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History of the
Everglades in Collier County
Transcribed and Submitted
to Genealogy Trails by Norita Shepherd Moss
In many ways the history of the Everglades is the story of Southwest
Florida. Always a remote and demanding area, only a handful of white
settlers lived along the banks of the Allen River (now the Barron River)
and inside what are now the city limits, until Barron G. Collier made
Everglades the headquarters for his Tamiami Trail road-building company
in 1923.
The Calusa Indians had lived in the area even earlier, of course, and
more than three centuries earlier had built a large shell mound on nearby
Chokoloskee Island.
The families of John Weeks and William Smith Allen are believed to be
the area's first permanent residents, settling along the Allen River
just after the Civil War. They were farmers and had to eke out livings
on the banks of the river, the only naturally high ground around. This
was only 10% of the territory which is now Everglades City; the rest
of the high ground today is the result of Collier's dredging operations
in the 1920s.
The town's first transportation link to the outside world came when
Collier built a railroad 14 miles from Deep Lake to the north, down
to the Allen River, and eventually the town grew and became a shipping
depot for produce.
Between 1921 and 1923, Collier acquired 90% of the land in southern
Lee County, including what is now Collier County. Collier would then
start to build the Tamiami Trail, linking Tampa with Miami, which crossed
the state through the swamp. This road would become a lifeline for Everglades
- but before Collier could build in the town, he had to create a high
and dry base for it. From 1926 to 1929 a dredge pulled muck from the
Allen River and piled it up to make a town; when the river's supply
was diminished, the dredge moved to the east side of town and created
Lake Placid. This dredging expanded usable land from less than 100 acres
to 660 acres. It also made the town an island with the river on the
west, a canal and lake on the east and north and Chokoloskee Bay to
the south.
With land to build on, the town grew - by 1929 there was a trolley,
hospital and clinic, movie house, library, railroad depot, common garage
for autos, two hotels and, of course, a jail.
Although many construction jobs were lost when the Tamiami Trail was
completed in 1928, commercial fishing grew during the late 1920s and
1930s. By 1953, the town had grown large enough to take over its own
municipal operations and bought the water, sewer, electric, street,
fire and other public services from the Collier company. Soon after,
the Collier companies moved thir headquarters to Naples, and the town
became less of a construction-related community. Sponge fishing flourished
in the 1940s, shrimping in the 1950s, and stone crabbing in the 1960s.
Today, the Everglades includes areas of Carnestown, Chokoloskee, Copeland,
Everglades City, Lee Cypress, Monroe Station, Ochopee, Plantation Island,
Port of the Islands and Seaboard Village.
Often considered a "walk back in time" life, the Everglades
is more typical of earlier days of Florida's development than in the
communities found on either coast. Many of those who live in the area
have deliberately chosen to take a slower approach to life and live
closer to nature, enjoying and preserving the resources of the area.
Visitors will find much to do - from the annual Seafood Festival to
daily backwater and deepwater boat tours and excursions. Restaurants
for every taste can be found - but, of course, seafood is usually the
natural choice. Accommodations are availble for every budget and preference.
In short, Everglades represents much of the "olde Florida"
without the capital "o" - small, friendly communities, good
food, comfortable accommodations, and churches to welcome visitors to
Sunday services. Everglades, The South Coast of Florida, where there's
still time to be friendly.
HISTORY OF THE EVERGLADES - Early Settlement
At the end of the nineteenth century the south Florida coast was still
largely wilderness, one of the last coastal regions east of the Mississippi
to be settled. Only three small communities -- Chokoloskee, Cape Sable
and Flamingo -- existed along the coast of what is now Everglades National
Park.
Early mariners knew about Cape Sable, located west of Flamingo as it
appeared on their maps. It was here in 1838 that Dr. Henry Perrine was
given a grant of land. Unfortunately his plans for a settlement did
not materialize due to his untimely death at the hands of Indians. Another
plan for settlement was proposed by Surgeon General Thomas Lawson who
explored the Cape in 1838 for the U.S. government. He built Fort Poinsett
on Cape Sable. In 1856 during the Third Seminole War, Fort Cross was
established at Middle Cape.
The town of Flamingo was established in 1893; its citizens had to choose
a name in order to obtain a post office. According to records from the
National Archives, Howell C. Low was the first postmaster. He was appointed
on December 13, 1893. Cape Sable had its own post office and Jay L.
Watrons was appointed postmaster on February 23, 1904.
The 1910 federal census record shows 49 people living in Flamingo and
Cape Sable. Most listed their profession as farming. There were ten
heads of households, with 18 children and seven servants. Five people
were cane farmers and one worked in charcoal making. (Charcoal was sold
in 100 pound sacks at Key West.) Jobs that other individuals held were
boatmen, farmer, hauling cane, cane farming (13) and one was retired.
We also know from tradition that many, if not all, fished for cash and
food. Most also hunted. At the turn of the century plume hunting was
a major source of cash income.
Chokoloskee, near present-day Everglades City, was first settled in
the 1870s, although it had been the home of Calusa Indians for centuries
in pre-Columbian times. It became the trade center for homesteaders
scattered throughout the Ten Thousand Islands region.
Charles McKinney was Chokoloskee's first postmaster; he was commissioned
on June 30, 1892. George Storter was commissioned as postmaster for
Everglades on July 19, 1893.
The 1910 census for Everglades township, including Chokoloskee Island,
listed 144 people in 29 different households. Many were farmers or farm
laborers. Of those, most were probably engaged in the labor-intensive
growing of sugar cane. There was also one carpenter, a mail carrier,
a wash woman, a sailor, and a school teacher.
Two men made their livings as merchants, Charles "Ted" Smallwood
and George Storter. The largest family, their name illegible in the
records, had twelve members.
Smallwood Store
Museum
The Everglade and Chokoloskee community was just recovering from a hurricane
in 1909 when it was devastated by another, the worst on record, the
following year. Only the highest ground of the old Calusa shell mound
remained above water. Low-lying farm fields were salted by flood tides
and most cisterns were polluted, a major tragedy in an area where few
springs or wells existed. Many inhabitants of the outlying islands were
forced to abandon their homesteads. The most infamous incident of the
times, the vigilante murder of a local man suspected of several murders,
occurred a few days after the hurricane. A somewhat fictionalized account
of the event is told in the book Killing Mister Watson by Peter Matthiesson.
In the early days the only way to arrive at Flamingo or Chokoloskee
was by boat. Supplies were shipped from Key West, Fort Meyers or Tampa
and cane syrup, fish, and produce were traded in return. Although neither
town was ever to become a metropolis, they did have commerce, with some
vegetables from Chokoloskee even reaching New York City.
When Royal Palm state park was created in 1916, a road was built from
Florida City to Royal Palm hammock. The Ingraham Highway, as it was
eventually named, was later completed to Flamingo. The name highway
gave more prominence to this road than it actually deserved. Often it
could only be traveled in good weather and it was always full of ruts
and mud holes. Early visitors could however enjoy the scenic Everglades
as they traveled this road.
Prosperity of a sort reached Everglades in the 1920s when Barron Collier
made it his headquarters for the building of the Tamiami Trail across
south Florida. It served as the county seat of Collier County until
1960, when prosperity waned and county offices were moved to Naples.
Neighboring Chokoloskee did not have a road until a causeway was built
from the mainland in 1956.
Tamiami Trail opening
ceremonies in Everglades City, April 27, 1928
Flamingo, still marking the end of the main park road, is now a park
community with a campground, ranger station, marina and lodge. Chokoloskee,
surrounded by park waters at the end of highway 29, is still home to
fishermen, with a few motels and a resort having been added for park
visitors. Although the tiny cane farms and fishing shanties are gone,
both areas maintain the tranquil beauty for which they are famous.
EVERGLADES CITY
Prior to 1923, Everglades City was called Everglade, a name given the
settlement along the crooked little Allen's River in 1893 by Bembery
Storter after the U.S. Post Office refused the request for the name
Chokoloskee. Farming was the primary occupation of people living in
the area and included sugarcane, bananas, and vegetables. Allen gave
Everglades City its start, but George T. Storter is considered the true
founder of the town. He and his family were prominent in Everglade's
growth and activities and owned much of the land around the town until
the arrival of Baron Collier in 1923. It was under the Storter stewardship
the Everglade began to draw visitors and sportsmen. The Rod and Gun
Club was built around the Storter home.
Barron Collier is primarily responsible for the foundation of Everglades
City as you see it today. In 1923 he and his company purchased most
of the land in and surrounding the town. Within five years the sleepy
trading post and farming community was converted into a bustling industrial-based
company town replete with roads, a railroad, a bank, a telephone, sawmills,
a boatyard, churches, a school, workers' barracks and mess halls, and
even its own streetcar at one time. The Ivey House, home of NACT-Everglades
Rentals and Eco Adventures, was once one of the Collier Company workers'
barracks.
With the establishment of Everglades National Park and subsequent purchase
of most of Big Cypress Swamp and the 10,000 Islands for conservation,
Everglades City once again looks to the natural environment for economic
viability through nature tourism, sportfishing, and commercial crabbing.
Everglades National Park was formally dedicated in Everglades City on
December 6, 1947. The Gulf Coast Visitor Center of Everglades National
Park is perched at the edge of the Chokoloskee Bay, and many paddling
routes depart from the canoe ramp behind the maintenance buildings
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