Foreverglades_Valiente2019

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12 BELLE GLADE FROM SW AMP TO SUGAR BOWL
stating that
than a vast mighty blamed few years. Now they are nearabout as
for all time scarce as the dodo bird, and that's a shame for sure.
CHAPTER TWO
ld see them The trees weren't high, maybe fifteen or twenty feet
I'd say, and the wood was nearabout as light as cork. Instead
of a trunk, its crooked branches, twisting crazily,
.from Lake
the Ever­spruniami Canal and glossy leaves you might glimpse big blossoms, cream
from outreaching buttress roots. Among its green
colored and scarlet centered, or maybe you'd see the yellow,
fragrant fruit, no bigger than an apple. Like a cante­
Calusas Lived Here Too
t River was
loup in taste it was, or something like a ripe persimmon,
expedition
but good grief, you couldn't eat the cussed fruit, for it
enough, he
was nothing but a mass of seed in a tough inedible pulp.
iver's fork.
hey weren't On the ground, in angles of the bracing roots, grew
innumerable lacy ferns, while higher than a hunter's head
rose those seed specked leaves of giant ferns, their fronds
Folks, I was a-fixing for to tell you of the first people
s, "ere the uncoiling in Ionic volutes. Covering this forest like a tent
who came here to live where Belle Glade is today, those
astir." The was a perfect blanket, a solid mat, of green moon vines,
farmers who came during World War I. But first I reckon
were rowed spangled at night and on cloudy days with great white
it wouldn't hurt to tell of some earlier settlers, and I don't
for the last flowers, a gorgeous sight to see. Under those leafy branches
mean a few years earlier either, but centuries! They were
iles to come. and their moon vine cover you might walk for miles and
those naked redskins who built our mounds, and they lived
more than scarcely glimpse the sky. Looping from branch to branch
here for a right smart long time.
ith a slight in these cool and shadowy woods were vines with baseballsized,
yellowish brown gourds. This was the "Everglades
and the one time shore of Lake Okeechobee, there are a
In that area known as Chosen, between Belle Glade
of the trees
network to gourd", said to be found nowhere else but here. Just as
couple of Indian mounds. The big one, called the Shell
e approach numerous and as tenacious as these vines were those yellow
strands which tried to bar your way, spun by enorm­
of Redskins. On its top are now some of the finest homes
Mound, was a place of habitation for countless generations
ater course
e machetes, ous brown and yellow spiders.
in town, but the archeologists claim that it was the abode
journey is In the murky gloom of this strange forest you might
of a race of Indians dating from the year 1000 to about
on is reach­chancextending spreading rubber. Perched on limbs and branches you'd
and bordered by a big clump of bamboo, is what is left
upon a crooked pop ash tree, a lofty cypress or a
1700 A.D. In a pasture south-west of it and 100 yards away
trees which espy many pineapple-like air plants blossoming in gaudy
of their Sand or Burial Mound. Old Democrat River used
a couple of red and orange, while adding life to this placid scene,
to flow between these two, forking at the Living Mound.
exists, but squirrels leaped from branch to branch, while gorgeous
George Cason, whose father had been the first to live
apples. Our buntings flitted busily to here and yonder. Wandering
on the lake's south shore, up Ritta River at Lake Harbor,
ur voyage, through these gloomy and mysterious woods, the silence
told me he was the first to discover these mounds in recent
tion of the broken only by a hawk's lonely scream, was an experience
times. When hunting, he used to camp at the mouth of
white man, to remember. Yes folks, I just wish that you could have
Democrat River, but a wind tide had flooded the camp
LADE FROM been SW AMP there TO and SUGAR seen it BOWL too.
DEMOCRAT RIVER 31 13
34 BELLE GLADE FROM SW AMP TO SUGAR BOWL
24 BELLE GLADE FROM SW AMP TO SUGAR BOWL
24 BELLE GLADE FROM SW AMP TO SUGAR BOWL
Big Ben tractor and experimental plow.
I was one of them, set up camp there, and in a few years
Okeelanta became the biggest town, except for Moore
Haven, (a;d of course, Davie, back of Ft. Lauderdale, the
first one of all) in the whole dad burned Everglades. At
first, though, it looked as if Glade Crest was likely to
eclipse Okeelanta, but floods and frosts and frontier hardships
like to have finished them both. Glade Crest has
vanished without a trace, but Okeelanta has survived -
well, to a certain extent, that is.
Holland and Butterworth, who had sold land for R. J.
Bolles, but had a falling out, bought from the Southern
States Land and Timber Company all of Section 20, Township
44 and Range 38, and they christened it Glade Crest.
This land they then sold in five and ten acre tracts, "sight
unseen", to people in the north. When the first settlers
arrived the land had not yet even been surveyed. However,
the following fall a surveyor, Cleveland W. Horne arrived.
In later years he was to have the honor of being Grand
Master of Masons in Florida. Horne ran a line from the
coast, arid subdivided the section into ten acre tracts.
On this job, while burning off the sawgrass, some of
the crew got surrounded by the raging fire and had to
swim the canal. That wasn't so bad, but a few days later,
GLADE CREST 35
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER THREE
Democrat River
Democrat River
Sawgrass plow with mouldboard slatted for better scouring.
From the time the Chosen mounds were abandoned by
the Calusas (or what ever tribe they might have been)
right on down till the days of the Seminole War, a good
300 years, we don't know a thing of what might have
transpired in this Belle Glade-Chosen area. During those
primeval days the only distinguishing f ea tu res of this location
were those same Indian mounds, and the largest and
longest of the lake's "dead rivers", old Democrat. The earliest
mention of Democrat River was recorded by Lieu­tenant
Henry H. Benson of the 2nd Artillery, who in 1855 had
cruised down the Kissimmee River and along the Lake's east
shore. Of Democrat he says,
From the time the Chosen mounds were abandoned by
the Calusas (or what ever tribe they might have been)
right on down till the days of the Seminole War, a good
300 years, we don't know a thing of what might have
transpired in this Belle Glade-Chosen area. During those
primeval days the only distinguishing f ea tu res of this location
were those same Indian mounds, and the largest and
longest of the lake's "dead rivers", old Democrat. The earliest
mention of Democrat River was recorded by Lieu­tenant
Henry H. Benson of the 2nd Artillery, who in 1855 had
cruised down the Kissimmee River and along the Lake's east
shore. Of Democrat he says,
one of these same boys, while far from the settlement, got
bitten by a moccasin. His ankle swelled until he couldn't
work, so the crew abandoned surveying and began frantically
to hack a trail through the head high sawgrass.
They knew the direction to the settlement but with grass
so high, couldn't see any buildings. It was pitch dark when
they got to the canal, and they began to shout. Finally a
settler heard the racket and rescued them with his boat.
The leg was doctored with turpentine, the nearest thing to
medicine in the camp. The boy must have been pretty
tough for the leg got well, but he was promoted to be camp
cook after that.
"At the extreme southern shore (we) entered a large outlet
80 yards wide at the entrance and six feet deep. After
proceeding down this outlet half a mile, creek forked, one
prong to the southwest and the other to the southeast. This is
the largest outlet on the southern shore."
"At the extreme southern shore (we) entered a large outlet
80 yards wide at the entrance and six feet deep. After
proceeding down this outlet half a mile, creek forked, one
prong to the southwest and the other to the southeast. This is
the largest outlet on the southern shore."
By the winter of 1914-15, besides Slade, there were the
families of Baker, Daniel, Elsasser, Herndon, Garrett, Metcalf
and two Bissell families and a Mrs. Chisolm who was
sister to one of the Bissell ladies. Later, Shields and his
son, who had some boats and barges, started a little store,
and since the Hillsboro canal had just been opened, "Shorty"
Woods, in his boat Bonnie made occasional trips
down it to the coast. Although this route was far shorter
than by way of Torry Island and down the canal to Ft.
Next to visit and describe this river and the man who
gave it a name, was Major Archie P. WiUiams in 1883, and
here's how that came about. A grand effort was being
made by Hamilton Disston, a saw maker from Philadelphia,
Next to visit and describe this river and the man who
gave it a name, was Major Archie P. WiUiams in 1883, and
here's how that came about. A grand effort was being
made by Hamilton Disston, a saw maker from Philadelphia,
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otato, but it is hotter than seven hunlthough
I had seen men taste wampee,
Major Williams concludes his report by stating that
the Everglades "are nothing more nor less than a vast
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