Caladesi Lookout Tower

From a February trip to Caladesi Island State Park...














"The concrete foundation before you once supported a 60-foot observation tower. The steel structure, donated to the park by the Florida Board of Forestry, was erected by park rangers in 1969. For almost 15 years it served as an observation point for park visitors and staff, offering panoramic views of the Gulf of Mexico and St. Joseph's Sound. The tower gradually deteriorated in the harsh condition of the island environment and was dismantled in the early 1980s."

Muffler Man Sighting in Zephyrhills

Highway giants are larger than life men, dinosaurs, elephants, large statues placed by the roadside to attract tourists and customers. Such giants are found across the nation, not just in Florida, but their fanstasical nature is well suited to our state.

Muffler men date to the 1960s and 1970s, and were large statues of men holding mufflers meant to advertise a muffler or auto repair shop. In Roadside Giants (Stackpole Books 2005), authors Brian and Sarah Butko explain that most muffler men were built by Prewitt Fiberglass of Venice, California. Later known as International Fiberglass, the company made unusually large statues of humans and animals up into the 1970s. Owners, particularly new owners, often give their muffler men new clothes and new items to hold, depending what is to be advertised.

The muffler man at Muffler City on Highway 301 in Zephyrhills is fairly traditional in his appearance and choice of accessory, a wrench. This shop has an example of another type of muffler man as well, the kind made out of old car parts - there he is, leaning against the sign post. Give him a wave next time you're passing by!

Florida Muffler Men

National Muffler Man Tracking Chart and Map

Roadside America's Muffler Man Homepage

Visual Ephemera - Roadside Giants Found!

Don't Look Down

On display in the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center is the service arm used by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to get aboard the Apollo 11 command module on July 16, 1969. Just days later, Armstrong and Aldrin were walking on the Moon.


















This service arm stood more than 30 stories above the ground when it was attached to the massive Saturn 5 rocket. The black no-slip walking surface was not there in 1969, and if the astronauts looked down when they crossed, they could have seen through the metal grate to the ground. The gantry led to the White Room where crew men checked the astronauts' suits and helped them into the module. After making sure everything was hooked up correctly, the crew men shut the door and descended the launch tower, leaving the three astronauts to their historic journey.

Googie Space Ship

Check out the antennas on this old Soviet space craft on display at the Kennedy Space Center visitor center:



















Space travel and technology was a major inspiration for the Googie style popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

Nike Hercules Missile Base Open for Tours

Nike Hercules Missile Base HM-69 in Everglades National Park is now open for tours. This missile base was built in the isolation of the Everglades, yet only 160 miles from Cuba and less than one year after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Now the missile base serves as a reminder of the roles played by Florida and Cuba in that chapter of the world's history.

The Everglades National Park has tours available each Saturday from now until March 28. For more information, please read the park's news release.

I first learned about these tours through the National Park Service's Heritage News, a newsletter available on the web or through an e-mail subscription.

For further reading, I also recommend the Cold War in South Florida Historic Resource Study (pdf) by the National Park Service's Southeast Regional Office. This report describes the sites used in South Florida during the Cold War, and includes a history of air defense in South Florida.

Temple Terrace Holiday Tour of Homes

Next Saturday, December 6 (10 am to 2 pm) is the Temple Terrace Historic Homes Tour, presented by the Temple Terrace Preservation Society. The tour begins and ends at the 1920s Club Morocco Casino (now the Florida College Student Center, see map), and features four 1920s Mediterranean Revival houses and four 1950s - 1960s Mid Century Modern houses.

History of Temple Terrace

St. Petersburg's Pier

Then

(Florida State Archives)

Now















History of The Pier

Florida in Life

Google recently added a way to search old Life magazine photographs: Life photo archives.

Some examples of Florida photographs found this way. . . .

Soldiers at mailcall outside the Breakwater Hotel, Miami Beach, 1942

Dwight D. Eisenhower's arrival in Key West in a lemon-colored Cadillac, December 1955

Upside-down house, 1960

Nixon and the balloon drop, GOP Convention, Miami Beach, 1968

Architect Eliot Noyes and interior decorator Kathryn Smallen on terrace of bubble house at Hobe Sound, Florida, 1954

Tampa Bay Automobile Museum

Tucked away in Pinellas Park is the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum with 30+ collectible cars, many of which I had never heard of before. Such as:

The 1962 Tiburon Roadster, designed by Henry Covington in St. Petersburg, Florida. According to the exhibit sign, this roadster (and its convertible version) are the only cars designed, built, marketed, and sold in the Tampa / St. Petersburg area.

And then there's the Hanomag Kommisbrot -- perhaps ancestral to the SmartCar? The Kommisbrot was built in Germany in the 1920s and got 60 miles to the gallon -- with a top speed of 35 miles per hour. Given the looks of this car, that must have been terrifyingly fast.

For more information about the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, visit their website, http://tbauto.org/.

For more about the Tiburon roadster, here's a link to a 2006 article in the St. Petersburg Times: "At last, 'The Shark' finds its way back to the Bay"