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FORUM : the Magazine of the Florida Humanities Florida Humanities

4-1-2001

Forum : Vol. 24, No. 01 (Spring : 2001)

Florida Humanities Council.

Gary Ross Mormino

Casey Blanton

Richard Foglesong

Herb Hiller

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Recommended Citation Florida Humanities Council.; Mormino, Gary Ross; Blanton, Casey; Foglesong, Richard; Hiller, Herb; West, Patsy; Mott, Austin; and Longman, Phillip, "Forum : Vol. 24, No. 01 (Spring : 2001)" (2001). FORUM : the Magazine of the Florida Humanities. 31. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/forum_magazine/31

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Florida Humanities at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FORUM : the Magazine of the Florida Humanities by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors Florida Humanities Council., Gary Ross Mormino, Casey Blanton, Richard Foglesong, Herb Hiller, Patsy West, Austin Mott, and Phillip Longman

This article is available at Scholar Commons: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/forum_magazine/31 I idHtimaniGes Council

1 HOW TOURISM DEFINES FLORIDA FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FLORIDA JANITIES Adding Value to Tourism COUNCIL BOARD OF DIRECTORS t’s striking to me the extent to which tourism defines B. LESTER ABBERGER, Ill JOHN HAMILTON Florida’s identity. Even some residents seem to view their Tallahassee Orlando

LOIS BENSON SUZAN HARRISON state as one big resort and themselves as perennial guests. Pensacola St. Petersburg

ADRIAN CLINE FRANK HELSOM Their lives are built around Interstate 4 or routes AlA or Arcadia Palm Beach 19, and they rarely stray from those thoroughfares that thrive on DAVID COLBURN BILL JENNINGS Gainesville Orlando tourist dollars. If they did, they would find this state, more than KATHLEEN DEAGAN MARILYN JOHNSON Gainesville Fort Lauderdale most of the other 49, extraordinarily redolent in history and SHEILA FLEMMING JEAN LUDLOW Daytona Beach Jacksonville uniquely multicultural. PEDRO FREYRE SHEILA MCDEVITT This is not to thumb our nose at the state’s biggest industry, but Miami Tampa MICHAEL GANNON ELAINE MICELI VASQUEZ here at FHC we consider it our mission to tell the world, and Gainesville Fort Lauderdale JEANNE 000WIN CASIUS PEALER indeed our own residents, about the wonders of the other Florida. Pensacola Ocala FAUSTO GOMEZ DENNIS ROSS We believe that the future of Florida, no less than the future of New Miami Seminole

JUDY HALL RICHARD SUAREZ York or Michigan or Colorado, depends on understanding and Jacksonville Miami

ELLEN VINSON appreciating our past. Contrary to the public perception, Mickey Pensacola Mouse was not one of the state’s founding fathers. STAFF Researching, developing and promoting our cultural heritage FRANCINE CURRO CARY has long been the abiding goal of FHC, and we’re pleased to note Executive Director JANINE FARVER SUSAN LOCKWOOD that recently the state has begun promoting cultural heritage Associate Director Florida Center for Teachers Director DAVID REDDY tourism. Heritage tourism is focused on experiencing the authentic Resource Center JOAN BRAGGINTON Director Grant Program Director history and special characteristics of a place. It provides opportu ANN SCHOENACHER LAURIE BERLIN Program Coordinator Director of Administration nities for residents and tourists alike to learn about the heritage MATTHEW WRIGHT PATRICIA PUTMAN Fiscal Officer Development Assistant that gives Florida’s cities and small towns their distinctive spirit RENE RENO KAREN JACKSON Program Assistant and character. In short, it’s tourism with humanities. Administrative Assistant

FORUM Editor The humanities provide the context and the content for heritage JOHN F. BERRY Design & Production tourism. That’s why FHC has invested in the heritage and cultural RUSS KRAMER resources of Florida communities for close to 30 years, through the © 2001 FHC grants program, the annual Florida Gathering, and the popular FHC FORUM traveling exhibit series and Speakers Bureau. Vol. XXIV. No. 1, spring 2001 The magazine of We are now working with enthusiastic community partners in THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL 599 Second Street South Volusia County to bring the 2001 Florida Gathering to DeLand, a St. Petersburg, FL 33701-5005 727 553-3801 lovely town once known as the "Athens of Florida." Come to the Website address: www.fiahurn.org

Gathering and learn what makes DeLand so special. It’s a story The Florida Humanities Council is a non-profit organization, funded by the National Endowment for you won’t hear at a theme park, but it is one of those valuable sto the Humanities. the state of Florida, and private contributors. Fl-IC FORUM is published three times ries that truly identity a year and distributed free of charge to the friends defines Florida’s of the Florida Humanities council and interested Floridians. If you wish to be added to the mailing - Fran Cary list, please request so in writing. Views expressed by contributors to the FORUM are not necessarily those of the Florida Humanities Council. FORUM The Magazine of the Florida Humanities Council

INS IDE

4 Humanities Alive! News of the Florida 1-lumanities Council

6 EDEN TO EMPIRE: Florida’s Shifting Dreamscape Why Florida has always been the tourist mecca ofAmerica. By Gaty R. Monnino II SPRING BREAK! A troublesome rite of youth. By Ga,y R. Mormino 12 MYTH & REALITY From the jottings of the earliest explorers, travel writers have always viewed Florida in a very personal way. Sometimes their prose turns absolutely poetic. By Casey Blanton

16 THE MOUSE THAT ROARED Using ex-CIA operatives and phony fronts, Disney acquired huge amounts of land in the middle of Florida before anyone knew who the buyer was. 18 A VATICAN WITH MOUSE EARS How Disney became a city-state. By Richard Foglesong 22 THE REAL FLORIDA There’s alternatives to the conventional tourist stops that are worth a visit. By Herb Hiller FLORIDAS NATIVE ATTRACTION In 7917, the combination of a bitter cold winter and government policies forced the Seminoles into the tourism industry. The consequences continue to this day. By Patsy West QA An interview with Austin Mott, Florida’s tourism czar. Book Briefs Slavery in Florida and an oral history ofgrowing up in white and black Florida. 38 The Last Word A Washington journalist looks back at life in Florida with bitter-sweet feelings. By Phillip Loogman

On the cover: Adapted from a 938 AAA brochure promoting "Flonda’s Gulf Coast Scenic Highway." Humanities Cassadaga, the DeLand area offers a wide area "Extending the Reach" Grants of cultural and recreational opportunities. lorida is one of 14 states targeted by the The Florida Gathering is an annual program FNational Endowment for the Humanities of the FHC. We invite Floridians from across the NEH under a new grants initiative designed to state to join us in the celebration of Florida’s increase the quantity and quality of cultural pro history, culture and environment. grams in underserved states. qZiië1 For more information about the 2001 Under its "Extending the Reach" initiative, Gathering in DeLand visit our website at NEH seeks applications from cultural and edu FLORIDA COUNCIL flahum.org or contact Laurie Berlin at 727-553- cational organizations and film and radio pro COMINGS AND GOINGS 3810. ducers. These grants are also eligible nation wide to historically black, Hispanic-serving, and Grants for Public tribal colleges and universities. Humanities Programs Applications are encouraged in the following challenging discussions about the state of race program areas: relations in our communities today. If you are ndividuals and non-profit organizations inter interested in bringing "Parallel Lives" to your I ested in producing public humanities pro Consultation grants application deadline May grams, 1 are available for museums, historical soci community, contact Janine Farver at 727 553- publications or resources are eligible to eties, 3813 or email [email protected]. receive FHC grants. The Council is particularly other cultural organizations, public radio interested in proposals that and television stations, and independent film use the humanities makers seeking to develop or enhance public to promote community, civic culture, humanities programs. civic life, and generational, ethnic Preservation assistance application and race relations. Major grants more than $2000 are available to deadline April 3 is available to help non-profit organizations. libraries, archives, museums and histori cal Humanities scholars must play a societies seeking to improve care of central role in all their humanities collections. phases of the pro ject - from planning final execu Humanities Scholar-in-Residence to grants deadline tion. The project should culminate in April 3 are available for 2001 a public humanities program, or a middle schools and high schools seeking to improve their humanities curricula. program or resource that benefits the public. Historically black, Hispanic-serving, and tribal colleges and universities are encouraged to Major grants are awarded twice a year. The next deadline is May 8, apply for faculty research grants and for pro eLand, 2001. jects that develop programs and strengthen a town once However, you are strongly D known as the encouraged to submit a preliminary institutional resources. "Extending the Reach" "Athens of Florida" grant for review program descriptions, guidelines and applica for by our grants direc tions its cultural attributes, tor by April 8, 2001. are posted on NEH’s website at will be the site of the Florida Gathering sched Mini grants up to $2000 are also available www.neh.gov/grants/extending.html. uled for October 26-28, 2001. to non-profit organizations. These grants, which You may also contact Karen Mittelman at 202- 606-8631 Founded by Henry DeLand, a wealthy baking require a brief project description no more than or Fred Winter at 292-606-8287. soda manufacturer from Fairport, New York, two pages are reviewed four times a year. DeLand was incorporated in 1882 as a cultural FHC offers a limited number of Parallel lives at the UN and religious center. Today, DeLand is a leader scholar/humanist fellowships of up to $2,000. arallel Lives," FHC’s provocative program among small cities, with a thriving business dis Scholars and humanists are eligible to apply for examining race relations during the Jim trict, historic neighborhoods and Florida’s oldest these grants to pursue research topics with Crow era in Florida, has been scheduled to private university. potential for future public humanities programs appear at the United Nations on April 6, 2001. In 1999 it was one of just five U.S. commu a public talk, radio program, article etc. Mini "Parallel Lives" features writers Bill Maxwell and nities to win the Great American Main Street grants and scholar/humanities fellowship dead Beverly Coyle, who share their experiences Award, and Stetson University and the north lines are May 20, August 20, November 20 and growing up in northeast Florida in an era when west residential area have been added to the February 20. blacks and whites lived in strictly segregated National Historic Registry. Grant information and applications are avail communities. Coyle and Maxwell were invited Deland is also the seat of Volusia County able on the FHC website atflahum.org or by to perform the program at the UN after officials which, in 2000, passed two $80 million bond contacting Joan Bragginton at 727-553-3803. of that organization saw "Parallel Lives" in New referendums, one to acquire additional conser York City. vation lands, the other to develop the county’s Florida Folklife Available on Web Parallel Lives has traveled to environmental, cultural, heritage 25 Florida lorida folklife from the WPA Works Projects communities during and outdoor resources. Located Administration Collections, an online compi the past two years, playing to near the Ocala National Forest, the F standing-room-only lation documenting African American, Arabic, crowds. The St. Johns River, dozens of lakes Bahamian, Cuban, Greek, Italian and Seminole program provides a fascinating and springs, and the South’s old cultures the look at our history and throughout Florida, is available on provokes est spiritualist community, Library of Congress website at educational challenges. The seminars offer a wide array of topics: Asian Religions in Florida; The Challenge of Diversity; Los Latinos; Sports and American Culture; Taking Humor Seriously; Florida Folk Life; Searching for a Sense of Place; Plagues in Medicine and Myth; What is This Thing Called Work? and Florida Writers, Florida Places. Participants consistently rate Florida Center for Teachers seminars the best professional development program available. In addition to intellectual stimulation, teachers receive in-ser vice points and documentation of their semi nar’s alignment with the Sunshine State Standards. Florida Center for Teacher seminars are FHC board member Lester Abberger, FHC Executive Director Fran Cary, funded by the Florida Department of Education We’re Dedicated’ CommissIoner of Education Charlie Crist, University of South Florida and private contributions. For more information President Judy Genshaft, Florida Center for Teachers alumna Judith Overcash and USF Vice President and an application, visit our website at Bill Heller cut the ribbon at the recent dedication of the Florida Center for Teachers, the new home of flahum.org, or call Ann Simas Schoenacher at FHC on the campus of the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. 727-553-3809. Smithsonian Explores memory.loc.gov/ammem/flwpahtml. teacher described her experience at a Florida Inventions of the Past The site contains 376 sound recordings col Center for Teachers seminar last summer. She lected in Florida between 1937-1942 by the was one of 300 educators who attended a id you know that the first computer weighed WPA, in conjunction with the Florida Federal week-long seminar designed to renew, reward D 30 tons and filled an entire room? That an Writers’ Project, the Florida Music Project and and re-energize Florida’s best teachers. "airphibian" designed in 1946 could convert the Joint Committee on Folk Arts. The Center, a program of the Florida from a plane to a car in just five minutes? Or, Employing such celebrated folklorists as Humanities Council, will offer 10 seminars this that a car with an atomic reactor in its trunk Zora Neal Hurston and Stetson Kennedy, the summer at our new building in St. Petersburg. was designed in 1958? project sent folklorists, writers, ethnomusicolo The seminars are open to K-i 2 teachers with a A new Smithsonian Institution traveling gists and photographers up and down the minimum of three years of teaching experience. exhibit, "Yesterday’s Tomorrows - Past Visions Florida peninsula on what Kennedy described as There are no tests and no lectures. The empha of the American Future," looks at these intrigu a "statewide cultural treasure hunt." They trav sis is on experiential learning in a collegial set ing inventions that never quite came to pass. eled to turpentine camps, sawmills, citrus ting with distinguished Florida scholars. Sponsored by FHC and the Florida Department groves, and the Everglades, collecting folk Seminars bring together kindergarten teach of Cultural Affairs, this fascinating exhibit will songs, work songs, folk tales and oral histories ers and chemistry teachers from Pensacola to travel to seven small town museums this spring wherever Florida folks were working, living and Miami to explore ideas, examine challenging and summer. singing. topics, and discuss Debuting in March in the northeast Florida In addition to the WPA collection, the site town of Blountstown, the exhibit will has a new essay by Kennedy, reflecting on the travel to Madison County, legacy of the WPA in Florida, an extensive Monticello, Inverness, Lake bibliography, a list of related web sites and Mary, Kissimmee/StCloud a guide to ethnic and language groups of and Arcadia. Florida. Together they provide a vivid pic ture of the multicultural life of Florida dur ing the 1930s and ‘40s. florida Center for Teachers Summer Seminars arrived tired and a little discouraged about education. I leave renewed, with ideas about books I want to teach in my class this coming year. The interaction with my outstanding peers, the exchange of ideas and activities, the networking now available has made this a life changing experience." That is how one Florida 4 V V rA

ThudLv

"We stopped picking oranges and started picking tourists."

- An Orlando banker, 1979

rom its founding as an imperial outpost to its modern identity as a tourist empire, Florida has evoked contrasting and compelling images of the sacred and profane: a Fountain of Youth and a Garden of Earthly Delights, a miasmic hell hole and a con crete, cultural wasteland. As a powerful symbol of renewal and regeneration, Florida’s dreamscape constantly shifting. Where once the land and climate bewitched tourists and trav el writers, today retirement communities, urban sprawl, and theme parks occupy that firmament.

THE SHELL MAN’ 1987 PAINTING BY JOHN WILTON, STETSON AVENUE STUDIO. DSLAND SPRING 2001 7 In Florida the line between reality and illusion is easily cal fruits and orchids, but discovered his most lucrative blurred. A state of last chances, lottery sweepstakes, and crop was Yankees, who wished to stroll along the paths fantasy resorts, Florida has attracted more than its time and gawk at the tropical foliage and rock formations of his share of mountebanks, binder boys, and developers seffing Sunken Gardens ten feet below street level. land by the gallon and dreams for ten dollars down. Silver Springs, east of Ocala, one of the state’s earliest Named for flowers and garlanded with sunshine, Florida destinations for travelers, gained fame after the Civil War launched real estate promotion and tourism into big busi for its crystal waters. In 1909 an Ocala businessman pur ness, brokering the dreams of millions of Americans seek chased 80 acres surrounding the springs for a few thou ing renewal. sand dollars, but by 1920 fewer than 10,000 visitors a year In 1945, Florida held out a well-deserved reward and had made their way to the site. In 1924 the owner of the respite for war-weary Americans. A George Gallup poii property entered into one of the worst agreements in confirmed what every Detroit auto worker or New York tourist history, signing a 50-year lease for the rights to stockbroker already knew: California and Florida were manage the springs, at a price of $5,000 a year. Aggressive America’s favorite tourist destinations. If Americans were advertising and highway construction helped transform identified by what they thought, they were also defined by Silver Springs into a popular destination. what they bought. A postwar dreamlist included marriage, a house, a car, and a vacation. oon, the flood of tourists spawned a kind of Contrary to popular myth, theme parks dotted the commercial creativity that survives to this state before Disney, but the theme was Florida. Prosperity’s day. There was Newton Perry, the former life wake lifted not only the luxury yachts docked at Miami’s guard at Silver Springs, who stumbled upon Pier 5, but Evinrude bass boats on Lake Apopka and glass- a natural wonderland along U.S. 19. In 1947, bottomed vessels at Silver Springs. As charming and Perry opened Weeki Wachee, in Hernando understated as it was later brash and universal, tourism County, to the public. A frogman during the sanctioned fun and profit in an era when consumption was war, Perry introduced live mermaids, local replacing production as a national template. Tourism had women in swimsuits with air hoses. The mermaid show changed remarkably little since the 1920s when the popu became an instant hit. He later installed a glass-paneled larity of the automobile, the completion of major travel theater, allowing tourists to observe schools of fish amid arteries, and national prosperity combined to promote the bubbling springs. vacations as a democratic right and republican virtue. At Silver Springs and Weeki Wachee, it was the prima Mid-century tourism exemplified pluckish capitalism cy of nature that drew tourists; at another famous attrac and puckish fun. In St. Petersburg George Turner pur tion, Cypress Gardens, it was the flamboyance and show chased an unusual tract of land in 1903. Turner grew tropi manship of its promoter, Richard Pope. In the early 1930s

8 Fl-IC FORUM J Pope raised $2,800 to purchase a 16-acre site on Winter Haven’s Lake Eloise, clearing an area which eventually grew to 223 acres. On January 2, 1936, the "Swami of the Swamp" opened Cypress Gardens to 136 customers who paid 25 cents admission; by 1950, Cypress Gardens’ gift shop sold more Kodak film than any retail center in America. Pope lured Hollywood to the shores of Lake Eloise, and after seeing the MGM musicals, "On an Island With You" 1948 and "Easy to Love" 1953, Americans

fell in love with Esther Williams - and Cypress Gardens. also Contrary to poular myth, theme parks dotted the state Marineland, another tourist stop, before Disney; some were well known and popular, oth illustrated the connection between nature and spectacle. ers not so left. To African Americans, Florida was still Begun in 1938 as an improbable partnership between Dixieland. American Beach above, in the 30s was the Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney the Commodore’s grand Marineland state’s most reknowned black tourist spot. son and Iffia Tolstoy the Count’s grandson, opened on AlAbetween St. Augustine and Daytona Beach, perfectly located to snag Goldcoast-bound travelers. By the early 1950s the world’s first oceanarium drew a half-mil lion customers annually, who oohed and aahed over leap ing dolphins, a porpoise pulling a poodle on a surfboard, and sea lions barking at clowns. Between 1950 and 1970, Miami and Miami Beach held sway as the Sunshine State’s favorite adult tourist destina tions. Tourists sped down U.S. 1 and Route 27with the sin gle-minded pursuit of a day at the Flamingo Race Track nded bh and an evening at the Sans-Souci. Miami specialized in adult entertainment. Hialeah Race Park appeared on January 18, 1958 cover of the New Yorker, the imprimatur of elegance and taste. Entertainers Jackie Gleason and Arthur suns me, glorida launched Godfrey hosted their television shows from Miami Beach. Tourism, then as now, offered a window into regional, ethnic, and racial guideposts and customs. In general, mid real esba.be romoiion and westerners enjoyed the wholesome ambience of Florida’s west coast, while northeasterners preferred the east coast. Southerners maintained a long love affair with the Florida panhandle, frequenting hotels and cabins from Pensacola tourism mb ig usmness, to Panama City. American Jews, in particular, were drawn to Florida’s Goldcoast. To African Americans, Florida was still Dixieland. broering bhe dreams Tourism defined Florida, but it also divided Floridians. In of - the tourist camps and resort beaches, race distinguished high-paying guests from low-paid help. In beach commu nities, custom had long dictated that the boardwalks and mdkons sand dunes existed for white patrons. By the 1950s a hand of meri cans ful of black resorts had been created: Paradise Springs near Silver Springs and Virginia Beach in Miami. Opened on Emancipation Day 1949, Paradise Park allowed African see ivuj renewa Americans to enjoy Silver Springs on their own terms or the least objectionable terms within the framework of a Jim Crow society and the dignity of race pride. Black tourists explored Silver Springs in separate glass-bottomed boats. Florida’s most popular and renowned black tourist spot, however, was American Beach, located on the south end of Amelia Island. In the 1930s, executives from the Afro- American Life Insurance Company purchased large tracts of American Beach, erecting facilities for black patrons, who came there from near and far.

SPRING 2001 9 In 1950 Roy Disney arrived and set in motion the mar riage of Walt Disney to Florida that culminated with the 9JIS i4btamedo’e opening of Disney World in 1971. The Disney Empire imposed its will upon the Sunshine State, promoting a commercial vision and corporate model that redefined tourism: managed fun, dazzling technology, simulated exowdiq hghwag, goal reality, and hegemonic control. If the opening of Disney World signaled tourism’s Big Bang, the aftershocks are still felt today. Disney’s success doomed under-capitalized attractions W tow-wag&i&job, and pale imitations. From Chiefland to Davie, St. Augustine to Palmdaie, commercial graveyards testify to a world of lost tourist attractions. Dog Land in Chiefland, Everglades Tropical Garden in Clewiston, Florida Reptile eeeowuqüçq e&pa4lZ, Land of Lawtey, and the Sarasota Reptile Farm failed to survive the 1970s, joining a much longer fraternity of van ished tourist attractions. 1.ou -a&&g ioU1ij, ezcd oday, oligopoly characterizes the tourist industry, as a few mega-corporations domi nate the business. As early as the 1960s, Holiday Inn and S & H Green Stamps acquired Rainbow Springs. Mergers and &zdicg vJbtqht takeovers document the high cost of competi tion: American Broadcasting Corporation, ESPN and the Walt Disney Company joined Busch Boulevard, hands in the 1990s. Sea World, Busch Gardens, and Discovery Cove are owned by Anheuser Busch. In 1999, Anheuser Busch-run theme parks in Florida generated $750 miffion in revenues. Six Flags was purchased by Time-Warner, and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich briefly acquired Cypress Gardens. Ogden Corporation, with mas sive holdings in energy, aviation, and entertainment, pur chased Silver Springs from Florida Leisure Acquisition in 1996. At one time, ABC owned Silver Springs and Weeki Wachee. Florida tourism richly deserves its companion noun, industry Generating 663,000 jobs, $31 billion in revenues, and 12% of Florida’s gross state product, tourism has become a golden goose. Critics, however, have taken on Florida’s sacred cow. Tourism is blamed for creating crowded highways, low-skill, low-wage service jobs, encouraging a plastic, throw-away society and spreading visual blight. "The sprawl, gridlock and mailing that accompanied Disney World is a mess, aesthetically and environmentally," writes Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen, author of an anti-Disney book, Team Rodent 1998. An underground movement to discourage tourism surfaced briefly in the late 1980s and ‘90s. New Age, bad taste bumper stickers warned, "Welcome to Florida, Now Go Home," "When I Grow Old, I’m Going North and Driving Slow,"and "If It’s Tourist Season, Why Can’t We Kill Them?" What manifestos failed to achieve, real-life disasters accomplished. Events in the 1990s cast Florida in new and threatening images: ram-n-rob murders, natural disasters, cocaine cowboys, and a negative press. Even the sun turned on Florida, as beach worshipers confronted a new threat: melanoma. In some communities, most notably Fort Lauderdale and Daytona Beach, leaders spurned tourists.

10 FHC FORUM Why Cities View fli%tq B1tt,fLILas a Faustian Bargain

pring Break, the American rite of youthful bacchana bottom line: Spring Break had become an economic bonanza. lia, illustrates the perils of prosperity and popularity. By the late 1980s, over 400,000 young people were invading Fort Lauderdale and Spring Break were inseparable in Daytona Beach, leaving behind $120 million in sales and the I960s and ‘70s. Beach movies, the Beach Boys, accounting for one-half of the city’s annual revenues. Student and a youth culture glorified fun and sun. The film, debauchery also left behind mountains of garbage, a beer- S Then came "Where the Boys Are," made Fort Lauderdale and Florida syn stained reputation, and shocked, shocked residents. onymous with spring break. But Fort Lauderdale began to 1989, the Mother of all Spring Breaks. Police received 10,000 question what it had wished for, and by the I 980s, the college complaints and arrested almost 2,000 party animals. Revolted crowds had departed, unwelcome and ungrateful. The Jolly at the excesses, Daytona Beach residents demanded that offi Roger and Marlin Beach Hotels, once cials take back their city. ground zero for Spring Break, are gone. Obeying the most elementary By the time Fort Lauderdale had law of physics, displaced college stu filed for divorce, American youth had dents moved to a new destination: fallen in love with Daytona Beach. The Panama City Beach. Located at the home of the state’s most famous board center of what Southerners once called walk and beaches that sported as race- "the Redneck Riviera," Panama City tracks, Daytona Beach was struggling to Beach suddenly attracted MTV crews, reinvent itself. In the I 960s, the com New York Times reporters, and a new munity even invited artist Norman generation following the crowd. Spring Rockwell to promote its identity as a Break 2000 drew over one-half million haven for America’s middle classes. students. A journalist concluded, "Spring Daytona Beach quickly discovered Break is to Florida beach cities what that the readers of Rolling Stone and Mephistopheles was to Faust: a great the Saturday Evening Post did not deal, if you don’t mind the share the same manners and morals. downside." N

Few could deny, however, the - Gary Mormino

SPRING BREAKERS IN FT. LAUDERDALE, 1985.

Writers, scholars and students of popular culture have "total experiences," the ultimate pseu found tourism both repellent and irresistible. In Tourist do-event may be the Key West at Sea World exhibit. Season 1985 one of Hiaasen’s fictional characters, Skip Tourists can experience a simulated Duval Street. Wiley, proposes an outrageously ironic solution to save Overstimulated Key West seems ill-fitting in a simulated Florida from ruin: shoot a few visitors. "Scare away the theme park. tourists," Wiley reasons, "and pretty soon you scare away At the dawn of the new millennium, Florida has

the developers. No more developers, no more bankers. No emerged as a Sunbelt power - and problem. The Sunshine more bankers, no more lawyers... Now, tell me I’m crazy" State has grappled with the complexities of multicultural The Italian philosopher, Umberto Eco, is especially attract ism, senior care, and environmental limits. The presiden ed to Disney’s enchanting mix of schlock and shock. tial election of 2000 exposed Florida’s pell-mell growth "Consumers want to be thrilled," he writes, "not only by and fractured civic culture. the guarantee of the Good but also by the shudder of the To Americans suffering from election fatigue, Florida Bad.... And so at Disneyland, along with Mickey Mouse provides a restorative tonic. There may be no second acts and the Kindly Bears, there must also be, in tactile evi in American life, but Florida stifi offers second chances dence, Metaphysical Evil the Haunted Mansion and and the trifecta at Gulfstream. Florida’s greatest asset con Historical Evil the Pirates..." tinues to be itself. A century ago, William "Pig Iron" Kelly, In The Image 1961 Daniel Boorstin coined the term a businessman/robber baron, encapsulated the principle "pseudo-event" to describe the "synthetic novelty which of promotion and salesmanship. "We live on sweet pota has flooded our experience." A pseudo-event aptly defines toes and consumptive Yankees," Kelly declared, "but modern American culture, where hype often overwhelms mostly we sell atmosphere." It has always been so. Can 40 genuine significance. Travel, contends Boorstin, "has million tourists be wrong? * become diluted, contrived, prefabricated." Florida’s amusement of the millions now occurs in insulated, air- Gary R. Mormino is the Frank E. Duckwall Professor of conditioned, passive capsules, rarely requiring face-to- History at the University of South Florida and co-author of The place relationships. Florida seems incidental. In a world of Immigrant World of Ybor City.

SPRING 2001 11 Travel writers have always found a rich lode in Florida, I sometimes turning swamps into fantasy Shangri Las

oughly every 100 years, Florida is ent as ether." All is beauty and harmony along the reinvented on the pages of the travel banks of the springs, "the pendant golden Orange books that bring people to this state. dancing on the surface of the pellucid waters." Fish Almost from the beginning, early and affigators live in a kind of Peaceable Kingdom, explorers were not immune to myth "with free and unsuspicious intercourse performing making. Vvnaetter way to encourage more money their evolutions." Later, upriver, these same peace-lov from financial kers in Europe than to name a barren ing alligators attack Bartram’s canoe, but even then, stretch of palmettaLa Florida," then Floirda’s natural beauty remains sublime. promise gold and a fountain of virility? Florida as fan Travel writers who followed Bartram were less san

tasy land - complete with wild promises of health, guine about Florida’s natural attractions. James John

wealth, and exotic lushness - is a theme that persists Audubon, for one, was disenchanted with the Florida throughout the history of travel writing in Florida. he visited. In 1831 he wrote to his wife, "I am now Fantasy was not unusual during the heyday of truly speaking in a wild and desolate part of the world

exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries. Maps and - no one fri the eastern United States has any true idea drawings of Florida include mountains in the back of this peninsula. My account of what I have or shall ground and comely, European-looking natives strolling see of the Floridas will be far, very far from corroborat through a verdant landscape. Hardy explorers like ing the flowery sayings of Mr. Bartram, the botanist." Cabeza de Vaca and Hernando de Soto, clanking In fact, Audubon is singularly unimpressed with the St. around in hot, chafing armor, complained about Johns. After shooting "some young Eagles... to add to unyielding palmettos and uncooperative Indians but [his] store of provisions," Audubon complains that "the still sent home glowing tales of Florida’s riches they river did not seem to me equal in beauty to the fair might yet find. Ohio: the shores were in many places low and A century later, in 1773, under the warm sun of a swampy" In the end, Audubon can’t escape Florida late Florida spring, botanist William Bartram set out to quickly enough. explore the St. Johns River, Florida’s earliest thruway. Audubon is the kind of traveler that Harriet Bartram’s book about his collecting expedition, called Beecher Stowe must have had in mind when she says The Travels of William Bartram, describes an Edenic in her book on Florida, "It is not to be doubted that Florida, an ideal setting for the Pennsylvania Quaker fully half of the tourists and travelers that come to convinced that the creative spirit resides in the natural Florida return intensely disappointed and even dis world. gusted." Her book on Florida, Palmetto Leaves, pub In a famous passage describing Blue Springs, near lished in 1873, 100 years after Bartram’s account of DeLand, Bartram is struck by the strange beauty of exactly the same landscape, is a partial corrective to the "the enchanting and amazing crystal fountain." The botanist’s romantic hyperbole and a warning to overly "cerulean" water is "absolutely diaphanous.. .transpar idealistic travelers like Audubon who expects too much

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from Florida. After the Civil War, when she was already famous for Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Stowe wintered for 15 years on a 30- acre homestead in Mandarin on the northern banks of the St. Johns River, a place both Bartram and Audubon must have passed on their collecting expeditions. Because Stowe actually put down roots before she wrote her book, her account, although clearly favorable to Florida, attempts to reconcile the two very different Floridas pre sented by the famous naturalists. "Florida, like a piece of

embroidery has two sides to it - one side all tag-rag and thrum, without order or position; and the other side showing flowers and arabesques and brilliant coloring. Both these sides exist." She bluntly continues, "we cau tion everybody coming to Florida, Don’t hope for too THE CONTEIvIPOi?A UY much." Still, most of her book extolls the virtues of Florida -- W1ITE1 ITNDERSTAN US THE the lazy days of yellow jessamine, ripe oranges, and, of course, palmetto leaves. But Stowe has her agenda too. She hopes her gentle, imperfect Florida will provide a BASIC DILEMMA OF 1ILORIDA model plantation for "the right treatment and education

of the Negro population."Although her rationale for this - THAT TIlE OLD PERSISTENT employment plan they can stand the heat, we can’t is wrong-headed, her philanthropy, a theme that runs through Palmetto Leaves, is sincere. MYTH OF A13UNIANT NATURE

Stowe’s new myth - a Florida not perfect, but healthy and spiritually satisfying - must have appealed to north AND BALMY DAYS HAS, ern tourists who flocked to the state in the wake of her popular book. Not coincidentally, Henry Flagler’s rail road opened up the state in the years between 1885 and AFTER ALL, CAll TSED OL T-F 1912, and the travel boom was on. As a result of this influx of tourists, Florida was never the same, and neither CONTROL DEVELOPMENT was travel writing about Florida. One of the best early 20th century travel books is the 1939 Works Progress Administration Guide to Florida written side ditches... Along the highway, all but lost among bla and compiled as part of the Depression era’s Federal tant neon lights flashing ‘Whiskey’ and ‘Dance and Writer’s Project. In Florida, the WPA Guide employed Dine,’ are crudely daubed warnings erected by itinerant Zora Neale Hurston, Stetson Kennedy, and other less evangelists, announcing that ‘Jesus is soon coming,’ or well-known out-of-work writers. Their scrupulous exhorting the traveler to ‘Prepare to meet thy God.’ research and considerable writing talent resulted in over 500 pages of the most detailed and honest guidebook to This odd mix of pure wild, impenetrable nature, Florida ever written. One fourth of the book consists of gaudy neon signs, and fly-by-night religious messages learned introductions to Florida covering topics that marks the beginning of the modern view of Florida that range from archeology and economics to literature and can be characterized by what some have called "the kink

conservation. factor" - that unreal and sometimes quirky juxtaposition The remainder of the book is a more traditional of competing Floridas: an untamable landscape that could guidebook, offering self-tours of Florida’s cities and the still thrill William Bartram next to a sleaziness that would rural places in between. But even here the prose is intelli shock Mrs. Stowe. gent, historically and culturally accurate, often with an More recent travel writing accepts these jarring con eye to the bizarre. A description of the same landscape tradictions and a new, more ironic Florida emerges. The we have seen earlier in Bartram, Audubon, and Stowe - contemporary writer understands the basic dilemma of

the region just south of Jacksonville - shows how much Florida - that the old persistent myth of abundant nature the state had, by the 1930s, both changed and remained and balmy days has, after all, caused out-of-control devel the same. opment. So, these are not the gaudy guidebooks promis ing pastel houses and endless sun to the tourist. These Cabbage palms grow thickly along rivers and four books admit that Florida’s beauty is complicit in its creeks; the undergrowth is often dense and impenetra ugliness: ble... Thistles, ferns, and blue flag flourish in the road- Florida Ramble. Alex Shoumatoff, a travel writer better

14 FHC FORUM TOURISM IN THE LATE 20TH CENTURY known for his books about Africa and the Amazon, Blue boat of morning arid already writers of offers an offbeat tribute to Florida. Like the the window is besieged the WPA Guide, Shoumatoff incorporates history, geolo prisoners gy, and botany into his account of a two-month ramble by sky. Grace takes no around Florida in a 1964 Oldsmobile convertible. And in a town like this. Think of the girl like Bartram and Stowe, Shoumatoff is amazed at sipping white burgundy Florida’s abundant natural gifts. Birds, lizards, fish, and the elusive long leaf pine all fascinate and draw in the local café, her straw hat Shoumatoff back to the natural parts of the State. But with its pale flower, indigenous he is repulsed by the gaudiness and sheer tentativeness arid small as the white roll of Florida’s civilized places. Up For Grabs. Written by Florida resident, John she’s buttering one philosophical Rothchild, this book is a cautionary tale about Florida corner at a time. Even the rain as a place of never-ending hucksterism. From Ponce de that falls some afternoons here Leon’s efforts to promote Florida as a land of wealth and health to the 1920s development schemes, Florida is more conceptual, more a tribute has always been "up for grabs." Like Shoumatoff, to rain than actual rain falling Rothchild sees Florida as an impossible extreme - home on the tulips, a rumor to both dogged environmentalist Marjory Stoneman wind all the way Douglas and the land dealing Mackle brothers. the carries The Orchid Thief. Susan Orlean presents the same down the beach. absurd picture of a Florida too beautiful for its own Arid would you ask the sea good. In her book - part travel, part treatise on orchid tO explain itself? wrote Kerouac once cultivation - Orlean zeros in on a peculiar sub-culture of orchid growers and their role in Florida’s duality. On in a book about a woman the one hand, the orchid dealers of South Florida are who was already a metaphor, obsessive about the beauty and rarity of native orchids. rose fading in its glass bowl. But even after harvesting them is deemed unlawful, some orchid hunters continue to poach as many wild He always knew the world is sentimental, species as they can from Florida’s Fakahatchee swamp, waving its lacy rags over the face almost bare. Like Rothchild’s developers, stripping it of the familiar, an architecture the orchid thieves see Florida’s bounty as their own. River of Lakes. Bill Belleville takes the reader back to of piano notes and hope. Bartram country, canoeing along the St. Johns in search Imagine the girl, her hat gone, Florida.’ Belleville travels in the opposite of "the real her bread finished, holding out direction from Bartram and Audubon, floating slowly downstream on the dark tannic water towards an armful of tulips in the rain. Jacksonville. Along the way he pays homage to the two She knows each road leads earlier naturalists as well as to Stowe, whose trails he to other roads, to small towns follows. But in tone and erudition, Belleville owes more to the WPA Guide than to Bartram and Co. Like with solid names like Crestview and other contemporary travel writers, he is concerned with Niceville where even dust has both abundance and with loss, with conservation and a genealogy and an address, with destruction along the river. Maybe the 1980 Florida Tourist Council had it right: as if there ‘.s more forever there. "the rules are different here." In the state government’s The tulips long to be metaphysical, never-ending effort to lure more tourists, the council closed-mouthed, more faithful must have had in mind how life in Florida does not jibe than the rose. Let the windows with the rest of America’s life - seasonal cold, endless work, inactive old age. But the way that Florida is dif- take over. Lean out the small ferent, even from itself, is much bigger than this, and square of the day, past for 400 years travel writers have been trying to assess the inconsistencies. the rain, past the idea So, where, amid these conflicting accounts, is the of rain, to where the sky real Florida? To paraphrase Melville: it is not found in is snapshot blue, the sea any map or travel book - true places never are.U blue by association. Casey Blanton is associate professor of English at Daytona Beach Community College and author of Travel Writing: The Self And The World. - From The Secret History of Water by Silvia Curbelo, published by Anhinga Press

SPRING 2001. 15 Sly speculation is the mother’s milk of land development in Florida, but back in the early 1960s the Disney Co. elevat ed the game to the level of a Le Carré novel complete with burnt out spies and covert operatives. In a high-stakes game of corporate intrigue, Disney operatives managed to put together a parcel of land as big as the City of San Francisco and larger than Manhattan island before almost anyone in sleepy Orlando knew they were there. This fascinating tale of one of history’s great land grabs is excerpted from Richard Foglesong’s forth coming book, Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando.

n November 22, 1963, Walt Disney and an entourage of his top executives flew from Tampa to Orlando ‘1r’ searching for an East Coast Disneyland site. The night before they had checked into a Tampa hotel under assumed names to avoid tip ping off the press and stirring up land speculation. Reports Walt had read on "Project Winter," as it was code-named, could take him only so far. Ever the artist, he needed to visu alize the possibilities for himself. Disney was dose to selecting an expansion site after considering 13 locations in the eastern United States. An early favorite, Niagara Falls, was rejected because its winter cold would prevent the park’s year-round operation. Walt wanted to avoid hav ing a seasonal work force, fearing MOUSE that carnival-type workers like those in existing amusement parks would corrupt the family atmosphere he sought to achieve. So the search turned to Florida with its natural advantages of sunshine and water. As the plane circled south of RARED Orlando, Walt looked down, saw the confluence of Interstate 4, then under construction, and Florida’s Turnpike THE UNTOLD STORY OF HOW and exclaimed: "That’s it!" What sold Disney were the roads crisscrossing DISNEY SECRETLY ACQUIRED beneath him which were needed to import tourists from afar to make their business plan work. Florida had VAST PLOTS OF LAND TO fewer residents than the Los Angeles region surrounding Disneyland, yet CREATE DISNEY WORLD Walt and his executives envisioned a giant pleasure palace ten times the size of Disneyland. It would not be a BY RICHARD FOG LESONG

16 FIIC FORUM WANTING COMPLETE

SECRECY TO AVOID

TRIGGERING A REAL

ESTATE PRICE RUN

UP, DISNEY CONTACT

ED THE COMPANY’S

NEW YORK COUNSEL,

WILLIAM DONOVAN...

THE SAME "WILD

1967 At a press conference,Walt and Roy Disney, flanking Governor BILL" DONOVAN WHO Haydon Burns, announce the company’s intention to build a theme park outside Orlando. Above, Disney quietly amassed a parcel bigger than the island of Manhattan. DIRECTED THE OSS,

Florida theme park so much as an of the firm Donovan, Leisure, THE PREDECESSOR East Coast tourist spa, located in Newton, and Irvine. He was the same Florida. "Wild Bifi" Donovan who directed From Orlando, the entourage flew the Office of Strategic Services OSS, OF THE CIA, DURING west along the Gulf coast to New the predecessor of the CIA, during Orleans, where the members disem World War II. Donovan procured a WORLD WAR II. barked for the night. During the cab business card, letterhead stationery, ride to their hotel they learned from and a phone number identifying the radio that President Kennedy had Lund as a member of the Burke & been shot. It was a fateful day for the Burke law firm, located one floor nation and, for entirely different rea beneath Donovan and Leisure at One sons, for central Florida. Walt’s "that’s Wall Street in New York. it" reaction started a chain of events Arriving in Orlando, the 33-year- that would transform sleepy Orlando old Lund called on two banks and and land east of the Demetree tract into the world’s most popular tourist was steered to Florida Ranch Lands, owned by Wilson and Carroll destination. Inc. FRL, a real estate agency, where Hamrick. Lund spent a third day in If Walt practiced gut decision- he met on December 9, 1963, with Ocala before flying - through New making, his brother Roy and others salesman David Nusbickel. He intro York - back to California. on the Project Winter team were more duced himself as William Lund from Thus, when Nusbickel called for methodical. Returning from the Burke & Burke in New York and told Lund at Burke & Burke in New York Florida flyover, they commissioned a Nusbickel that he represented a major on December 23, the message was for "Central Florida Study" to compare investment trust wanting information warded to Lund in L.A. Similarly, Orlando and Ocala as potential theme on large tracts of land near the cross Nusbickel wrote Lund at Burke & park sites, dispatching William Lund ing of 1-4 and the Turnpike. Burke on January 13, 1964, and Lund to Florida from Economic Research The following day, Nusbickel wrote back a week later on Burke & Associates, the Disney site consultant. took Lund to see three contiguous Burke stationery, expressing continu Wanting complete secrecy to land parcels southwest of Orlando: ing interest in the Demetree property. avoid triggering a real estate price the 12,440-acre Demetree tract, owned That was the last anyone at FRL run-up, they contacted the company’s by Bill and Jack Demetree; the Bay heard from Lund. New York counsel, William Donovan, Lake tract, owned by ten investors; Meanwhile, Project Winter was

SPRING 2001 17 TH OUSE THAT ROARED

moving forward, and a decisive meet ing occurred at Disney’s Burbank headquarters on January 16. Hanging on the walls were 30 x 40-inch visuals created from charts that Nusbickel had given to Lund. They showed the direction of future growth in Orlando, as well as drive times between major Florida cities and Orlando’s many road linkages. Supported by these materials, site consultant Lund made the case for Orlando. It had the state’s best tourist by-pass traffic. It would have a good airport once McCoy Air Force Base was converted to full civilian use. It was larger and faster growing than Ocala with a stronger employment base. And it had several large proper ties available with interesting water features and convenient access. The The Magic Kingdom under construction, with Bay Lake in the background, 1971. only negative was Orlando’s heavy summer rainfall. But the rain fell in short bursts, said Lund, and "did not Phipps family. the larger tract. The land, much of it disrupt business to any signfficant In short order, Project Winter water-sogged, had been subdivided extent." operatives acquired an option on the in 1912 and sold by catalogue to per Accepting Lund’s recommenda Demetree property, bypassing FRL sons across the country, complicating tion, Disney dispatched general coun and using Hawkins as the broker. the task of land assembly. For help sel Robert Foster to assemble land for They also purchased an option on a they turned once again to Florida the project. 9,000-acre tract in Osceola owned by Ranch Lands. Secrecy now became imperative, State Senator Irlo Bronson. They FRL’s Nelson Boice remembers so Foster returned to ex-spymaster wanted land in both Orange and Roy Hawkins asking for assistance on Donovan, who directed him to Paul Osceola to preserve their future getting the Demetree outs. Boice Heffiweil, Miami lawyer, former OSS options, according to Foster, who was recalls that one thing struck him as associate and money-launderer for following Walt’s dictum: "Whenever strange: Hawkins arrived carrying the Bay of Pigs invasion. Heffiwell in you deal with government, always FRL brochures, which had a distinc turn recruited the services of Roy deal with two." tive yellow band at the bottom, under Hawkins, a trusted veteran Miami The Demetree property posed a his arm. Looking back, the brochures real estate man who had developed problem, because of its many "outs" should have tipped him off that FRL’s

much of Biscayne Boulevard for the - individually owned parcels within sales work had led - through Lund -

t was as though they’d put a gun to our head," recalls reserved for popularly elected governments. Said Roy Disney, Harlan Hanson, the director of tn-county planning in who now headed the company: "This was something that we the Orlando area. "They were offering to invest $600 would ask for in fairness for coming to Florida." million, and there was the glamour of Disney. You could hardly To secure state approval, the Disney Co. ably plied the say no. We were all just spellbound." old-boy system. An example was a meeting in April 1967 The project was Walt Disney World; the year was 1967; between j.j. Griffin, a former state representative who the place was Winter Park, Florida, outside Orlando, where became a Disney lobbyist, and Verle Pope, the powerful presi the poobahs of the state had gathered to hear Disney’s plans dent of the Florida Senate. In the private meeting, Griffin for a giant theme park. Highlighting the press conference tried to explain the complex Disney charter when Pope was a 25-minute color film featuring the last screen appear stopped him short: "j.J.," he said, "is this good for Florida?" In ance by Walt Disney, who had died two months previously. In response, Griffin said, "Yes sir, I believe it is." Said Pope - the film, Walt described Epcot as the "heart" of the Florida "Well, that’s good enough for me." project, a vibrant community where 20,000 people would "live With Pope on board, the legislation sailed through the and work and play." Senate, passing unanimously and without debate in May 1967.

In essence, the Disney Co. sought a Vatican with mouse In the House there was one dissenting vote - from Miami.

ears - a city state within the larger state of Florida, con Less than an hour later, the State Road Board approved trolled by the company yet enjoying regulatory powers legally emergency funding for Disney’s road requests. 18 FHC FORUM to the Demetree purchase. But he had had led to the Demetree purchase. Taking his local attorney with him, no reason then to connect Hawkins That connection would become clear the FRL president recalls: "We went with Lund. through a series of coincidences. in and everyone was smiles. We said The Project Winter team used good morning and what a lovely day dummy corporations with odd names fter Disney announced it it was, and then Paul Heffiwell says like AyeFour Corporation to make the was coming to Orlando, a ‘Gentlemen, I have been directed not purchases, which led to media specu group of local officials flew to talk with you." Says Boice: "It was lation though spring and summer of o California at Walt’s invi just a complete stonewall." 1965 about the mystery land buyer’s tation to view Disneyland’s impact on Boice sued both Walt Disney identity McDonald Aircraft, Hercules Anaheim. Accompanying them to Productions and Economic Research Powder, Ford Motor, Hughes Tool, California was Chuck Bosserman, an Associates, alleging that FRL was and even the Walt Disney Co. were FRL salesman, who recognized the denied its 10 percent commission on among the rumored purchasers. To pilot of the plane, Sim Speer, an avid the Demetree property and should confound sleuths, Disney counsel real estate investor. During the flight have received a full 10 percent com Foster, who was overseeing the pro Speer gave the delegation a research mission on the Bay Lake and Hamrick ject, avoided flying directly between report on Anaheim-area real estate. properties. On the day before the California and Florida. Since his name The report’s author was William trial, the Disney Co. settled for what had appeared in a Disney annual Lund, identified as vice president of Boice termed a "significant amount." report, he also adopted a pseudonym Economic Research Associates in Los A stipulation prevents either side when he came to Florida, combining Angeles. from revealing the exact figure. his first and middle names to become Curious, Bosserman arranged an Secrecy to facifitate a land deal "Bob Price." appointment with the ERA vice presi was one thing, but Disney took In mid-October 1965, the Orlando dent, discovering that he was the advantage of the situation, in Boice’s Sentinel identified Disney as the mys same William Lund who had visited view. "They knew, no question about tery land buyer. Improbably, the FRL in Orlando. Lund told him he it, that they had an obligation to pay Project Winter team had maintained assumed they had figured out his a commission, but since there was all secrecy for eighteen months, while connection with Disney. When this secrecy, they just did not bother they assembled a 43-square mile par Bosserman reported this to Boice, the to come up and say ‘hey fellows, we cel for which they paid less than $200 Orlando executive realized that appreciate the work you did and an acre. As for FRL, it had uncovered Disney had circumvented FRL on the here’s your commission’."* Disney’s identity a year earlier when Demetree property acquisition, an FRL salesman recognized Adm. approaching the seller through Richard Foglesong, a professor ofpol Joe Fowler, chief engineer for Walt Hawkins. This bit of legerdemain by itics at Rollins College, is the author of Disney Productions, from a photo in Disney resulted in a loss of an esti Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney National Geographic. Recalls Boice: mated $242,000 in conmiission to FRL World and Orlando to be published in "We knew, and they knew we knew, and raised serious legal and ethical June 2001 by Yale University Press. His but we didn’t talk about it." Still, FRL questions. research was supported by a fellowship hadn’t connected Disney with the Boice called Hawkins and asked from the National Endowment for the mysterious William Lund, nor real to meet with Helliwell and him in Humanities. ized that the FRL sales work actually Miami.

In 1968, the state Supreme Court held that Disney’s private government could legally issue tax-free municipal bonds. The bonding power would "greatly aid Disney inter ests," but would nevertheless benefit the "numerous inhabitants of the district," ruled the court. What about those "numerous inhabitants" today? In 1982, eleven years after the turnstiles at Disney World began spinning, the company opened something called Epcot. Yet today, Disney has just 43 residents living in 17 mobile homes - all nonunion supervisors who safeguard the company’s political control of its property. Thus the Epcot model city sold to the Florida legisla ture in 1967 has never come about. Celebration, the new Disney town, was built outside the company’s government jurisdiction. It is an old Florida story - of big developers Members of Florida’s legislature look on as Governor Claude Kirk, with a happy who make big promises in return for government conces 12, sions, then build something else. Roy Disney beside him, signs the Disney charter on May 1967.

- Richard Foglesong S P R I N S 2 0 0 1 19 igene 0 A Florida Humanities Council Membership FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL

For more information call 727-553-3801 or write to FHC at 599 Second Street South, St. Petersburg, FL 33701. RB HILLER 1hrntfhi tO conventional o,n’iun existed before Disney and

Biieh - and they exst today

lorida for so long has been telling the John Swaim who worked to develop an "economy world to come on down that we may of tourism" that would flood Florida with have become numb to tourism’s Unionists. Settling here and combined with freed relentless commercializing impact. slaves, they would constitute the electoral majority Tourism pursues trends. It is market of a new Florida. "The best way, and the only way driven and transforms ubiquitous pop to fix those fellows [who resist black equality] is to images into brand-name vacations. From Disney to settle ‘em out..." advised Swaim. Destin, the need to keep up to date and competitive In the 1880s, yacht-builder Ralph Middleton in tourism puts a premium on what places might Munroe, influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s become as against what they intrinsically are. conviction that man had gotten civilization wrong Experts in marketing become more valued than and had to start over in wilderness, began trans exponents of heritage. forming land along Biscayne Bay into the * Newcomers, who typically first arrive as Emersonian community of Cocoanut Grove. To tourists, tend to associate Florida with life as fun in induce visitors who might buy into the community, the sun. They settle here from the North as if Munroe designed shallow draft yachts ideal for redeemed in Eden. sailing the bay. He sent his "views" of the region But why doesn’t the authentic pervade what for showing up North and encouraged the building visitors find while vacationing in Florida? Where in of an early inn. When the inn failed, he opened his the visitor’s experience does he find that sense of own Camp Biscayne and memorably declared in a Florida as more than the sum of its attractions? brochure, "Insofar as possible, the hotel atmos In fact, alternatives to conventional tourism phere is eliminated." existed long before Disney and Busch came on the Tourism organized to build community has

scene - and they exist today. Back during persisted through the 20th century. In the 1920s, Reconstruction, a tourism-driven movement sought tourism introduced Danes to the Danish communi to supersede antebellum values with a society of * ty of Dania; in the 1950s, tourism attracted people racial harmony. In their book Beechers, Stowes, and of like minds about living close to the land to Yankee Strangers, authors John T. Foster, Jr., and Melbourne Village. In the 1980s, White Springs

Sarah Whitmer Foster tell of Methodist minister intentionally sought to diversify its dependence on >-* KEY WEST

a El Richest town in Florida during its cigar. o* rolling heyday, poorest after 1935 when

0 Henry Flagler’s railroad was blown away, "I O Federal bureaucrat >-i Key West was redeemed by a artists the public would uJ convinced that by luring >

DI follow.Today the city’s Old Town largest wood- building district in the United States echoes 5’ with Ernest Hemingway,Tennessee Williams and QI ZI z* John Hersey. Reggae pours out of Bahama D Village; hippies pedal their dogs in the baskets of trashmo bikes.Jimmy Buffet may have decamped for Palm Beach, but year.round events from the Key West Literary Seminar to Fantasy Fest keep something going for everybody. phosphate mining by becoming an eco tourism hub, a goal now 20 years later within reach as the state parks depart ment in March opens its Nature and Heritage Tourism Center there. More recently, Visit Florida, the public-private partnership created in 1996 to promote tourism, has turned its attention to rural Florida. It made sense, since Visit Florida’s own sta tistics show that "75% of all travelers planning trips to Florida want to participate in nature and cultural II activities." Visit Florida might heed the lessons learned by Connecticut, which has enjoyed great success promoting the state’s rich heritage

- and has profited from the experience. "Fat wallets with feet," is how Bruce Fraser, the exec utive director of the Connecticut Humanities Council, describes them, "a particularly attractive THE MIAMI RIVER high-end market." A mere five miles to Biscayne Bay, this The great opportunity is for Florida’s nature and stream supplies the messy warehouse for heritage organizations to speak for the authenticity staging Florida’s most flashy metropolis. better heard of Florida’s places and make themselves Tugboats dance fore and aft of island freighters where tourism decisions are made. In a state so full that whistle bridges open for their illicit cargoes of newcomers, tourists who come for what’s authen and illegal aliens. Traps pile high outside fish tic in our places can help the 16 million of us who eries, some with restaurant decks over the live here think better of Florida as home. stream. Mountains of industrial waste crowd Here is a list of 10 places that I think represent upstream bulkheads. So do palm-filled parks, alternatives to the conventional tourist stops:

SPRING 2001 23 cathedral of glistening wilderness.The Florida National Scenic Trail steps off from here. For the jaded, the Loop Road puts the awe back in "Aw riiiiight!" DOWNTOWN SARASOTA

- A sumptuous bay, waterfront park, sweep- garden apartments and lower down, the historic ‘4 ing shore drive and arc of towers give way, Miami River Inn, hotels, the as yet un-deciphered façade-like, to a low-rise, walkable down town, powered less movers and shakers than by Miami Circle and the gleaming tower apartments by mom & pop commerce and the arts.Tower of a who’s who in multi-national commerce. dwellers, workers at businesses, county and city THE LOOP ROAD government offices, and neighborhood residents supply downtown with the numbers that keep Thirty minutes west of Miami book stores, a big new library, galleries, sidewalk International Airport, Sodom and cafes, theaters and opera house all busy. O Gomorrah slip away. Gone the adult Landlords maintain the richly ornamented movies, immigration lawyers and beepers. Along facades of their properties - most of these histori the Tamiami Trail, buzzards roost atop the cal - and shopkeepers fill windows with com Miccosukee restaurant sign that advertises frog pelling displays. legs and fry bread. Cut off onto the Loop Road where dusty homesteads collect airboats, broken- CORTEZ down trucks, a sign that advertises Beer & Wroms sic. Pavement disappears, the road narrows to Hurricane, depression, constitutional net one lane and enters a cypress swamp, a ban are all recalled in the N.E.Taylor O Boatworks Museum in this Gulf town between Sarasota and Bradenton. Elsewhere, interpretive boards tell how migrants from North Carolina’s outer banks settled

24 F H C F 0 RU M "WE MAINTAIN DeLAND Pre’s house, a pillared mansion of WHAT WE HAVE; CHANGE I Southern style, sits back of shady 4 .- -. Woodland Boulevard that remains respectfully two-laned through this historic down AS VERY LIThE AS WE MIGHT NEED town thanks to the patronage of Stetson University. Area museums honor town founder Henry DeLand, display an outstanding collection r4 of showy minerals, and celebrate African- TO," SAYS A CORTEZ CIVIC American heritage.The historic AthensTheater and the old courthouse are under restoration. Spokes around DeLand’s heritage hub include the ACTIVIST. spiritualist community of Cassadaga, equestrian- friendly Lake Helen, DeLeon Springs with its namesake swimming hole and Barberville, home Cortez around 1880, drawn by these Manatee of the Pioneer Settlement for the Creative Arts. County bay waters, plentiful with fish and scallops to support families in hard times. Clothes hang HOUSEBOATING ON from lines, nets from trellises beside clapboard THE ST. JOHNS bungalows with sun porches under tin roofs. A In rough weather, green water can pour restaurant occupies an old dock between a peli over the bows of a houseboat crossing can roost and a fish-packing house. "We maintain Lake George,William Bartram’s "little what we have; change as very little as we might ocean?’ Where the St. Johns re-forms north and need to," says a civic activist. south of the big lake, you glide past towns of fish camps and homey marinas, whose fronts became backs 120 years ago when rail replaced river as main route of commerce.An old-time barge ferry still crosses between Fort Gates in Putnam. County and the Ocala National Forest. Gators and manatees hang in the river. Crab trappers chew the fat. Every morning you wake up on the St. Johns, the sense of voyage deepens. WHITE SPRINGS

, Once a leading health resort located * between Tallahassee and Lake City,White Springs’ economy was turned to ash by a 1911 fire.The town came to depend on phosphate mining and a connection with Stephen Foster, whose famous song memorialized the river that loops around town and gave rise to a folklife cen ter where Florida’s annual folk festival takes place. In the I 980s, White Springs became the hub of Florida bicycle touring. Now a state Nature & Heritage Tourism Center is opening. So

SPRING 2001 25 is a B&B in an ancestral Queen Anne home and maybe the old Telford Hotel, re-acquired by a syndicated talk radio host.Will White Springs cleave to heritage or don mouse ears? Stay tuned. SEASIDE Like some pioneering space probe slip APALACHICOLA ping from orbit, Seaside is losing its The high bridge over the Apalachicola iconoclastic cool. First came the avant River lays out this historic port at a garde. Now tourism. Seaside near Panama glance. Below are oystermen working City burst upon the planning world as an anti the bay; a cargo schooner that sailed dote to suburban sameness. People love its Panhandle waters into the 20th century; a his retro shore look of crisply designed beach torical district; the shrimp docks. At the foot houses along picket fence-lined streets. But of the bridge, the grand steamboat-gothic instead of an intended year.round residential Gibson Inn with its rocking chair porch and town, Seaside has morphed into a high-end Chester the cat on the front desk Market mini resort. People love it for a splurge.While Street displays shops, an historic soda foun pundits ponder big matters in colloquiums tain, theaters and seafood restaurants.Visitors here, movies get made on the streets. Shops relish the real world aspect of the town. Some succeed wildly. Seaside has fallen to earth as a each year newly-pronounce Apalach home. roadside attraction. *

Herb Hiller is the author of Florida Inside Out due for publication this Fall.

Guidebooks Explore Florida’s Cultural Heritage series of guides exploring Florida’s rich historic and cul An addition to the series, Florida World War H Heritage tural heritage are available from Florida Heritage, a pub Trail, is scheduled for December 2001. The Division of ication of Florida’s Division of Historic Resources. Historical Research is seeking aid from citizens to help identify Organized thematically, the series includes: Florida Cuban World War II related sites throughout the state for inclusion in Heritage Trail, Florida Jewish Heritage Trail and Florida Black the publication. Individuals with information about significant Heritage Trail. Florida Women’s World War H archives, collections or sites should contact Heritage Trail will be pub David Gregory at the Bureau of Historic Preservation at lished spring 2001. 800 847-7278. Each provides a his The Heritage Trail series is torical introduction to the available at $8.00 per copy subject, biographical including postage or $5.95 sketches of significant lead-, each for three or more, plus ers, a list of festivals and postage. Order by phoning events, and a mapped trail 800 847-7278 or through the through the state’s most sigJ Division of Historical Resources’ nificant towns, museums website at www.flheritage.com/ and landmarks. magazine!jht.

26 F HC F 0 RU M UNIVERSITY

Some Kind of Paradise Sunshine States Florida’s History A Chronicle of Man Wild Times and Extraordinary Through Its Places and theLand in Florida Lives in the Land of Gators, Properties in the National Mark Derr Guns, and Grapefruit Register of Historic Places "Den has revealed thedark side of Patrick Carr Morton D. Winsberg historian Frederick Jackson the "As a chronicler of American Paper, $19.95 Turner’s famous hypothesis: our travels, Carr falls somewhere national character was indeed between Charles Dickens and Florida Lighthouses shaped by the frontier. .. . The Crocodile Dundee." -Los Angeles state’s tortuous journey from one Timeo Kevin McCarthy extreme to the other is [his] subject, Paper, $14.95 "A fascinating shoreline tour from and he tackles it with brilliance and Fernandina’s Amelia Island on the bravado."-New York Times Book Castles in the Sand Atlantic to Pensacola on the Review The Lfe and Times of Carl Gulf "-Tampa Tribune A Florida Sand Dollar Book. Paper $17.95 Paper, $12.95 and Cloth, $24.95 Graham Fisher Palmetto Leaves Mark S. Foster Florida’s Sandy The definitive biography of one of Harriet Beecher Stowe the most energetic versatile entre Beaches These idyllic sketches and simple preneurs of the early 20th century. An Access Guide stories of this tropical "winter Fisher played a major role in summer" land became the first "A succinct and extremely func teaching adult Americans how to tional guidebook."-Southern unsolicited promotional writing to Living play. Paper, $19.95 interest northern tourists in Florida. Cloth, $24.95 A Florida Sand Dollar Book. Paper, $12.95 Beach and Coastal Flagler The Life and Travels Camping in Florida Rockefeller Partner of John Bartram and Florida Baron Johnny Molloy Filled with pictures and practical From Lake Ontario Edward N. Akin tips, this user-friendly paperback to the River St. John "A succinct and informed account Edmund Berkeley guidebook offers down-to-earth, of [Flagler’s] leadership in trans detailed advice about the 24 best and Dorothy Smith Berkeley forming Florida’s economy." Paper, 519.95 ocean- and gulf-front camping areas -Atnerican Historical Review in Florida for both tent and RV A Florida Sand Dollar Book. Paper, $19.95 campers. Journeys Paper $14.95 Through Paradise St. Petersburg and the Florida Dream, Pioneering Naturalists NEW THIS SPRING! Southeast in the 1888-1950 Florida’s Paved Gail Fishman Raymond Arsenault "Takes us on an odyssey through a "Students of Florida’s growing Bike Trails time when the extraordinary diver pains will find it very revealing, An Eco-Tour Guide sity of the southeastern US was first and anyone with a trace of nostal JeffKunerth and Gretchen Kunerth being exploredand described." gia for bygone days will be fasci "Florida has long needed a touring Society for Ecological Restoration, nated."-Ted Burrows, Stuart News guide to our wonderful bicycle Tucson A Florida Sand Dollar Book Paper, $24.95 paths and multi-use trails. These February. Cloth, $24.95 colorful, accurate, in-depth descrip Miami’s Parrot Jungle tions provide those touring the Beyond the and Gardens trails with a historical, naturalistic Parks perspective to add to their cycling Theme The Colorfrl History of an Exploring Central Florida experience."-Linda Crider, presi Uncommon Attraction dent, Bike Florida Benjamin D. Brotomarkie Cory H. Gittner March. Paper, $14.95 jrL_, "Full of gems, along with a useful A glimpse into the tropical fantasy appendix which includes listings of world that represented Florida -4. Order through full-service Florida’s arts and cultural organiza tourism for postwar America. tions, a listing of historic sites, and a Paper, $12.95 booksellers, our website at calendar of events. This book isa www.upf.com keeper!" -Travel Writers lnterna1 or toll free: 1-800-226-3822 tional Network with - -- - or MJC. FLORIDAS NATIVE ATTRACTION How the whites and the weather forced a dramatic change in the lives of the Seminoles, which has proved a boon to the tribe

BY PATSY WEST

urely one of the most interesting stories grow in the eastern Everglades and to the west in the Big ing out of the development of tourism in Cypress. They frequently traveled across the Everglades to Florida is how the Seminole Indians, who lived hunt, trade, to gather foodstuffs, to visit relatives, and to in villages deep in the Everglades and who go to annual socio-religious-political activities such as the avoided whites except the traders, became one spring Green Corn Dance and the fall Hunting Dance. of Miami’s leading tourist attractions. Before These important cultural activities became more difficult tourism,Sthey had been hunters whose pelts and hides with water transportation curtailed. were shipped to markets as far away as Europe. The For the same reason, they had trouble getting their Seminoles, specifically the Mikasuki-speaking two-thirds already dwindling supply of pelts and hides to the trading of the population who called themselves i:laponathli:, still posts on the eastern coast. Around the same time, trans

remembered the three Seminole wars in the 19th century Atlantic shipping fell off because of World War I , drying and they hated and mistrusted the U.S. Government, up the Seminole’s export market for hides. Thus it seemed which they believed continued to want to move them to inevitable that the once prosperous Seminoles were des Indian territory in the West. tined to a life of economic poverty, with no financial alter Then, in the second decade of the last century, the native to fill the void of hunting. whites forced a dramatic change in their lives that, in the Then in 1917, relief came to the Seminoles in the longer term, has proven a boon to the Native Americans. strange form of a freeze that staggered southern Florida But at the time they felt threatened. with 27-degree temperatures. Particularly hard hit was In 1906, the state under Gov. Napoleon Bonaparte Coppinger’s Tropical Garden, located on the south fork of Broward began a massive project to render the eastern the Miami River, an early tourist attraction which special Florida Everglades dry, made possible by a strategic canal ized in exotic plants imported and planted in a lush ham system to drain water off Lake Okeechobee. It was done to mock of native vegetation. With the plants ruined, founder make the east coast available for farming ventures and Henry Coppinger began casting about for another for development. Drainage became a major environ venue to attract tourists. mental disaster that impacted the Seminoles lifestyle Coincidentally, a camp of i:laponathli: moved initially by curtailing their travel by cypress dugout from their inland settlement near Homestead to canoe. A Seminole, Sam Huff Big Towns clan, seek the warmth of the Miami River at recalled being told by the whites about the drainage Coppinger’s hammock. Coppinger saw in the plans, "Just as soon as they hit the lake, the water is Indians his salvation and he persuded the Big going to dry up in those Everglades, and as soon as Towns camp, under Jack Tiger Tail Wind the water dries up, they’re going to start olanta clan to set up a typical Seminole camp at the tions." Following the opening of the Garden. It became the "Seminole Village" at canals, recalled Huff, "the Coppinger ‘s, the first attraction of its kind. Everglades became small, and the Since the Seminoles are a matrilineal society, trees grew very fast." this major decision rested with the eldest The Seminoles lived on islands woman, the head of the camp. It appears

28 FHC FORUM l,7 m ifusa j, 0l1yfl Afasa !sl. N ‘iQfl

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that it was the elderly mother of Mrs. Jack Tiger Tail Big Towns clan who authorized this important change, a decision that eventually would lead to an economic boon shared by all Florida Indian families during the launched into this lucrative career, or baby alligators, large alligators for twentieth century which could bring them a week’s wrestling, even animals for the attrac Close by Coppinger’s on the wages in tips. tions’ zoos. island, which divided the forks of the By 1932 another "Seminole Miami River, was Musa Isle Grove, an Village" attraction, "Osceola’s," had efore they arrived at even older tourist attraction that had opened in Miami. The Florida Coppinger’s and the other benefited from Henry Flagler’s Seminoles were graphically depicted commercial venues, the Florida East Coast Railroad coming to on virtually all brochures and maps Seminoles had not thought Miami in 1896 and the subsequent of the state to represent the Seminole- of making items for sale. opening of Flagler ‘s Royal Palm oriented tourist market available in NowBtribal craftswomen had more Hotel on Biscayne Bay. However, in Miami, and by the latter 1930s at leisure time, freed from some of their 1909 when the drainage canal to Lake Silver Springs, near Ocala. traditional camp duties such as hog Okeechobee opened into the Miami The physical layout of these com hunting, branding, castrating and River, the grove wilted and became a mercial villages was similar to the subsistence gathering. To encourage causality of drainage. The attraction Seminoles’ traditional camps on their crafts, Coppinger ‘s actually rent needed an economic boost and fol remote Everglades islands. Palmetto ed sewing machines and included lowing Coppingers lead, Musa Isle thatched chickees were the focal point subsidy for cloth and sewing notions. soon opened its own "Seminole of the vifiage, with a central cooking The Seminoles’ machine-sewn patch Village" as a feature, with Mrs. chickee or open fire an important work clothing blossomed in the Charlie Willie’s family Bird clan as component. The families brought attraction camps, becoming a unique the primary residents. Active rivalry their camp equipment and livestock and distinctive tribal art form. ensued with the pioneering Seminole dogs, chickens, and hogs with them Patchwork clothing was soon avail Village at Coppinger’s Tropical just as if they were moving to a sea able for purchase. Garden by 1922 renamed sonal camp for several months. The Not everyone was delighted by Pirate’s Cove, which would vifiages also served as the last the Seminoles’ new ventures. Some, continue until the attractions viable trading posts catering such as the government, felt that the closed in the 1960s. to transient Indians on trad Seminoles who resided at the tourist Next came alligator ing expeditions. They attractions were too commercial, thus wrestling shows, which were sold pelts and destroying their traditional ways, begun not by the Indians but hides, eggs while others felt that they might easi by Henry Coppinger’s son, ly be taken advantage of by Henry Jr. and his younger unscrupulous attraction managers. brothers. But the Indian men In fact, the Seminole people did soon took over the sport not neglect their cultural mores. which they have dominated They strongly conformed to tra ever since. At Musa Isle, ditional activities, which were so young Seminoles were important to their corporate

30 FHC FORUM __ I

Musa Isle opposite page, like the other Seminole attractions, featured a traditional camp and central cook ing chickee with open fire as its focal point. Larry Mike Osceola left raised at Musa Isle, would later join another Seminole attraction, Mike Osceola’s Indian Village on Tamiami Trail, and become active in Seminole tribal politics.

0 IL z C.

well-being as a tribe. Ignoring the than along the Tamiami Trail. By the tourists’ stares, the Seminoles contin mid 1930s seasonal i:laponathli:, who ued to practice traditional customs, had learned the trade from living at such as food preparation, and rites of the Miami tourist attractions, had set

Sr lUNG passage, such as childbirth, puberty, up miniature tourist attractions of death, or widowhood, all carried out their own along that trans-Everglades -‘ ": under the watchful eye of the elders. roadway. In truth, the government and Some i:laponathli: gave in and other critics of the Seminole ventures went to the federal reservations in the seemed resentful that these Native 1940s. They became members of the Americans were not dependent on Seminole Tribe of Florida in the welfare programs and could afford to 1950s, when federal tribal termination snub their overtures of aid. issues resulted in the formal organi That was the other major aspect zation of the tribe. Still, a number of

of the "Seminole Village" feature - the i:laponathli:, because of their eco the independence that this employ nomic independence on the Tamiami ment afforded the i:laponathli: who Trail, remained unaffiliated with the dwelt in the attractions or benefited U.S. government until 1961, when from tourist dollars generated by most of the population created a tribe them. By the 1930s this financial hide of their own, the Miccosukee Tribe of pendence included virtually all of the Indians of Florida. population. As a result of tourism, The experience of the Florida very few i:laponathli: felt compelled Indians in Miami-based tourist attrac to associate with the federal reserva tions had a long-lasting impact on the tions until the mid 1940s and 1950s. tribe. To be sure, multi-million dollar Thus the population was politically gaming interests, an aircraft company, independent. Unlike most Native citrus, cattle, and smoke shops pro Americans, they had their inherent vide economic diversity for the tribe, and total freedom. Out of this free but the crafts market that sustained dom and their history of not being the population throughout most of subjugated, came the concept that the twentieth century is still being they were the "Unconquered practiced by some tribe members. Seminoles." Patchwork clothing remains both Thanks to tourism, the Seminoles the tribes’ sole blazon of cultural had formulated their basic concept of identity. While it is worn less on a sovereignty way ahead of the interna daily basis, as the elders pass on, it tional tribal movements. They only continues to be made for craft con recently verbalized their conception tests, and worn for tribal clothing of tribal rights based on modern day contests and at traditional venues. sovereignty issues. Patchwork jackets and vests are reli Nowhere was this more apparent giously worn by the tribe chairman

SPRING 2001 31 FANTASY LAND FLORIDA’S NATIVE RTIRRCTION men and women demonstrate food across the everglades, billboards preparation, patchwork making, and with tanned coppertone babes dot paradise woodcarving. While actively and president, are officially donned involved in promoting world-class arid paved over by asphalt along alligator alley, for meetings by the council sports and music festivals, the board members, and are given as Seminole Tribe of Florida and the free from potholes; below high tension gifts during state occasions. Miccosukee Tribe of With the money Indians of Florida con voltage lines, safe by developer’s standards, derived predominantly tinue to host annual and canals choked by cane fields, from gaming, the tribal fairs and festivals Seminole Tribe has which promote tribal fast-food diners squeezed refurbished old attrac culture. out by roadside nude bars with dancers tion venues and creat It would be inter ed new ones. An early esting to contemplate old enough for medicare, Bureau of Indian what might have yet advertise, "girls, girls, girls!" Affairs venture, Okalee become of the Seminole Village and Museum and Miccosukee tribes disney world, secure side on the Hollywood on each had they not gotten a model for urban strategists, looms Reservation, featuring involved in tourism. alligator wrestling, is Without the cultural along the interstate, where cartoon again active. Recent support that the tourist additions include Billie Swamp daisies, minnies, sleeping beauties, economy afforded these Native Safari and the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Americans their history in the twen all wonderful and white, are welcome Museum on the Big Cypress tieth century might have been writ Reservation, which are examples of ten quite differently. U under the dome of epcot the modern day concepts of cultural and eco-tourism. Not a new venue Patsy West is director of the and are forever young for the Seminoles, the Museum in in a betty boop playground. Big Cypress includes a Seminole tra Seminole/Miccosukee Photographic Archive, Fort Lauderdale, and author of ditional camp similar to the former - From hurricane center by Geoffrey Philp, tourist attractions, where Seminole The Enduring Seminoles. published by Peepal Tree Press

We’re Preserving Water FromThe Ground Up.

We won’t get technical here. Another that stores fresh Florida Water operates in drinking water during the more than 120 florida commu rainy season for use in the dry nities in twenty-seven counties. winter months. We make water from Another that converts 99% Florida’s aquifer safe and usable of all wastewater into reusable before sending it through our water for imgation sites. pipelines to over half a million You get the idea. floridians. As the State’s largest And we have systems in investor-owned water and place that have made us a recognized leader in promoting wastewater company, we’re doing everything we can to water preservation. provide a fresh supply of A "reveise osmosis" system to turn saltwater into fresh water today.

drinkingwater. And tomorrow. ER VI CE S

<> A LAND REMEMBERED, STUDENT EDITION THE FLORIDA KEYS, VOLUME 3 Patrick Smith THE W’RECKERS Volume 1 Hardcover ISBN 1-56164-230-4 248 pages $14.95 John Viele Softcover ISBN 1-56164-223-1 $7.95 Hardcover ISBN 1-56164-219-3 $16.95 Volume 2 Hardcover ISBN 1-56164-231-2 200 pages $14.95 6 x 9 224 pages 74 b&w photos Softcover ISBN 1-56164-224-X $7.95 Tells the true story of the Florida Keys wreckers, Teacher’s Manual ISBN 1-56164-228-2 $6.00 the daring seamen who sailed out to save lives and 6x9 ages 10-14 property on the unforgiving Florida Reef. Edited for young readers by Mary Lee Powell and Tillie Newhart. THE FLORIDA CHRONICLES, VOLUME 3 COMMON COASTAL BIRDS OF TOUCHED BY THE SUN FLORIDA ANT THE CARIBBEAN Smart Mclver David sw. Nellis Hardcover ISBN 1-56164-206-1 $18.95 Hardcover ISBN 1-56164-191-X $29.95 6 x 9 272 pages 76 b&w photos Softcover ISBN 1-56164-196-0 $21.95 Visit with some memorable characters who left their 6 x 9 336 pages 70 page color section mark on Florida and were in turn marked by Complete information and 3-4 color photos for their days in this most remarkable state. each of 70 of the most commonly seen species. OLDEST GHOSTS PAYNES PRAIRIE Karen Harvey Lars Andersen Softcover ISBN 1-56164-222-3 $7.95 Hardcover ISBN 1-56164-225-8 $14.95 6 x 9 112 pages 13 line drawings 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 176 pages 36 b&w photos More ghosts in St. Augustine, the Oldest City. The history of Paynes Prairie mirrors the history of Florida. HAUNTING SUNSHINE SEASONS OF THE SEA Jack Powell Jay Humphreys Softcover ISBN 1-56164-220-7 $10.95 Hardcover ISBN 1-56164-226-6 $14.95 6 x 9 176 pages 22 b&w photos 6 x 9 160 pages 26 line drawings A physician relates spine-chilling tales of ghostly A general guide to the major events in the annual progression occurrences all around the Sunshine State. of life and death in the Sunshine State’s coastal waters. FLORIDA’S FINEST INNS AND B&IB’S FISHING ADVENTURES IN FLORIDA Bruce Hunt Max Hunn Softcover ISBN 1-56164-202-9 $14.95 Softcover ISBN 1-56164-218-5 $12.95 6 x 9 248 pages 93 b&w photos 6 x 9 208 pages 23 b&w photos Required reading for road-weary travelers searching Exciting true adventures of fishing in the for a quiet respite from the hustle-bustle world. Everglades and up the Gulf Coast. ANTONIA’S ISLAND KEY WEST GARDENS AND THEIR STORIES Nick P. Maginnis Janis Frawley-Holler Hardcover ISBN 1-56164-221-5 $18.95 Softcover ISBN 1-56164-204-5 $19.95 6 x 9 272 pages 8 1/2 x 11 128 pages 173 color photos Shipwrecked on an island fleeing Mexico’s revolution, Venture off the beaten track and follow this garden path a young woman finds her own independence. throughout the island of Key West.

FLORIDA KEYS IMPRESSIONS Millard Wells Softcover ISBN 1-56164-209-6 $14.95 11 x 8 1/2 48 pages 25 color paintings Famed watercolorist Millard Wells offers his unique impressions of the Keys with the rich hues he sees all around him. Snuggle up with pineapple Press CALL FOR A FREE CATALOG OF OUR TITLES Pineapple Press, Inc. * P.O. Box 3899 * Sarasota, FL 34230 * 800-746-3275 * FAX 941 351-9988 www.pineapplepress.com * [email protected] FORUM INTERVIEW

A Conversation "Culturally Florida," and it will be geared to all of the arts. It will With include urban as well as rural loca tions. FORUM: But visitors don’t come Austin Mott to Florida for the culture, do they? Mott: Typically it is part of a Austin L. Mott III is founding presi bigger trip. They come for the sun dent and chief executive officer of Visit and the beach, and they will take a Florida, the public-private partnership day or so of their visits for culture. It that promotes and markets Florida allows us to offer visitors more vari tourism. Before establishing Visit Florida ety. in 1996, he had three decades of experi FORUM: Speaking at the gover ence directing luxury resorts in the U.S., nor’s travel conference in Miami last Bermuda and Puerto Rico. In Florida, year, travel book publisher Arthur his positions included vice president and Frommer raised the issue of state general manager of South Seas Plantation tourism prices growing faster than Resort in Captiva and general manager of inflation, especially at theme parks. the Don CeSar Resort on St. Pete Beach. Is that a troubling trend? Are rising FORUM asked Mr. Mott about recent costs causing the middle class, who trends in Florida tourism, especially as have always been the life blood of they apply to the humanities. "We continue to be an those places, to stay away? Mott: We certainly haven’t seen FORUM: How does Visit Florida exceptional destination it by any stretch of the imagination. work with towns and rural destina That’s whether it’s theme parks or tions to help them tell their stories to when compared to other whether it’s hotels or any business. tourists? You keep raising your prices and you Mott: We just received an award think you’re going to hit the wall, but from the National Association of State places in the world... we certainly haven’t seen anything Development agencies for the inven like that. In fact, that’s always a con torying of the assets of the state. We Prices may be going up, cern. As Mr. Frommer mentioned, also hold various marketing-educa we’re competing globally now and if tional type seminars around the state. but when you compare it it gets to where it’s too pricey, all of a Recently, we had them in DeFuniak sudden folks will go other places. Springs, Steinhatchee, Palatka, But we haven’t seen it. Again, there’s Sebring and Everglades City. We’re to some other places, diversity in the products and services working with Putnam County we offer throughout the state, and Hendry County, Gulf County and there is still a tremen this keeps people coming back Jackson County. Then there’s a region Indeed, I’ve heard that 92 or 93 per al group that involves three counties dous value to Florida." cent of our visitors return. If that around Lake City Again, we’re work starts going the other way, there may ing with the folks on the local area to be some truth to Florida tourism max develop the tools they need to - Austin Mott ing out, but I don’t see that. advance their tourism industry, the FORUM: Is there an effort to get marketing of their resources, whether more Floridians to become tourists in it be developing advertising or their own state - to learn more about brochures or an internet site. FORUM: Cultural tourism and where they live? FORUM: Could you give us an adventures in the wild are fast grow Mott: Oh yes, we started a few example?. ing areas among the younger tourists. years ago advertising in newspapers, Mott: We’ve been working with Can Florida compete in that market? radio and television urging Floridians Hendry County in identifying their Mott: Definitely, we already are to visit their own state. Last year, we tourism prospects. We’re helping cre and many of our partners are small introduced, and will repeat it this ate a county-wide brochure, which businesses in rural areas that rent spring, our get-away guide which is has the heading, "Cruise Sweet 80." canoes or kayaks or provide fishing sort of a resident’s guide to a lot of This is referring to Route 80 between guides. We’ve also been heading up things that are off the beaten track. LaBelle and Clewiston. We distribute an initiative at the Department of We’re working on finding a distribu such brochures at our welcome cen State to publish a 100-120 page travel tion system that is statewide, where ters. planner this spring. We are calling it people can go and pick up the guide.

34 FHC FORUM The first book devoted

FORUM: A while ago the state exclusively to the history of was marketed as kind of an exotic dream world. Then Eden suddenly Florida tourist attractions. turned into Miami Vice with the rash To purchase of murders of foreign tourists, which fortunately have not reccurred. What "Roadside Paradi.s" do your studies show the tourist’s image of Florida is these days? send $21.95 plus Mott: Everything we see and hear, whether domestically or inter nationally, is very, very positive. We RetroFlonda, Inc. continue to be an exceptional destina tion when compared to other places P.O. Box 12226 in the world. And again, that’s the Petersburg, FL diversity of our products and ser St. vices. Prices may be going up, but when you compare it to some other places, there is still a tremendous COMING SOON: value to Florida. FORUM: Do you have any fig "Souvenirs from ures as to where most foreign tourists come from these days? Mott: When measured in terms of visitors who come over the water, the vast majority are from the United Kingdom, followed by Germany, Venezuela, Columbia and Brazil. Canadians still are the greatest num ber of foreigners, reaching over two million in 1996 and 1997. Then the numbers started going the other way, but in the past year that drop off seems to have bottomed out and the numbers are going back up in the direction we want. Part of the drop- off was caused by competition, but a lot it had to do with Canada’s econo my and the exchange rate. FORUM: Finally Mr. Mott, has Visit Florida given much thought to the impact of the inevitable opening up of Cuba? Mott: We certainly will work with the Cuban government when it opens up. In the early days there was an awful lot of Florida-Cuba business going back and forth out of the Keys and Miami. I would think that would all get started again. FORUM: I guess tourists pack ages would include Florida and Cuba, as they did pre-Castro? Mott: That’s correct. But Cuba has some severe infrastructure prob lems. However, once we’re allowed in there with American ingenuity, things will develop quite rapidly. BOOK BRIEFS

Slavery In Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation by Larry Rivers. 384 pages. University Press of Florida. Rivers concludes that $29.95. Reviewed by Patrick Riordan although "the hard work, fter more than 20 years of research and writing, Professor courage, sacrifices, and any Rivers of Florida A&M University has produced a definitive work, Slavery In Florida: Territorial sometimes genius of black Days to Emancipation. This book is a significant contribution to the litera TERRITORIALSLIVERDAYSIiiTO EMANCIPATION ture on antebellum slavery and fills a OR IDA men and women" built major gap in published Florida histo ry. It is exceptionally well document ed and remarkably well illustrated, much of Florida’s founda with 32 pages of maps and other images. Rivers raises important issues, tions, Florida still ignores such as the regional variations in the experience of slavery across East, LARRY EUGENE RIVERS Middle and West Florida and the their accomplishments. development of African American culture in Florida. He reports that the

counties of the former East Florida - Nassau, Duval, St. Johns, Alachua,

Mosquito Orange and Monroe - occurred in the rich cotton lands of mother, or extended-family units. By contained only about 20% of Florida’s Middle Florida, where more than 70% the 1850s, records frequently reflect slaves. of Florida’s slaves lived. Acquired by the presence of grandparents and In that region, a Spanish heritage, whites, who forced the Seminoles and even great-grandparents. and an economy less dependent on their African allies onto poorer lands This is remarkable in light of the cotton and sugarcane, moderated to the south, this land was the center forces working against slave family slavery’s harshness. Rivers finds of Florida’s cotton economy. life, such as sale, sexual abuse by greater incidence of interracial mar Consisting of Jackson, Gadsden, masters and the inevitable compro riage, slave literacy, and hiring-out of Leon, Jefferson and Madison mise of parental authority Rivers’ skilled slaves, allowing them a degree Counties, Middle Florida was home evidence clearly refutes scholars such of personal freedom in their daily to the territorial capital of Tallahassee as Stanley Elkins Slavery, 1959 and lives. And the task system, more and the plantations owned by the Daniel Patrick Moynihan The Negro common in East Florida than else political and social elite. Masters Family: The Case for National Action, where, allowed workers some control enjoyed horse races and balls where 1965, who argued that slavery over the length of the workday. Slaves slaves provided the music, the food, demolished black families and used their free late afternoons to fish, and the labor that undergirded the reduced slaves to a state of dependen hunt and raise a crop to supplement a prosperity they celebrated. cy. diet of pork and corn meal, or to sell Wealthier masters lived in large While some slaves may have been crops for cash. plantation houses, while slaves loyal workers who identified with The counties of West Florida shared sparsely furnished, crowded, their masters, others resisted their west of Jackson County, while shar and drafty cabins, often infested with bondage. Rivers documents patterns ing the Spanish tradition, were slow vermin and insects. of rebeffion ranging from overnight to develop a population base. Despite obstacles, Rivers finds runaways and minor work slow Throughout the antebellum period, that many blacks managed to form downs to full-fledged revolts. West Florida was home to a declining and sustain stable families, in some Indeed, he insightfully describes the percentage of Florida’s slaves, rang cases extending to three and four gen Second Seminole War, in which such ing from 12.2 % in 1830 to 7 % in erations. About half the slaves men blacks as Abraham, John Ceasar, 1860. Such a small base provides lit tioned in 531 wifis and probate Harry, Cudjoe, and John Horse fought tle historical data. records between 1831 and 1860 were alongside Indians, as "quite possibly The main story of slavery grouped into two-parent, single- the largest slave rebeffion in

36 FHC FORUM American history." African and time, the so-called movers and shak history that captures the racial, social Seminole leaders bested the U.S. ers. Other historians believe that we and cultural climate of 75 years of Army in the initial encounters and should inspect the Great Events, South Florida history. What began as prolonged the war until the loss of along with their ramifications, of a a modest project with local interest soldiers and treasure forced the U.S. period if we want to understand it. has become a major work that is to withdraw without a peace treaty. Then, we have researchers like being adopted by several organiza When the Civil War came, some Kitty Oliver. While accepting the mer tions, including school districts, con slaves worked as laborers for the its of the Great Man and Great Events cerned about racial understanding. Confederacy. But over a thousand methods, Oliver, a former reporter for Voices ofAmerica is not Florida’s joined the Union cause, and those still the Miami Herald who covered school first oral history. But its uniqueness at home rejoiced when Dixie fell. In integration during the 1970s, who comes from the author’s interest in later years, some subrosa interracial also wrote extensively about race, cul her subject and her non-judgmental unions came out of the closet as laws tural and social issues, approaches treatment of her sources. They are 42 and a few social attitudes changed. A history as a cultural anthropologist local residents - every ethnic group in tombstone dated 1873 in Tampa’s would: She knows the value of all the sprawling region - who let her Oaklawn Cemetery marks the graves aspects of human life, including into their homes, who opened their of a white man and his African part behavior, customs and language. hearts to a stranger, who told of ner: "Here Lie William Ashley and Most importantly, she believes in things they had rarely, if ever, dis Nancy Ashley; faithful to each other letting those who lived the history of cussed with anyone else before. in that relation in life, in death they the period tell their own stories in Oliver’s experience as a reporter are not separated. Strangers, consider their own words and in their own made her the perfect listener.

and be wise - in the grave all human way. Her recently published book, Here, for example, is an excerpt distinctions of race and color mingle Voices ofAmerica: Race and Change in from Gloria Hepburn Bridgewater’s in one common dust." Hollywood, Florida, is an excellent oral reminiscence of the separation of Rivers concludes that although black and white people during early "the hard work, courage, sacrifices, 1960s: "I always felt like [white peo and sometimes genius of black men Voices of America is ple] thought we weren’t people. I and women" built much of Florida’s never got too much involved with foundations, Florida still ignores their must reading for anyone them. I worked closely with them, but accomplishments. "It was the black I did what I had to do. I never associ worker or black builder or black who earnestly cares about ated. I never brought them in my cowhunter or black Seminole who house. I never visited them." often came first, endured the worst, Now listen to Sandy Eichner, a and stayed in place despite all obsta the state of ethnic relations native New York Jew, who moved to cles until the job was done." Miami Beach in 1953: "I was con Rivers’ book is a significant in the Sunshine State. scious of the large black population achievement in the effort to recover [in Jamaica, New York]. In high the voices of these historically silent school, we mingled during the day. I Afro-Floridians. was about to say that I had friends, but guess they were acquaintances Patrick Riordan is adjunct professor because I didn’t see them after school. of Florida history and Director of the When I moved to Miami Beach I was Resource Center for Florida History and really taken aback when I saw sepa Politics at the University of South rate drinking fountains, separate Florida. restrooms, and curfews. At that time, there was considerable prejudice." Voices of America: Race and Change These are just two samples of the in Hollywood Florida Compiled by honest, personal voices that Oliver Kitty Oliver. 128 pages. Arcadia captures in this 128-page volume, Publishing. $18.99 which is loaded with candid pho tographs. Voices of America is must Reviewed by Bill Maxwell reading for anyone who earnestly cares about the state of ethnic rela ome historians subscribe to the tions in the Sunshine State.* Great Man theory of history SThat is, if we want to know Bill Maxwell is a columnist and edi what really happened during an era, torial writer for the St. Petersburg we should study the great men of that Times. PRING 2001 37 ____

My Affair with Florida

es, Florida and I once had a fling. Well, not sweetie, it’s that body, with all its voluptuous really a fling, because it went on for over charm, that remains your greatest asset, at least for seven years. Seven years of beguilement, now. And you need to plan, not just let your life be sensuality, guilt, recrimination. I might have mar one big sprawl of haphazard developments. That’s ried her, but she’s not the type that expects or even okay when you’re young, but it catches up with wants conmxitment. Florida reminds me of a cer you, until you wind up looking like just another tain kind of woman one finds over and over again dowdy, overweight tourist from Ohio or New in literature, if not in life: the exotic temptress - Jersey. whose beauty is the source of her power, but also Sometimes I wish Florida and I could get back of her downfall. together. Maybe she can remember just a few Oh, that sounds a bit harsh doesn’t it? Five things about us, like the bungalow we once shared years later, I guess I’m still not over Florida. It’s in St. Petersburg. Around Florida, there’s so much not that I feel jealous or humiliated that she let so coming and going all the time it’s like the past many other men and women for that matter into never happened. None of her new friends know her life. I’ve always understood that her old friends. She lives in the perpetual Florida has a wild side that can’t be satis present. That’s what makes her so inter fied by any one admirer, and the crowd THE esting, but that is also what makes me that’s always swarming around her is fear that the coming years will not be part of her allure. She loves parties, big LAST kind to her unless she mends her ways. parties, with lots of new faces, all turned I saw her on television the other day. I to her. But most of the time even she will WORD couldn’t quite figure out what all the fuss admit that it’s her ever-growing circle of was about, but it seems she was supposed new "friends" and "visitors," and the Phii:p to play an important role in an election, money and gifts that they leave behind, and she just screwed it up completely. All that pays most of her bills. Longman around the country, people were going, Okay, that’s harsh, too. But here’s the "Oh that just goes to show you, Florida’s thing. I still love Florida, and that’s why been partying on the beach so long she I say she’s got to change her life before it’s too late. can’t even count straight." Of course that might Florida’s been getting by on her good looks for not be fair to Florida, but she does by now have a a long, long time now, and hasn’t really learned reputation, and it isn’t for seriousness of purpose. any serious job skills. Oh, if she heard me say that Any woman with a past like Florida’s has to worry she’d be furious. She’s so touchy about how she about that image. could be a "World Class" this or that any time she So if we did get back together, this is what I’d wanted to be. And I guess she could be if she ever say to Florida. I’d say, honey, I know you like par really put her mind to it, but she doesn’t. She’ll tying and having lots of new folks over all the talk about improving her education and maybe time, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But we even set some goals for herself, but it’s not any got to scale it back some and act our age. There’s

where near enough to make a fresh start in today’s children involved - lots of them, and they’re not economy. And meanwhile, each year that goes by, doing very well. And we got to look out for own the partying, and some of her fellow revelers, future, too. We can still party, but we also got to harm her in ways that can’t be undone. worry about some practical stuff that just winds up Well, I shouldn’t say that. Can she help it that biting you in the butt if you don’t pay it attention, the gods made her so warm and beautiful, so fun like how we’re going to get to work when the traf to be around, that it seems like the whole world fic is so bad, and for that matter, what kind of wants to come and frolic with her? Growing up work are we going to do? like that can’t help but have an effect on a Florida, I only say these things because I can’t woman’s character. It makes her underestimate help loving you. how hard life can get if you don’t give some Please don’t be mad.U thought to the future. Sometimes I would say to Florida, you have to Phillip Longman, a senior writer with U.S. News start taking better care of yourself. You need to & World Report in Washington, was on the staff of stop polluting your body, because let’s face it, Florida Trend magazine from 1988 to 1996.

FHC FORUM RELATIONSHIPS THAT SPAN THE GENERATIONS.

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