Boca Grande, Florida: Island Jewel | Untold Stories

[Music] support for the untold stories of Southwest Florida has been provided by Bank of America the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice and the Boca Grande Historical Society Boca Grande is a small town on gas Perl Island which lies at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor in Southwest Florida most of the island is in Lee County except for its northern tip which is part of Charlotte County the south end of the barrier island faces Boca Grande pass which gives the town its name big mouth in Spanish Colusa Indians and their predecessors were the first to take advantage of the rich fishing grounds in Charlotte Harbor European explorers and settlers followed by the mid 1700s semi-permanent fishing camps called fishing Ranchos had been established in the area by Spanish Cubans to help support the needs of the vast Spanish new world empire english-speaking settlers arrived in the latter half of the 19th century by this time commercial fishing had become an important industry in Charlotte Harbor the first documented fishing camp on Gasparilla Island was at peakins Cove run by Captain Pekin and his brothers pekin's was from Key West my grandfather worked for him they they would they had this house here got it down on the eastern side of the island they would catch the fish the mullet they would clean them dry them and salt them in a salt solution of salt brine and in kegs and they would in turn take those fish to Cuba and sell the fish in Cuba they fished for fish companies and they sold their fish to the fish company who picked came around picked him up by run boats and usually they got their nets paid for and their food back on the run boat and and and they they traded fish for other things early on for rum and other stables from Cuba which weren't as perishable as other things would get him through the season when the fish weren't around then a discovery was made that in time would change the pace of life on the island in 1881 phosphate which is used in the production of fertilizer was found on the mainland in the Peace River Valley northeast of gasps Perl Island large ships were starting to come into Charlotte Harbor to load phosphate it was barged down to the deep water inside Boca Grande pass down peace River down Charlotte Harbor to the deep water steam tugs would push these barges down and they would then go alongside the ships that were at anchor in a harbor these ships at that time were sailing vessels and load from the barges to the ships in 1890 a lighthouse was built at the southern tip of the island to mark the entry into Charlotte Harbor from the Gulf of Mexico a pilot station and a quarantine station were also established the pilots guided ships safely into the harbor while the quarantine doctor checked vessels and crew for contagious diseases but bringing the phosphate down the Peace River on barges wasn't a very efficient method of transportation so by 1904 the American agricultural Chemical Company which owned many of the phosphate mines decided to build the railroad line from the mines to the deep water of Boca Grande pass to expedite shipping they started that in 1905 and they landed a ship a small ship came in to Boca Grande pass and landed on the south end of the island and disgorged equipment and men and engineers and they started building the railroad from the south end of oka grande that ship was the mistletoe the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway a subsidiary of the American agricultural chemical company was completed from Port Boca Grande inland to Arcadia Florida in 1907 a few years later the line also connected with the seaboard airline railway and the Atlantic coast line railroad the American agricultural chemical company built a fully automated phosphate loading facility with its own power plant at Port Boca Grande it was the first of its kind in the United States the dock extended a thousand feet into deep water in 1912 port boca grande opened as an international phosphate shipping facility which flourished over the years Boca Grande would ship as much as 2 million tons of phosphate a year out of here to countries all over the world and that's a lot of tonnage that made it about the fourth or fifth largest port in the state of Florida tonnage was railroad officials didn't view Gasparilla Island as simply a phosphate transfer site they also had plans to develop the island into an upscale winter resort across Florida glamorous hotels along rail lines had proven to be successful ventures officials hope the new town of Boca Grande would do equally well Boca Grande existed on paper long before it was ever developed Albert Gilchrist who later became governor of Florida filed a plant with Lee County in 1897 but building didn't begin until the newly formed Boca Grande land company purchased the land from Gilchrist the company filed a new plant and in 1910 began construction of the hotel Boca Grande which was later renamed the Gasparilla in the elaborate hotel which even had the electric power furnished by the same power plant that serviced the phosphate terminal was so successful in attracting a wealthy clientele that it had to expand several times company officials also began selling Lots to northern visitors who set up winter residences as the town grew over the next several years it acquired a number of businesses from grocery stores to a movie theater making Boca Grande a bustling self-contained community Boca Grande in a very short period of time in just a matter of a few years became a boomtown because these people who came here mostly wealthy industrialists from the Northeast who had come here in their steam yachts many years before to fish for tarpon and to hunt discovered that they could get on a train in New York City or Boston and then 24 36 hours or something like that they could disembark and Boca Grande in the wintertime there was two trains when one train came from Tampa got in here about noon and then there was what they call the orange blossom special that would bring the tourists from the north and there were Pullman cars and the greatest thing was to go down and see the orange blossom special come in because it usually had snow still on top of the on the train that was a big thrill for us because none of us had ever seen snow the railroads arrival on Gasparilla Island changed the commercial fishing industry as well just after the turn of century with the railroads coming to town and in the area of the and the first ice houses were established and they would pack them in ice and put them on trains to ship up north so by 1910 the salt fishing industry was replaced by the ice fishing industry ice fish fresh fish as traditional salt fisheries ceased to be viable peakins fish ranch at the north end of the island closed down around 1916 however not far from peakins Cove Gasparilla village a stop along the railway became a thriving fishing community the railroad built two ice houses and a number of homes which at least two fishermen and their families the company encouraged the community's growth so it could use the railroads freight capacity to ship the iced fish to the mainland between 1914 and the mid 1940s the village prospered it's not just commercial fishermen who throughout time have found the waters around Gasparilla Island valuable people have also flocked to the area for sport fishing particularly Karpin fishing since the late nineteen hundreds tarpon fishing has attracted wealthy and famous visitors alike who hire local fishing guides to aid them in their search for the Silver King I was a sport fisherman mainly tarpon fishing but I did king fishing and Mackler as well I did it for 38 years I loved every minute of it and my father was a fishing guide as well people that I've taken fishing willebrandt the Chancellor of Germany when he was Chancellor he gave me a silver cigarette-case with his name inside Eddie Arnold great guy Carol Burnett general Beatle Smith general Schulz general Beatle Smith the general that accepted surrender from Germany in world war ii general Schultz was General Eisenhower public relations man some called Boca Grande pass the tarpon capital of the world as thousands of anglers converge on its waters each spring there's no doubt sport fishing played an important role in the development of Boca Grande as more and more visitors including anglers came to the island another elegant hotel opened its doors in 1929 the Boca Grande hotel was a landmark on the island for 43 years until it closed its doors in 1972 but throughout its history the people of Boca Grande have been far more diverse than simply seasonal hotel guests in the years following the arrival of the railroad a number of small yet diverse communities had developed on the island you had commercial fishermen on the north end of the island you had port employees and other people connected with the port on the south end of the islands you had the people in the central part of the islands that were connected for the most part with the winter residents and their needs you had tarpon fishermen who needed fishing guides so you had all of these diverse elements you had ships coming in and docking who who had crews that were from over 20 different countries we had ships from Greece we had ships from England we had ships from Germany Denmark Belgium Norway Sweden Argentina Mexico and of course American vessels you had people coming in on the train there were two african-american communities on the island as well their residents mainly worked for the port and the winter colony Thomas Philpott spent 38 years working for the DuPont family he says at one time about 155 African Americans lived on the island they had a Baptist and a Methodist congregation which shared a church building then the business was here just about every Sunday and it would be some of our church because we black churches have a little bit different and they were you know I think that lola's came to see it but in process of coming I think they enjoyed it too because if black people go saying they are saying Philpot says despite the racial and socio-economic differences that existed between the different residents and visitors on the island there was a mutual respect that made Boca Grande a good place to live others agree mrs. crowninshield who was one of the DuPont ladies she built a school here the county donated Atlantis she built a school and also the community house and she was she loved Island people and I think my fondest remembers of her was she would send her gardener down to the north end of the island with a big Christmas tree and she would get the the Fish Company to let her have some electricity and they would decorate that tree her gardener would and she would come down Christmas Eve she had a big chair and she had baskets of toys for us kids and on that basket I had a handle I had our names on and we'd have to sit in her lap thanked her and talked to her and she'd give us our basket of toys that she was a great lady and she she did so much for this island until 1958 there was no causeway connecting Gasparilla Island to the Florida peninsula so the island boasted a library boat a car ferry a water taxi and even a school boat a man teacher was usually chosen to run the boat and he had to go in all kinds of weather didn't make any difference winter or summer a rain or and pick up the kids over at the islands locals remember that while there were many community activities to keep them busy life in Boca Grande was very laid-back in the first half of the 20th century there were stores that in the summertime when it was just so slow and all they'd walk out and leave the stores wide open and go off over to some other store or something you know do that that was normal you'd see that quite often in stores during the World War two years the port also served another purpose as a deepwater port in the Gulf of Mexico it was used to ship ammunition and dynamite to Allied forces in Europe after the United States entered the war the port also served as a refuge for cargo ships fearing attacks from German submarines working in the Gulf Diann McKeithen Miller's father was the lighthouse keeper from 1941 until 1951 during the war there were as many as six enlisted men in the house next to us and there was it it's you can't see now but the the submarine tower they called it or as a watch tower out at the end of the point and the enlisted men pulled duty in the submarine tower day and night and with instructions to call a certain airplanes or if submarines were sighted it was not a time of CBS or cellphones they use semaphore semaphore flags and signal lights to get in touch with the ships that were coming in the past which most were in the basin by nightfall so that the they wouldn't be subject to submarine attacks while war was raging in Europe and in the Pacific life for the residents on the island didn't change much the winter residence called beach hunters because their homes tended to be near the ocean continued to frequent Boca Grande both during and after the war my wife's aunt lived here from early 30s and in 1950 after the few years after the war and we had two children by them we were invited to come down and visit and she suggested right away the best way to get here was to go and get on the Boca Grande car on the Silver Meteor the Boca Grande car different people who lived in Boston could get on it or New York Philadelphia Washington we'd opted to go to Washington and then it was a long long train and got to Jacksonville when next day I guess then it broke up to a smaller train and went to Tampa two cars and and an engine left Tampa and came on down so the conductor was very chatty fellow and it was he would say well commence this crowninshield called a tarpon yesterday or something like that as you go along but this was the first year we came and we were very excited you go through Placida and that my land so trestle and the beautiful Charlotte Harbor in the color of the water it was very exciting and then all of a sudden you pull up in front of the British Station meet two people the rhythm of life on the island changed with the building of a causeway bridge in 1958 the effect of it was something that took everyone by surprise there was an assumption that the bridge was going to allow a lot of people to come to the islands because we always thought that Boca Grande was a very very special place and so we assumed that everybody in the world would just come flocking over here it didn't happen but what happened was that for the first time people who worked on the island could live off the islands and so some people left the island for more modern and in some cases less expensive housing and also for the first time people could leave the island to do their shopping so after 1958 for about Oh at least ten years and maybe longer Boca Grande kind of went into a decline and it was only it's only been in the last I'll say twenty five years that that's changed but the bridge changed Boca Grande forever from about 1910 when the railroad came into 1958 forty-eight years vodka cran was a very special diverse unique place where diverse people live together different socio-economic levels mixed to some extent after 1958 it was never the same again Gasparilla Island like most of Florida's barrier islands changed in many ways once a bridge connected it to the mainland the causeway made the need for passenger train service to Boca Grande obsolete for a few more decades people continued to earn their living from commercial fishing in Charlotte Harbor but residents of the fishing village on the north end of the island began to leave around 1945 after the last remaining fish house relocated to Placita on the mainland and the railroad company sold its land to sunset Realty incorporated most of the villages residents eventually moved away knowing that Sunset Realty had plans to replace the village with a high-end development today condominiums stand in his place however the port on the south end of the island was the busiest during the 1960s and early seventies not only was the phosphate industry thriving but Florida Power and Light decided to build its own dock and storage facility in 1958 at its peak the port covered 40 acres and employed 60 people making it one of the busiest in Florida in terms of tonnage handled it but all that - we eventually came to an end when the railroad industry decided to pull out in the late 1970s prior to 1979 the railroad petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to abandon the rail line their reason for that was that they had much larger and more automated modern phosphate terminals in Tampa and they felt that it was more expedient for them to close the the what had become an antiquated phosphate loading terminal and Boca Grande and consolidate in Tampa and so in October of 1979 they had received the permission from the ICC to abandon the line and the last phosphate ship loaded in October of 1979 Florida Power and Light decided to abandon its oil storage facility in 2001 leading to the closure of the port today a serene State Park covers parts of the islands south end the population also continued to evolve the african-american communities dwindled and eventually vanished over the years as jobs and housing disappeared and families moved away for better opportunities elsewhere wealthy visitors however continue to flock to Boca Grande well Vanderbilt's and du Pont's came here very early on in fact they may have been the first wealthy families to come to the island President Johnson used to come here and stay at one of the beachfront compounds Jacqueline Kennedy came here to have a conference with mrs. DuPont with regard to how to decorate the White House I've flown a lot of the presidential party around Secret Service when they've been here and I was introduced to a lot of very interesting people of James Michener the author Katharine Hepburn just many many people over the years the old railroad tracks have been converted to an attractive bike path upscale housing now extends from the traditional beachfront to the interior of the island property values have gone up dramatically changing the makeup of the community even further what has been lost is the multi-dimensional aspect of the island the community in some ways is better than it's ever been but the people who work on the islands can't afford to live on the island it's too expensive and consequently over the last twenty years or so most of the people who we refer to we us locals refer to as local people people who live here the year round and who work here most of those people have moved off the island much has changed on the island the last century the railroad and phosphate industry have come and gone leaving behind only memories and faded photos I would love it if it could be the way it was then you know but times have changed and you can't go back only in your memories you can go back in spite of all the changes and what might have been the demise of other towns Boca Grande in part because of its location still thrives today the islands climate beautiful beaches fishing and prime real estate continued to attract newcomers maybe more than ever before its new residents cherish polar grand for the same Island magic that its early residents recognized long ago some call it paradise waiting's dream with the temperature fall fighting the snow I could just hear over sunshine again back in the sunshine to order a video of this program call one eight eight eight eight two four zero zero three zero or visit our website at WGU lrg and please refer to the program number on your screen [Music]

Channel: WGCU Public Media

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Id: MApMbRt12Zc

Length: 26min 46sec (1606 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 21 2019