Chekika

[yakmaster]

Just got word that Chekika will not open this season. The sign on Krome is gone...

Don't think many folks were using it since it reopened a few years ago. and with the budget cuts, something had to go. Chekika being a seasonal facility out in the middle of nowhere, with low visitation, seems to be  a low impact way to save $$$.

 

That said, I remember Chekika when...

 

Can't say I was there when the Grossman's were running it as a resort, but I did used to go when it was  a state park. I remember it was when gators were still endangered. They had two ponds, the one fed by the "spring" where the folks swam and another where the gators swam. Sometimes the gators would forget the rules & go over to the people side. Since they were protected, the rangers couldn't mess with them, so all the kids had to get out of the people pond till the gator decided to go home.

 

The lake at that time was fed by an artesian well that was created by oil drillers. It was fed with deep underground water that was high in sulphur, hence the name Mineral Springs. At some point, they capped the well to stop the sulphur water for fear of polluting the glades. Then they added a pump to recirculate the water through the old "spring".

 

Mineral Springs became part of Everglades National Park in 1991. Then Andrew came & knocked out the facilities...

 

Chekika was also the first place were I saw nature through new eyes.  I got LASIK done and "had to" take a day off work. So I packed up my girls & took them for a picnic at Chekika. We were the only ones there. Apparently it was closed down after that.

 

I was there for the re-opening in 2007, it was a big event with lots of fanfare with politicos from all over town. I even helped cut the ribbon! It has been open since then on a seasonal basis. But they never turned the water back on and so it was a swamp tour rather than the swimming hole it had always been.

 

But now that the fanfare & funding has faded, it has hit the chopping block again. Now it's no longer a swamp tour, just a locked up clearing swamp...

 

Just hope they don't tear down the existing facilities. I understand that they don't have funds to operate it now, but  they might in the future. What they probably won't have in the future is funding to start from scratch...

 

This could become a scout camp or environmental ed center without much work or $$$. Or, they could bulldoze it and in a few years, the swamp will eat it back up. This is the closest you can get to the river of grass, south of 41, it's also the wildest!

 

Maintain Access (at least future), PLEASE!!!

[Swamp Hunter]

Its sad. All the old artesian wells are being capped off. I maintain one of the few remaining flowing wells at Forty Mile Bend and IMO it needs to be preserved.. I planted a Bald Cypress seedling fed solely by the sulphur water and its doing fine.  Thanks for posting.