BCNP to ENP connections

[Keith W]

This thread picks up from Vivian's remark about the FTA's idea of a trail connecting the BCNP and ENP in the 'Gator Hook trail' discussion.

History tells us that there was once a route connecting the Loop Rd. with what is now the Lostman's 5 campsite in the ENP. Dr. C. Tebeau's book Man in the Everglades says this about the Tropical Development Company's Poinciana development in the Lostman's River area in 1925:

"...the Chevelier Corporation was building the 'Loop Road' west into Monroe County. Visitors to Poinciana drove to a point about two miles west of Pinecrest, from which they then walked six miles south to a canoe landing on a branch of the upper part of Lostman's River known as Lostman's 5."

Tebeau's distances don't look right to me. Two miles west of Pinecrest on the Loop is the head of Dayhoff Slough. From there to the nearest hint of a water trail to Lostman's 5 is more like 10 miles as the crow flies. The old Sawmill Road trail just west of Pace's Dike is a better bet, and Pace's Dike at the SW corner is just over 6 miles from the edge of the mangrove country near Lostman's 5.

I won't pretend to know much about any of these areas, having only made a one short and muddy day hike down the Pace's Dike ORV trail. Tom Caldwell has a photo here taken in Gum Slough, and might I guess that this was where the Sawmill Rd trail crosses the slough?

Other connection possibilities also come from Vivian. She has told me that a member of FTA Cypress South has connected New River with Sunday Bay from the Tamiami Trail, and she gave me a link to an article in the Waterfront News about a recent attempt to canoe south from the Loop to Lostman's. Do you still have that link, Vivian?

[yakmaster]

Have you read Pelts, Plumes and Hides?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813006805/ref=oh_aui_search_deta...

It's a history of the trading posts in South Florida, might have some insights. I don't remember if they had anything on the camps you're looking for, but the ones they cover, they cover pretty well.

[shawn beightol]

thanks, will check

yakmaster said:

Have you read Pelts, Plumes and Hides?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813006805/ref=oh_aui_search_deta...

It's a history of the trading posts in South Florida, might have some insights. I don't remember if they had anything on the camps you're looking for, but the ones they cover, they cover pretty well.

[Flex Kayakfari.com]

Fascinating book, thx Charlie!

Read it online:

https://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau%3A23092#page/co...

[shawn beightol]

Thanks Flex and Yakmaster.

BTW, anyone want to guess what this structure is:   25°35'35.18"N  81° 2'28.96"W

or google maps:  https://goo.gl/maps/Rz2DdDcKoip

[yakmaster]

looks like big science.

Thanks for the online link to the book, excellent resource at an even better price!

[shawn beightol]

I have been in communication with the Mitchell family this is the verbal confirmation that Cocoanut hammock was Charlie tigertails General Store and at the headwaters of lost man's River the route from the Ten Thousand Islands up into Big Cypress and onto Pinecrest Loop Road:

" am sending you a photo that was taken around 1910 of the island when Charlie Tigertial had his store there.There was an abandoned Indian camp there when my husbands family stated using it. They gathered all the artifacts they thought would be of interest to the Indians and gave them to them for their museum. It was probably abandoned in the 30s. We don’t go back in there anymore because some very large rattlesnakes started hanging out in there. It is on the back east side of the island. There is a history there because it is at the headwaters of Lostman’s River and a lot of small boat traffic went through there. Also a photo of Eddie’s father, Edward F. Mitchell taken in the 50s in the Everglades before the Coconuts was built."