Loading...
Aprol 06, 1995 - Alligator Alley & the Florida of Long AgoSA • The Suffolk Times • April 6, 1995 Alligator Alley &the Florida of Long Ago By Paul Stoutenburgh Since our brief stay in Florida will soon be up, we decided to make one last trip south to Big Cypress Swamp that borders the more well -known Ever- glades. We left Ortona Locks on our day off from our man- atee d south. n FOCUS on With the quick Nature uncoupling of the life - support sys- tems of electricity and water from our camper, we were ready to travel. The unit drives as easily as a car and I soon had the cruise control set at 55 miles an hour as we sped along Route 29. If you think Long Island is flat, you should drive in Florida, particularly in this area. There is a gradual slope of land toward the Gulf to the south that is a mere half - inch every two miles or so and it is here the slow, gradual movement of water goes through the Great Cypress Swamp, into the Everglades and eventually out into the Gulf, making these areas exceptionally attractive to wildlife. The road we traveled, like most roads here, was made by dredging a ditch and using the spoil from the ditch to make an elevated road. The ditch, like the one along Dune Road in the Hamptons, makes an ideal place to look for wildlife. Here we saw `If you think alligators and wading birds of Long Island is all sorts that caught our eye flat, you as we sped along the road that should drive seemed to disap- pear in a mirage in Florida. in the distance. In the beginning, we were in a vegetable and grove area with a few cattle ranches in between. Of course, most of the land use here requires a ready supply of farm help to harvest the crops. It reminds us of the era our potato farmers went through when they had migrant help picking potatoes. What we saw were large centers where the help lives. Some were communal dwellings while others were small, individual homes that looked well kept. Living on the Leftovers In the town of Immokalee some mi- grants had created their own business of picking the leftovers after the farmer or grower had finished his own routine picking. They are called pin hookers and all bring their leftovers to a center mar- ketplace where they are sold to local shops or roadside -stand owners. There were oranges and grapefruit of all sizes and colors; tomatoes — big and small, round and oblong; peppers — hot and sweet, red and green and yellow; onions of many shapes and sizes; squash; zuc- chini; egg plant; strawberries; water- melons and I'm sure even others I over- looked. Each vendor had cleaned and polished and packed his product in neat boxes ready for market. It was a good way to see what was grown in this pro- ductive farm area. The road south is as straight as'a beeline and you travel mile after mile hardly moving the steering wheel. Mirages take over in the distance. Gradually the cleared land of farms and groves gave way to a mixture of woods and swamps and we started to see warn- ing roadside signs telling us "You Are in Panther Country" — the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. At one time these big cats could be found from Canada to the south- ern trip of Florida. Today, their last stronghold is in the Big Cypress Swamp and parts of the Everglades. An eight -foot- high chain -link fence ran alongside the road for miles and miles in hopes of preventing road kills of these endan- gered animals and the speed limit signs read "55 mph day- time, 45 mph night - ime." We took an unpaved side road for miles in hopes of seeing one of these rare creatures but to no avail. Later, we heard that one had been spotted there just the day before. Our next stop was Everglades City, which was much too commercialized for us. We did stop at the National Park Gulf Coast Visitor Center for directions to the famous board- walk we had heard about leading to the Great Cypress Swamp. To get to it, we went along Route .41 paralleling the famous Alligator Alley that runs across Florida. At the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve we entered the 2,000 -foot boardwalk that meanders through this last, great stand of virgin cypress. Here it was cool under the shade of hundred- foot -tall monarch cypress that somehow had been passed by in the intensive logging boom that swept the south clean of its once - abundant cypress stands. Mingled amongst these giants are the handsome royal palms that grow wild here. Today, these royal palms are Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh SNOWY EGRET — Shortly after the osprey and piping plovers arrive, the egrets and herons come along to find nesting sites on Plum and Gardiners islands. dug commercially outside the preserve to be planted around manicured golf courses, housing developments and sprawling malls. Often we would see truckloads of these palms along the highway, their once -green fronds now clipped short and their root systems con- verted into neat balls. This walk gave us a good idea of how Florida once looked before the dredges moved in, clearing took over and the land was drained. A bald eagle's nest atop a huge cypress proved to be occupied and a —t9_ ■ __a_ M__.i_ 75 Years Ago April 2, 1920 Moving On: Many of Orient's young people have left the village this past winter for the cities where they can find more congenial work than they can find here. It seems a pity that there is not something our young people could find to do here, to keep them with us, but about the only indus- try is farming and fishing. The New Thing: Louis Jaeger Says: Ouija Boards — Try your luck; everybody is doing it. Potatoes Are Moving: The first of the week, Alexander McNeill delivered to R. Jefferson & Co. of Peconic the last full car of potatoes. The price paid was $4.00 per bushel and it is stated that this price has never been paid before on Long Island for potatoes. 50 Years Ago April 6, 1945 Greenport Man Imprisoned in Germany: This week Mrs. Josephine Corwin, wife of Sgt. Stanley Corwin, who has been missing in action since Nov. 14 of last year, received both a card and a letter from her hus- band. They were both dated Dec. 14 and stated that Sgt. Corwin was a prisoner in a German prison camp. Sgt. Cor- win, who was in the 95th Division, U.S. Infantry, in Gener- the low call of the parent told us we were intruding into her territory. A snake slith- ered beneath the boardwalk as a green frog emerged out of the still water, his eyes blinking at us in amazement. Everything was alive. Migrating birds sang out of sight in the treetops as the endless shapes and designs of the green- ery about gave us the impression of a truly subtropical swampland. We passed ferns that, in full maturity, grow up to 10 feet tall, the largest in North America. A Dangerous Beauty At the end of the boardwalk there was sort of a natural amphitheater with a small, open pond that let the brilliant sun in, making your squint. In the water, blossoming on short stems, were beauti- ful, little yellow bladderworts, plants that capture tiny insects in their underwater traps. There was the ever - present picker- el weed, a common plant we see along the Peconic River on our East End. How peaceful it all seemed until we sat and looked closer and saw a five - foot -long, slowly moving alligator make its way to a more productive area. All we could see was its snout and head and big eye just above the coffee- colored water and that gave the swamp a menac- ing look. Later, we'd see a group of baby alligators sunning themselves on a log. They draped over each other as if they didn't have a care in the world. Be- ing cold - blooded reptiles, they were en- joying the warmth of the morning sun. Our return trip was punctuated by stop- ping and going to see an alligator here or a particular kind of wading bird there. At one stop there was a congregation of hundreds of white herons, wood storks, egrets and ibises. Something had drawn them to a festival of life. Another stop revealed 10 white pelicans, an exception- ally nice change from the brown pelicans that are more commonly seen and, of course, there were always hawks to catch our eye and the ever - present vultures drifting on thermals above. We will miss this semitropical par- adise here in southern Florida but our time is running out. The lure of home draws strongly on both of us, for after all, that is where our hearts lie. Next week we leave and meander toward home once again. al Patton's Third Army, was last heard from in the Saar Basin section of Germany. He was sent overseas in Septem- ber of last year. Prior to entering the armed forces he prac- ticed law in Greenport and is a former president of the Greenport Chamber of Commerce. 25 Years Ago April 39 1970 This Week's Weather: Southold Town was caught with its snow fences down this week. With snow tires off, and snow plowing equipment "all the way in the back of the closet," as Southold Highway Superintendent Raymond Dean expressed it, the Lord and the weather confused East- er Sunday and played a Tuesday April Fool joke. Not for a generation has so much snow fallen so relent- lessly on the blooming crocus, the greening rye or the blos- soming fishing fleet. And most certainly not upon the East- er parade. Return from Vietnam: William Morris, son of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Morris, was welcomed home from two years of service in the U.S. Army at a surprise party on March 28. A former sergeant in the army, William served in Vietnam for six months. While in Vietnam he was wounded three times and received nine medals. About 100 people welcomed him home at the surprise party.