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Sun Sentinel Exerpt-Historic Fort Harrell

by Ken Kaye
July 2, 2014

It was one of several forts the U.S. Army built in Southwest Florida in the 1800s, allowing soldiers fighting the Seminole Wars to rest and regroup.

Fort Harrell was one of the more obscure outposts, wedged into a rugged swamp area, accessible mainly by boat. No great battles were waged there and no famous generals used it.

Yet three amateur explorers, led by a high school chemistry teacher, believe they have found its exact site and consider it an important historic find.

“It needs to be preserved and memorialized,” said Shawn Beightol, who led the expeditions to the site in the Big Cypress Preserve in Collier County. “I’d like to see a monument placed there for the people who served in that godforsaken location 170 years ago. Their story needs to be told.”…read more…

Big Wigs, Fishing Jigs & Cool Rigs

evergladesnationalpark1

Once Upon a Time in the Everglades ‘Big Wigs, Fishing Jigs & Cool Rigs’ posters were hot off the press and pinned up all over Collier County!
The 1997 Everglades National Park 50th Celebration of President Harry Truman’s 1947 dedication of the park was a once in a lifetime weekend extravaganza in Everglades City, entertaining dignitaries Vice President Al Gore, Gov. Lawton Chiles, Sen. Bob Graham, Rep. Clay Shaw and Lt. Gov. Buddy MacKay. A masterfully planned schedule of events included swing and country music, alligator wrestling, Seminole Indian storytelling, historical re-enactments, an outdoor film festival, canoe races, an antique swamp buggy race and vintage aircraft show.
The southwestern tip of the Florida peninsula that makes up the national park includes the Ten Thousand Islands and portions of the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp, where orchids, cypress trees, pines, palms and mangroves provide a subtropical home for crocodiles, alligators, turtles, manatees and exotic birds.
President Truman expressed his belief over a half-century ago that the creation of the park would ‘preserve the Glades natural beauty forever’, he did not, however, reckon with the impact of agriculture, land development and flood-control efforts outside of the park’s boundary. Man-made disruptions of the normal water-flow patterns require constant vigilance and strategies to safeguard the Everglades, a reminder to all Floridians of the fragility of our state’s heritage and the necessity of protecting it for the enjoyment of future generations.