Dade County FlArchives History - Books .....Draining The Everglades, Chapter 8 1965 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 April 3, 2009, 3:18 am Book Title: Memories Of Old Miami CHAPTER EIGHT Draining The Everglades IT took a governor with a name like Napoleon Bonaparte Broward to drain the Everglades; but not even he could do it in four years. Albert W. Gilchrist, who became governor in 1909, completed the canal system that Governor Broward started. When I was a boy I heard a lot about the "rich Everglades." Everybody was looking forward to seeing the vast, wet area drained; when it would be opened to farming. People talked of the Everglades as though the area was going to be the "Promised Land." All kinds of advertising and promotion schemes were worked up for selling the Everglades as the time approached when the drainage canals were to be opened. I think the best one I ever heard was that of the Tatum Brothers, prominent Miami real estate operators. The Tatum Brothers - there were four, J. H., S. M., B. B. and J. R. - set up a bucket dredge on a barge and anchored it in the south fork of the Miami River, at NW 22nd Avenue and about 11th Street. Then they put full page ads in The Miami Herald and in the old Miami Metropolis announcing the "The Tatum Brothers are Draining the Everglades." I have good reason to remember the dredge - of seeing it bringing up buckets full of muck from the bottom of the shallow stream; of seeing the heavy black smoke boiling out of the smoke stack; of hearing the boiler blow off steam when the sweating Negro fireman put too much fat pine wood on the fire. Dad, who was a contractor, had the job of supplying the wood for the dredge. I remember hearing white-haired J. H. Tatum say to Dad: "Cap'n Frazure, have your boys get us a lot of fat Dade County pine, especially pine knots. We want plenty of black smoke to help create some real activity." The Tatum Brothers had a contract to sell a big chunk of land lying west of 22nd Avenue. At that time the country was swamp as far as you could see. When you stepped off the west side of the Avenue you were "overboard." Looking west, you could see nothing but sawgrass and cypress. All the area where the Miami International Airport is now located was under water. They cut up the swamp in five, 10 and 20-acre blocks and sold it off. It might have been under water then but when the drainage of the Everglades was completed these "farms" would be "the most productive in the world." So the Tatum Brothers said. At that time the Miami Canal was being dredged to Lake Okeechobee, but tha public couldn't see any progress. A dam had been put in the canal at about where NW 36th Street is now to prevent drainage before the canal was completed. Otherwise, the canal would have drained and there wouldn't have been enough water left to float the dredge. So the Tatum Brothers decided to provide the visual evidence that the Everglades really were being drained. I don't want to give the idea that the Tatum Brothers were crooks. Theirs was a prominent real estate firm, with an office at the corner of East Flagler Street and SE Second Avenue. A Walgreen Drug Store occupies the site now. (J. H., the older of the brothers, and my Dad worked together on the dredging of the Kissimmee River when they were young. The channel was straightened so that President McKinley could go on a hunting and fishing trip to Lake Tohopekaliga in Central Florida.) Although the scheme used by the Tatum Brothers might land you in jail now, in those days it was perfectly acceptable. The old law of trade - "Let the Buyer Beware" - was still pretty much the rule. Dad wanted to ride out to the site on his bicycle so that he could see the dredge at work. I got on my "wheel" and rode with him. There was a big crowd and a frenzy of buying. People apparently bought from a surveyor's plot. You can bet, though, that the surveyors never saw those plots. The only way to get out to them was in a dugout canoe with an Indian poling through the sawgrass. The black earth brought up by the dredge dipper equaled the proverbial riches of the Nile valley. It must have made a favorable impression on buyers - and that was the idea. I remember hearing a man say: "They just operate the dredge on the days that they put ads in the papers. One week they put the soil on the right bank and next week they take it off the right bank and put it on the left bank." Dad was pleased at the great amount of black smoke that the rich pinewood made. It sure did look to me like the Everglades were being drained; and I'm sure that a lot of others thought so too- Within a few months after that the Miami Canal was completed to Lake Okeechobee. Then the dam was removed. Water flowed like a torrent out of the canal and down the Miami River, and it continued to flow uncontrolled for weeks. The water level in the Everglades steadily dropped and the sawgrass country became so dry that a mule could walk across it without muck shoes. The Miami River got so low that groves along the border dropped their leaves and died. John W. Watson Sr. was one of those who lost their groves. People moved onto the drained land and began farming the black muck. Enormous crops were produced; and I used to hear farmers talk about how rich the land was. People compared it with the Garden of Eden. The opening of the Miami Canal made it possible to develop Hialeah, Miami Springs and Opa-locka during the Boom. But some people predicted that those who drained the Everglades would be sorry. During periods of drought the muck dried out and cracked open. Fires swept through the sawgrass and ignited the muck. Acrid smoke blew into Miami and our eyes smarted from the fumes. Then, in wet years, the area was beset by floods; and people who had homes there had to use rowboats. The last major floods occurred in 1947 and 1948, when the towns, built in areas that one time was Everglades, went under water. After that the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District was organized and millions of dollars were spent by federal and state agencies to prevent disastrous floods and to protect South Florida from the effects of over-drainage. I've often heard conservation-minded people decry the drainage of the Everglades and express the wish that we could return the original conditions. Looking back, I can agree that it would be idyllic; but the idea is far from being practical. A major part of Dade's population now lives in areas that once was under water for a good part of the year. It's a highly complex subject that can be solved only by the best minds among engineers and scientists. But I'm sure that pioneers will agree with me when I express the hope that we hasten along with a program of conservation and management that will provide some kind of balance between expanding developments and the rapid retreat of the natural scene. Only those who have lived here for over half a century, as I have done, can fully appreciate the changes that South Florida has undergone. Additional Comments: Extracted from: "Memories of Old Miami" by Hoyt Frazure as told to Nixon Smiley Reprinted from a series of articles first appearing in Sunday Magazine of The Miami Herald Undated, but circa 1965 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/dade/history/1965/memories/draining40nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/flfiles/ File size: 7.9 Kb