and South Bay. Minor was a member of the Florida House of Representatives and Hendry County Commission.
The main north-south highway in western Palm Beach County, U.S. 27 (SR 25) has acquired many common names during its 70-year history. Within Palm Beach County, it also became the "Tom and Marian Lewis Memorial Highway". The Legislature honored the former state lawmaker and his wife in 1995.
The section of Alternate A1A from Donald Ross Road north to U.S. 1 in Jupiter was proclaimed the "Glynn Mayo Highway" in 1992. He was the Town of Jupiter's first police chief and served for 28 years.
There also are highways honoring sporting organizations in Palm Beach County. The "Moroso Memorial Highway" is a section of SR 710 named in 1999 to honor the Palm Beach International Raceway and its former owner, Dick Moroso.
The arrival of the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) in northern Palm Beach County was recognized by the Florida Legislature by selecting a portion of SR 786 in Palm Beach Gardens as the "PGA Boulevard". The designation became law on June 24, 1965.
Palm Beach County's barrier island highway, SR A1A, has acquired its share of memorials. The earliest designation was the "Atlantic Beach Boulevard," so named in 1927 as the coastal highway from St. Augustine south to Miami. "North Ocean Boulevard," from Pelican Lane to Sea Road on the Palm Beach barrier island was officially cited in April 1992.
The little known but much traveled "Coast to Coast Highway" was designated in 1992. It extends from Siesta Key on Florida's west coast to U.S. 1 in Riviera Beach and includes SR 710 in Palm Beach County.
The Florida Legislature remembered historic Mar-a-lago and its Post cereals heiress by naming the link between SR A1A and Southern Boulevard as the "Marjorie M. Post Memorial Causeway" in 1972.
Memorial Bridges in Palm Beach County
Below is the current list of eight memorial bridges in Palm Beach County designated by the Florida Legislature with their effective dates of dedication:
The trail connected Fort Jupiter with Fort Dallas near the current City of Miami. During the Second Seminole War it was known as "Lauderdale's Route" but was later commonly called the generic "Military Trail".
Ironically, the historic route was not recognized by the Florida Legislature until March 1972. The section of the former wagon trail from SR 808 to PGA Boulevard is now a state memorial highway.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Since Palm Beach County was established in 1909, the State of Florida has designated 33 roads and bridges as memorials to famous residents, the not-so-famous, and people whose names are long forgotten with the passage of time.
It is not just highways and bridges that are so honored by our state lawmakers. Two trails, an expressway, a turnpike, causeway, plaza and even a cable barrier system have been deemed worthy of memorial recognition by the State of Florida in Palm Beach County.
Commuters driving to work on I-95 may be interested to learn their overburdened travel route is actually the "Dwight David Eisenhower Veterans Memorial Highway." By an act of the Florida Legislature (86-309), the section of I-95 (SR 9) from Miami to the Georgia line was so designated in October 1986.
"Ike" isn't the only president honored. The Florida Turnpike also became the "Ronald Reagan Turnpike" from SR 821 north to its intersection with I-75 at Wildwood. The Florida Legislature passed Session Law 98-435 in 1998.
The turnpike's Palm Beach Plaza was dedicated as the "Charles B. Costar Service Plaza" in 1999. Costar was a businessmen who lobbied for the creation of a highway toll system to finance the building of the Florida Turnpike.
The Florida Turnpike's cable barrier in Palm Beach, St. Lucie and Miami-Dade counties was designated as the "Alexander Alden Ware Memorial Cable Barrier System" in 2005. It is named for a child who drowned when the family's car flipped into a canal.
These memorial names attached to our county streets, highways and bridges are voted on and approved by the state senators and representatives we send to Tallahassee. They are introduced as house and senate bills, or as concurrent resolutions approved and placed in the Laws of Florida.
The Florida Legislature has the authority to designate transportation facilities "for honorary or memorial purposes." Beginning in 1922, and with few exceptions, honorary designations "were accomplished as they are today, through an act of the Legislature," according to the Florida Senate's Committee on Transportation's 2011 Interim Report.
After session laws are enacted, it is up to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to print and place signage for the memorial bridges or designated sections of Florida's state roads. Memorials passed before the year 1969 were the responsibility of the State Road Board, the oversight agency for the State Road Department, first established in 1915.
FDOT classifies a transportation memorial by its designated name, county, state route number, U.S. route number, local street description, type of facility, dedication source and effective date.
Memorial designations often overlap on the same section of road. The "Kenneth C. Mock Highway (SR 80) extends from the Henry County line to the Atlantic Ocean. However, it overlaps with the "Lawton Chiles Trail" between South Bay and West Palm Beach.
Kenneth Mock was an engineer from Pahokee who spearheaded efforts to expand SR 80 to a four-lane highway in Palm Beach County. Former two-term Governor and U.S. Senator Lawton Chiles is known for walking across the State of Florida in his political campaigns. The "Lawton Chiles Trail" is the route "Walkin' Lawton" followed along the state's roads.
The Dixie Highway (U.S. 1) has earned three patriotic memorial titles in Palm Beach County. It became the "Blue Star Memorial Highway" in 1957, the "Constitution Highway" in 1987, and received the additional designation as the "POW-MIA Blue Star Memorial Highway" in 1991.
In May 1947, the Florida Legislature proclaimed sections of SR 80 from Henry County to West Palm Beach, and U.S. 1 south of Southern Blvd. to the Broward County line, as the "United Spanish War Veterans Memorial Highway" to honor surviving Florida volunteers who served in the Spanish-American War and Philippines conflict.
Some memorial highways are named for deceased local politicians. The "Ben Sunday Memorial Highway" (SR 806), extending from the west Delray city limits to the Florida Turnpike, is named for a Palm Beach County commissioner who served in the 1950s.
The "Charles Minor Expressway" was designated in 1961 as the section of U.S. 27 and SR80 between the Hendry County line and South Bay. Minor was a member of the Florida House of Representatives and Hendry County Commission.
The main north-south highway in western Palm Beach County, U.S. 27 (SR 25) has acquired many common names during its 70-year history. Within Palm Beach County, it also became the "Tom and Marian Lewis Memorial Highway". The Legislature honored the former state lawmaker and his wife in 1995.
The section of Alternate A1A from Donald Ross Road north to U.S. 1 in Jupiter was proclaimed the "Glynn Mayo Highway" in 1992. He was the Town of Jupiter's first police chief and served for 28 years.
There also are highways honoring sporting organizations in Palm Beach County. The "Moroso Memorial Highway" is a section of SR 710 named in 1999 to honor the Palm Beach International Raceway and its former owner, Dick Moroso.
The arrival of the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) in northern Palm Beach County was recognized by the Florida Legislature by selecting a portion of SR 786 in Palm Beach Gardens as the "PGA Boulevard". The designation became law on June 24, 1965.
Palm Beach County's barrier island highway, SR A1A, has acquired its share of memorials. The earliest designation was the "Atlantic Beach Boulevard," so named in 1927 as the coastal highway from St. Augustine south to Miami. "North Ocean Boulevard," from Pelican Lane to Sea Road on the Palm Beach barrier island was officially cited in April 1992.
The little known but much traveled "Coast to Coast Highway" was designated in 1992. It extends from Siesta Key on Florida's west coast to U.S. 1 in Riviera Beach and includes SR 710 in Palm Beach County.
The Florida Legislature remembered historic Mar-a-lago and its Post cereals heiress by naming the link between SR A1A and Southern Boulevard as the "Marjorie M. Post Memorial Causeway" in 1972.
Memorial Bridges in Palm Beach County
Below is the current list of eight memorial bridges in Palm Beach County designated by the Florida Legislature with their effective dates of dedication:
- Carlin White Bridge. (Name dedicated in 2007). Across the Loxahatchee River near Jupiter Inlet. He was a Jupiter pioneer who died in 2014 at age 107.
- Haven M. Ashe Bridge. (1965.) Across the Boca Raton Inlet on A1A. He was a Boca Raton pioneer and bridge tender who worked for Florida's State Road Department.
- Jack L. Saunders Bridge. (1980) Spans the Intracoastal Waterway on Linton Blvd., Delray Beach. He was a Delray Beach pioneer and former mayor.
- Jerry Thomas Memorial Bridge. (1981) Also known as the Blue Heron Bridge. It spans the Intracoastal Waterway in Riviera Beach. He was a past president of the Florida Senate and candidate for governor.
- L.E. Buie Memorial Bridge. (2004) It is the skypass bridge on U.S. 1 passing over the Port of Palm Beach. She was a resident of West Palm Beach since 1925 and a lifelong civil rights advocate.
- Richard E. "Pete" Damon Bridge. (2005) Bridge crosses the Loxahatchee River along Alternate A1A in Jupiter. He was a bridge tender on the Alternate A1A Bridge for 20 years.
- Riviera Memorial Bridge. (1945) Bridge crosses Lake Worth along SR A1A on Singer Island.
- Robert A, Harris Bridge. (1970) Bridge crosses the Intracoastal Waterway at the City of Lake Worth. He was the director of the Lake Worth Chamber of Commerce from 1961-69.
The trail connected Fort Jupiter with Fort Dallas near the current City of Miami. During the Second Seminole War it was known as "Lauderdale's Route" but was later commonly called the generic "Military Trail".
Ironically, the historic route was not recognized by the Florida Legislature until March 1972. The section of the former wagon trail from SR 808 to PGA Boulevard is now a state memorial highway.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
NOTE: See additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
Friday, May 4, 2018
U.S. 27: County's Highway of Sugar, Blood and Hope
By Bob Davidsson
Highway U.S. 27, the westernmost federal north-south route in Palm Beach County, is a roadway with many acquired names, leading its drivers on journey through the unique transportation history of Florida.
During its 84-year history, U.S. 27 (also designated SR 25) earned the nicknames of the "Backbone of Florida," the "Sugarland Highway," "Bloody 27" and the "Claude Pepper Memorial Highway."
For two generations, until the completion of Florida's interstate highway grid and the opening of the Florida Turnpike as the Sunshine State Parkway, U.S. 27 was the main 1,373-mile gateway for trucking and the tourism industry connecting the Midwest to destinations within the Sunshine State.
U.S. 27 begins in Fort Wayne, Ind., and meanders south through Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia. The highway first entered Florida in 1934 at the sleepy village of Havana in Gadsden County, located a few miles northwest of Tallahassee.
By 1947, U.S. 27 was extended 481 miles to its final destination in Miami, where it links with highway U.S. 1 at North 36th Street, just south of "Little Havana". As a result of the common names at its Florida entry point and terminus, U.S. 27 acquired yet another moniker - the "Havana to Little Havana Highway."
Due to the importance of the highway for tourism in the mid-20th century, and its use as the backbone of the state's transportation system, promoters began referring to U.S. 27 as the "Backbone of Florida." The name is an appropriate geographic description since it crosses the heartland of state in central Florida.
U.S. 27 passes along the western shore of Lake Okeechobee in Glades and Hendry counties, where it briefly merges with SR 80 as it enters Palm Beach County near the City of South Bay. The federal highway parts company with SR 80 east of South Bay and heads due south through miles of sugarcane fields.
A sugarcane crop valued at about $1.5 billion annually is transported on U.S. 27 in Palm Beach and Hendry counties. Many growers in the agricultural industry began calling it the "Sugarland Highway" due to its economic importance to the region.
After entering the sugar harvesting center of Okeelanta in central Palm Beach County, U.S. 27 veers southeast toward Broward County. When it crosses the county line, the highway enters the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area wetlands.
As it departs the conservation area, the U.S. 27 skirts the western edge of endless miles of generic urban sprawl in southern Broward and Miami-Dade counties before turning east near Miami's international airport to its intersection with U.S. 1.
Shortly after the death of former U.S. Senator and Congressman Claude Pepper, the Florida Legislature voted to honor the veteran Miami lawmaker by designating U.S. 27 as the "Claude Pepper Memorial Highway" on May 12, 1999.
The session law (CS/HB 75) states, "U.S. Highway 27 in the State of Florida is hereby designated 'Claude Pepper Memorial Highway'. The Department (of Transportation) is authorized to determine appropriate intervals along U.S. 27 for the location of markers so as to inform the public of the designation."
The Legislature also designated the entire length of U.S. 27 as the "Purple Heart Highway," with an effective date of July 1, 2010.
Because U.S. 27 was the first roadway to be four-laned along most of its route in Florida, it also earned the unofficial title of "Florida's First Superhighway". However, over the decades one section of the so-called "Superhighway" earned a more deadly reputation in Palm Beach County as "Bloody 27".
The Deadly Legacy of 'Bloody 27"
At 5:55 a.m. March 17, 2015, Carolina Ortiz was driving her three teenage children to their school in Miami-Dade County. Six miles south of the City of South Bay, she encountered a detached truck trailer which had separated after departing from an Okeelanta sugar mill. It loomed out of the early morning darkness and fog in her lane of traffic.
While attempting to avoid the obstacle, her Ford Focus was hit by a pickup truck and oncoming tracker-trailer. Mrs. Ortiz and her three children were killed.
This sad narrative, and hundreds like it, have earned highway U.S. 27 the notorious nickname of "Bloody 27".
Nature, agriculture and a heavily used trucking route have conspired to make this 22-mile stretch of highway in western Palm Beach County one of the most dangerous roads in America. Early morning fog, mixed with haze from burning sugarcane fields, and numerous access roads for farm vehicles have proven a deadly combination for motorists.
The speed limits on U.S. 27 vary from 30 to 65 miles per hour. Recent studies conclude most accidents occurring on U.S. 27 are caused by drivers who are careless and inattentive when entering the highway. Statistics reveal right-of-way violations account for the vast majority of serious or fatal wrecks.
Adding to this bad news was a 2017 Geotab study, released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), ranking U.S. 27 in Florida as the third deadliest highway in America. The findings recorded 529 fatal crashes with 614 deaths, or a fatality rate of 2.16 deaths per million vehicles.
In April 2017 newspapers across the state and nation trumpeted the grim statistics in their headlines. Forbes magazine, for example, published an article featured U.S. 27 entitled "Death Tolling: The Most Dangerous Highways in America."
The NHTSA study concluded that an estimated 10 percent of fatal accidents and 17 percent of all crashes were caused by "distracted driving".
U.S. 27: A New Highway of Hope
The main line of the Florida Turnpike was completed in stages from Wildwood to Miami in July 1964. The turnpike merged with I-75 north of Wildwood in central Florida, with I-4, I-10 and I-95 added to the interstate network about a decade later.
The completion of the interstate network ended the reign of U.S. 27 as the state's main tourism access highway. U.S. 27 primarily became a road for local and regional transit, trucking and business. Trucks make up 42 percent of the vehicles using U.S. 27 in Palm Beach County.
In a May 2015 report to the Florida Department of Transportation, the Florida Trucking Association stated, "As a connection to many regions of the state, and as an alternative to the heavily used interstate system, U.S. 27 is vital to Florida's trucking industry."
The trucking industry in Florida provided 333,680 jobs in 2016, or one out of every 22 in the state. Industry wages paid in Florida exceeded $15.3 billion. There were 37,270 trucking companies located in Florida during 2017, most of them locally operated. Four trucking lines are currently serving South Bay. (Source: ATRI)
The Glades communities of South Bay, Belle Glade and Pahokee in Palm Beach County have long sought an economic boost to supplement agriculture, sports fishing and Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST) tourism. An enhanced and expanded U.S. 27 may provide the answer.
A "U.S. 27 Highway Corridor Project" outline was introduced April 21, 2017 by the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council (TCRPC). Among its objectives, the plan calls for upgrading and widening U.S. 27 to six lanes for the 72-mile section between South Bay and Miami.
A corresponding "rail bypass line" would be built to handle 15 to 22 freight trains daily, providing an alternative for haulers from the Florida East Coast railway which is committed to increasing passenger service with Brightline.
While unveiling of the project before the Port of Palm Beach Commission, TCRPC Executive Director Michael Busha said, "I believe it unlocks the potential the Glades have been looking for..."
In essence, the $1.25 billion plan would transform the Glades communities into an intermodal transit hub for business and agriculture between Miami and the Palm Beaches. However, as with many visionary projects, the main barrier is funding.
Whatever the future holds for U.S. 27, the highway with many names will continue to be the backbone of the state's transportation history.
*NOTE: Read additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
Highway U.S. 27, the westernmost federal north-south route in Palm Beach County, is a roadway with many acquired names, leading its drivers on journey through the unique transportation history of Florida.
During its 84-year history, U.S. 27 (also designated SR 25) earned the nicknames of the "Backbone of Florida," the "Sugarland Highway," "Bloody 27" and the "Claude Pepper Memorial Highway."
For two generations, until the completion of Florida's interstate highway grid and the opening of the Florida Turnpike as the Sunshine State Parkway, U.S. 27 was the main 1,373-mile gateway for trucking and the tourism industry connecting the Midwest to destinations within the Sunshine State.
U.S. 27 begins in Fort Wayne, Ind., and meanders south through Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia. The highway first entered Florida in 1934 at the sleepy village of Havana in Gadsden County, located a few miles northwest of Tallahassee.
By 1947, U.S. 27 was extended 481 miles to its final destination in Miami, where it links with highway U.S. 1 at North 36th Street, just south of "Little Havana". As a result of the common names at its Florida entry point and terminus, U.S. 27 acquired yet another moniker - the "Havana to Little Havana Highway."
Due to the importance of the highway for tourism in the mid-20th century, and its use as the backbone of the state's transportation system, promoters began referring to U.S. 27 as the "Backbone of Florida." The name is an appropriate geographic description since it crosses the heartland of state in central Florida.
U.S. 27 passes along the western shore of Lake Okeechobee in Glades and Hendry counties, where it briefly merges with SR 80 as it enters Palm Beach County near the City of South Bay. The federal highway parts company with SR 80 east of South Bay and heads due south through miles of sugarcane fields.
A sugarcane crop valued at about $1.5 billion annually is transported on U.S. 27 in Palm Beach and Hendry counties. Many growers in the agricultural industry began calling it the "Sugarland Highway" due to its economic importance to the region.
After entering the sugar harvesting center of Okeelanta in central Palm Beach County, U.S. 27 veers southeast toward Broward County. When it crosses the county line, the highway enters the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area wetlands.
As it departs the conservation area, the U.S. 27 skirts the western edge of endless miles of generic urban sprawl in southern Broward and Miami-Dade counties before turning east near Miami's international airport to its intersection with U.S. 1.
Shortly after the death of former U.S. Senator and Congressman Claude Pepper, the Florida Legislature voted to honor the veteran Miami lawmaker by designating U.S. 27 as the "Claude Pepper Memorial Highway" on May 12, 1999.
The session law (CS/HB 75) states, "U.S. Highway 27 in the State of Florida is hereby designated 'Claude Pepper Memorial Highway'. The Department (of Transportation) is authorized to determine appropriate intervals along U.S. 27 for the location of markers so as to inform the public of the designation."
The Legislature also designated the entire length of U.S. 27 as the "Purple Heart Highway," with an effective date of July 1, 2010.
Because U.S. 27 was the first roadway to be four-laned along most of its route in Florida, it also earned the unofficial title of "Florida's First Superhighway". However, over the decades one section of the so-called "Superhighway" earned a more deadly reputation in Palm Beach County as "Bloody 27".
The Deadly Legacy of 'Bloody 27"
At 5:55 a.m. March 17, 2015, Carolina Ortiz was driving her three teenage children to their school in Miami-Dade County. Six miles south of the City of South Bay, she encountered a detached truck trailer which had separated after departing from an Okeelanta sugar mill. It loomed out of the early morning darkness and fog in her lane of traffic.
While attempting to avoid the obstacle, her Ford Focus was hit by a pickup truck and oncoming tracker-trailer. Mrs. Ortiz and her three children were killed.
This sad narrative, and hundreds like it, have earned highway U.S. 27 the notorious nickname of "Bloody 27".
Nature, agriculture and a heavily used trucking route have conspired to make this 22-mile stretch of highway in western Palm Beach County one of the most dangerous roads in America. Early morning fog, mixed with haze from burning sugarcane fields, and numerous access roads for farm vehicles have proven a deadly combination for motorists.
The speed limits on U.S. 27 vary from 30 to 65 miles per hour. Recent studies conclude most accidents occurring on U.S. 27 are caused by drivers who are careless and inattentive when entering the highway. Statistics reveal right-of-way violations account for the vast majority of serious or fatal wrecks.
Adding to this bad news was a 2017 Geotab study, released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), ranking U.S. 27 in Florida as the third deadliest highway in America. The findings recorded 529 fatal crashes with 614 deaths, or a fatality rate of 2.16 deaths per million vehicles.
In April 2017 newspapers across the state and nation trumpeted the grim statistics in their headlines. Forbes magazine, for example, published an article featured U.S. 27 entitled "Death Tolling: The Most Dangerous Highways in America."
The NHTSA study concluded that an estimated 10 percent of fatal accidents and 17 percent of all crashes were caused by "distracted driving".
U.S. 27: A New Highway of Hope
The main line of the Florida Turnpike was completed in stages from Wildwood to Miami in July 1964. The turnpike merged with I-75 north of Wildwood in central Florida, with I-4, I-10 and I-95 added to the interstate network about a decade later.
The completion of the interstate network ended the reign of U.S. 27 as the state's main tourism access highway. U.S. 27 primarily became a road for local and regional transit, trucking and business. Trucks make up 42 percent of the vehicles using U.S. 27 in Palm Beach County.
In a May 2015 report to the Florida Department of Transportation, the Florida Trucking Association stated, "As a connection to many regions of the state, and as an alternative to the heavily used interstate system, U.S. 27 is vital to Florida's trucking industry."
The trucking industry in Florida provided 333,680 jobs in 2016, or one out of every 22 in the state. Industry wages paid in Florida exceeded $15.3 billion. There were 37,270 trucking companies located in Florida during 2017, most of them locally operated. Four trucking lines are currently serving South Bay. (Source: ATRI)
The Glades communities of South Bay, Belle Glade and Pahokee in Palm Beach County have long sought an economic boost to supplement agriculture, sports fishing and Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail (LOST) tourism. An enhanced and expanded U.S. 27 may provide the answer.
A "U.S. 27 Highway Corridor Project" outline was introduced April 21, 2017 by the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council (TCRPC). Among its objectives, the plan calls for upgrading and widening U.S. 27 to six lanes for the 72-mile section between South Bay and Miami.
A corresponding "rail bypass line" would be built to handle 15 to 22 freight trains daily, providing an alternative for haulers from the Florida East Coast railway which is committed to increasing passenger service with Brightline.
While unveiling of the project before the Port of Palm Beach Commission, TCRPC Executive Director Michael Busha said, "I believe it unlocks the potential the Glades have been looking for..."
In essence, the $1.25 billion plan would transform the Glades communities into an intermodal transit hub for business and agriculture between Miami and the Palm Beaches. However, as with many visionary projects, the main barrier is funding.
Whatever the future holds for U.S. 27, the highway with many names will continue to be the backbone of the state's transportation history.
*NOTE: Read additional articles below and archived in Older Posts.
(c.) Davidsson. 2018.
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