Happy Presidents Day, Florida!

Brass band awaiting Grover Cleveland's arrival in Lakeland, Florida, 1894 (Florida State Archives)


Today, a U.S. president overlooks Florida at his own peril, but even before this state was a political battleground , our nation's leaders found their way here on a regular basis.

First was Andrew Jackson, who was Territorial governor of Florida before Florida was a state and before Jackson was president. Neither Jackson nor his wife Rachel were particularly fond of Florida, in fact, The Hermitage's website says that they "despised the climate."

Several places in Florida are named after presidents, including Polk County, which honors our 11th president, James K. Polk. Fort Pierce began as an actual fort, named after Lt. Col. Benjamin Pierce, the brother of President Franklin Pierce. The Herbert Hoover Dike holds the waters of Lake Okeechobee, and is named after the president who authorized the money to build the earthen dam after devastating hurricanes swepth through the Everglades in the 1920s. Manned space flights launch from the Kennedy Space Center, named after the president who challenged us to travel to the moon, not because it was easy, but because it was hard.

Dr. Mudd, who treated John Wilkes Booth's leg and was himelf accused of plotting against Abraham Lincoln, was held prisoner at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. Fort Jefferson was named after our 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson.

Many presidents enjoyed fishing or hunting trips to Florida as breaks from the rigors of office. Several went as far as having second homes or "little White Houses" here - the Kennedy's had a family compound in Palm Beach, Nixon had a waterfront home on Key Biscayne, and Truman favored Key West.

So for all these presidents and more who have traveled to our sunny state, we wish you an Happy Presidents Day!

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.

Napoleon Bonaparte Broward

Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Florida's larger-than-life 19th governor, died on this date in 1910. He is still remembered for his efforts to drain the Everglades, a task which had daunted many a prior titan. However, as he saw it, man could conquer nature, for after all, "Water will run downhill!"

"Napoleon of the Everglades," by Gary Mormino, Tampa Tribune September 14, 2008

For further reading:

Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Florida's Fighting Democrat, by Samuel Proctor (1950, reprinted 1993 by the University Press of Florida)

The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise, by Michael Grunwald (2007, Simon and Schuster)

Alligator Alley

Alligator (from Merriam-Webster Online)
Pronunciation: \ˈa-lə-ˌgā-tər\
Etymology: Spanish el lagarto the lizard, from el the (from Latin ille that) + lagarto lizard, from Vulgar Latin *lacartus, from Latin lacertus, lacerta — more at lizard
Date: 1579
1 a: either of two crocodilians (Alligator mississippiensis of the southeastern United States and A. sinensis of China) having broad heads not tapering to the snout and a special pocket in the upper jaw for reception of the enlarged lower fourth tooth

Alley
Pronunciation: \ˈa-lē\
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French alee, from aler to go
Date: 14th century
1: a garden or park walk bordered by trees or bushes

Alligator Alley

A long highway bordered by grass, trees, and lizards with broad heads and plenty of teeth.

It's that part of Interstate 75 that takes a left at Naples, and heads east across the Everglades. It's straight, and it's flat, and you'd better set your cruise control. There's one gas station on this 70-something mile long stretch of road. Sometimes on long car rides we play the game where you take turns naming something you see in alphabetical order (I see an alligator. I see a bird. I see a car. . .) This game goes slowly on Alligator Alley. The beauty and variety of the Everglades can be subtle, and not easily seen at cruising speeds.

But there are many spots along the highway where you can pull over for a closer look, or if you happened to bring your boat along, get out in the River of Grass.

The Alligator Alley Story

Everglades Reading List

Everglades National Park 60th Anniversary

Tomorrow is the 60th anniversary of Everglades National Park. There will be ceremonies and exhibits, and discussion of where the park is headed next, with recent concern over the Restoration plan. The Park is also working on a plan, now in the public comment phase, for "re-establishing commercial services and facilites at Flamingo destroyed by hurricanes in 2005." Additional information about the Flamingo plan is available from the National Parks Conservation Association.

Florida News, After a Long Weekend

"Eight million pounds of citrus will crisscross the country" (Orlando Sentinel, November 21, 2007)

"A Florida Thanksgiving" (Herald Tribune, November 22, 2007) "'Pluck 'em, skin 'em, bread 'em and fry 'em' is his family's traditional recipe for wild turkey, dating back four generations to Florida's first Austin Heacock -- Hay-cock -- who came down from Ohio with the Sebrings in 1912."

"Old-timer recalls when citrus ruled area" (St. Petersburg Times, November 23, 2007) Memories of Orange Blossom Groves.

"Wooden icon breathes new green life:
The governor endorses the energy efficiency project of the new owners of the Belleview Biltmore Resort & Spa." (St. Petersburg Times, November 20, 2007)

"Restoring the Everglades" (Tampa Tribune, Special Report)

"Herbert Saffir, creator of hurricane intensity scale, dies at 90 " (St. Petersburg Times, November 23, 2007)

"State Has a History of Primary Skirmishes" (Tallahassee Democrat, November 25, 2007)

"'60s concrete monsters get a second look" (Miami Herald, November 21, 2007)

Plume Hunters in Florida

The hottest fashion accessory in the late nineteenth century was a bird plume hat. Elaborate feather confections adorned women's heads, but as Stuart McIver writes:

"Behind the plumes and feathered hats lay a trail of bloody slaughter, human greed, human ingenuity, production skills, and artistry. The result was a thing of beauty that brought joy to its wearer and her admirers. The feather trade's cast of characters was a large one: in the big city, the fashion designers, millinery workers, salesmen, and retail merchants; in the swamps, marshes, and woods, the traders and plume buyers and, at the bottom of the chain, the plume hunters."

A plume is a large and particularly showy feather. The plumes of Florida's snowy egret, white ibis, and other wading birds during breeding season were particularly sought-after commodities. That so many plume birds could be found in Florida added to the state's mystique -- historian Jack E. Davis calls the birds the "beauty to the alligator's "beast," good and evil in an exotic wilderness.

Life was difficult in south Florida and the Everglades, and it was hard to turn down a chance to make a little money, a little better life for the family. Many men already hunted these birds for dinner (white ibis was also called Chokoloskee chicken, refering to a trading post in the Ten Thousand Islands). What was wrong with killing a few more?

Plume hunters didn't restrict themselves to shooting just one or two birds. They would kill all the adults in a rookery, leaving the young on their own to die. Thousands upon thousands of birds were shot, threatening the continued existence of some species. This carnage, however, gave credence to early conservation efforts in the United States.

In 1901, at the urging of the American Ornithologists' Union, Florida passed a law protecting many species of birds. In 1902, Guy Bradley, a former plume hunter himself, was appointed warden in Monroe County. In Death in the Everglades, Stuart McIver tells Bradley's story, the story of the plume birds, the story of the south Florida frontier. Ultimately, he tells the story of Bradley's death, shot in 1905 by the father of an accused plume hunter. Bradley became a martyr for the cause.

Wildlife contributed to Florida's popular image, so important to those marketing its homes and hotels. Nonetheless, the wildlife, the natural resources, were themselves commodities -- alligator hides, sea shells, orchids, and cypress knees were marketed, along with the plumes. Notes Davis, writing about the late 1800s, "In the end, harvesting novelties of nature threatened those things that gave Florida its original splendor."

Gradually, a combination of legal controls, changing fashions, and diminishing supply lessened the demand for plumes, although the hunting continued well into the twentieth century. Today, Florida's wading birds are threatened by pollution and habitat loss rather than by the hats we wear.

-------
Death in the Everglades: The Murder of Guy Bradley, America's First Martyr to Environmentalism, by Stuart B. McIver (University Press of Florida, 2003)

"Alligators and Plume Birds; The Despoilation of Florida's Living Aesthetic" by Jack E. Davis, in Paradise Lost? The Environmental History of Florida (University Press of Florida, 2005)

Raised by Wolves

My sister just gave me a copy of Karen Russell's book St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves (Alfred A. Knopf, 2006). This collection of ten short stories by a young author from Miami has received glowing reviews, and I'm looking forward to reading the book over the Labor Day weekend. A quick glance at online reviews suggests I can expect some fantasy elements in a south Florida, Everglades setting.

"Karen Russell, Telling Fantastic Tales" NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, Sept. 5, 2006 (includes an excerpt from the book)

Stick with Florida

Aside from the increased cost of mailing a letter, I was disappointed when the U.S. Postal Service raised the first class postage rate to 41 cents. I really liked using the 39-cent alligator and spoonbill stamps, and the others in the Southern Florida Wetland commemorative pane.

Those are certainly not the only "Florida" stamps the USPS has ever issued -- in fact, they just this summer started offering a 26-cent Florida panther stamp. Another Florida stamp was issued in June 2007, picuturing the Okefenokee Swamp, for the 69-cent International mail rate.

In 2004, the post office issued a stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, which featured a closeup of a pelican's head.

The 2003 Southeastern Lighthouse Stamp series included the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse.

In 1995, the Florida Statehood stamp marked our 150th anniversary of being a state, with a stylized alligator rising from a swamp. Fifty years earlier, the Florida Centennial stamp was less colorful, a monochrome light red violet, and pictured the gates of St. Augustine, an old map, and the state capitol.

In 1989, the Key Marco Cat, a carved wooded figurine found at a southwest Florida archaeological site, was featured on a U.S. Airmail stamp.

On December 5, 1947, in a ceremony at the Florida City post office, the USPS issued a 3-cent stamp commemorating the country's newest national park, the Everglades. The green stamp with an outline map of the state and a white ibis was designed by Garnett Megee of Miami

There have been other Florida stamps, several as part of sets covering all 50 states -- state flags, state birds, etc. What are your favorites, and what "Florida" stamps would you like to see at the post office?

One of Florida's Very Own, The Limpkin

I became acquainted with "my" limpkin a couple of years ago. I couldn't figure out why I kept waking up 12 minutes before the alarm clock went off. I heard some repetitive noise that sounded like something electronic with dying batteries, but I couldn't match it up with anything in the house. Then one morning I was weeding the flowerbed when a loud scratchy honk startled me. I looked down and around and up, and there perched on the gable of the neighbor's house was a limpkin. Sure surprised me. I thought they were shy -- what was this crazy bird doing in the 'burbs?

Off and on since then I sometimes see a limpkin, sometimes a pair, hanging out at the retention pond down the street. They've been there most days, lately. It's a pretty good retention pond for bird watching -- anhingas, osprey, hawks, ducks, moorhens, ibis, several types of herons and egrets, seagulls -- and for watching other critters like turtles, rabbits, and fish. I keep my distance from the alligator.

Limpkins frequent pond banks and wetlands, since this is where they find their favorite foods -- apple snails, mussels, lizards, fish, and such. They are attractive birds, in an understated way, with dark brown bodies and white spots on the neck and shoulders. They have knobby knees and a crooked grin. The limpkin's beak has a gap, and sometimes a twist, which helps it separate snail bodies from snail shells. Limpkins can be found in the Caribbean and Central America, but in the United States, they are pretty much only in Florida.

Another apple-snail-eating-gotta-come-to-Florida-to-see-it bird is the Snail Kite, which looks rather like a hawk. The snail kite also has a special beak, with a big hook at the end, to get at its dinner. Florida's human population also used to eat apple snails, the remains of which are found in prehistoric shell middens and mounds. Apple snails are big freshwater snails found in the wetlands, where they in turn eat grass, duckweed, and algae.

Limpkins were nearly hunted to extinction in Florida a hundred years ago, but have since made a comeback, although they are still a species of concern. The snail kite is not faring as well, and is an endangered species. Habitat loss is a contributing factor -- both bird and snail habitat. Figuring out what water levels should be to encourage snails is an important part of Everglades restoration.

It's a good day when I see a limpkin. It's my son's favorite bird -- he's impressed by things that are "rare" or "only" -- and having limpkins nearby makes him think that Florida is a pretty special place. Of course he's right.