PLUME DUNTON CYPRESS CREEK Stuart Mciver Sounds of Gun Fire Across Th E Waters of Florida Bay Brother Lou Wherever He Went
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PLUME DUNTON CYPRESS CREEK Stuart McIver Sounds of gun fire across th e waters of Florida Bay brother Lou wherever he went. And to the dismay of sha ttered th e early morning silence at Flamingo. Guy Charlie and Lou, he always had a hard tim e keeping up . Bradl ey, Audubon warden and deputy sheriff for In th e spring of 1885, Gu y Bradley took part in th e Monroe County, rowed out toward Oyster Keys to in best-documented plume hunt ever conducted, th e fam ed vestigate. "Cruise of th e Banton . " T hat year Charlie Pi erce had G uy's job was to protect Florida 's plume birds. H e the use of his uncle's 28·foot sloop , the Banton . The boa t had to prevent th em from being shot. if possible. And if was chartered by J ean Cheve lier, the legendary "Old that failed, he had the diffi cult task of arresting th e men Fr enchman," on e of th e most de vasta tingly effective of who brok e the bird protection law . all the early plume hunters. Chevelier was living at th e As he approached the schoon er an chored near th e tim e on th e Miami River. The Old Frenchman was keys, he saw two young men emerge from th e mangroves planning a plume hunting and specimen-collecting ex and return to the larger boat. They were carrying birds pedition in th e Keys and the Ten Thousand Islands. they had shot. This would be Phase 2 in the cruise of the Banton, a Bradl ey tri ed to make an arrest but th e father of the serious business venture. Phase 1 was another matter, a boys barred his way. In th e shooto ut that followed, lark for three South Florida Huck Finns, a chance to Bradley died. AKey West grand jury refused to ind ict shoot birds and gators, to cam p out in the wilderness th e man who killed Bradley. Eyewitnesses said Bradley and to sit around th e fire at night and talk endlessly. shot first. To them, it was simply a case of a frontier Charlie was 20, Lou 16 and Guy 14 when th ey set shooto ut - and Guy lost. out on March II, 188 5. Just before dawn on March 14, To the large world outside Monroe County, it was they arrived at the Hill sboro Inlet, poled th e Banton not that simple. Bradley was an Audubon warden, the through and anchored in protected waters. On their first to be killed in line of duty, the first to die in the na second day inside the inlet, they located a side channel tionwide drive to stop the relentless slaughter of plume betwee n high mangroves. They used this as an an birds, the first man to perish on th e firing line for the chorage to conceal the Banton while exploring cree ks newly-emerging cause of conservation. and waterways in their canoes. The following day they The martyrdom of Bradley becam e a rallying point set out to hunt for plume birds. Locating the best chan for the Audubon movement all over the country. Within nel was a bewildering task. The river branched in many a decade of his death, state and national laws had been directions and was filled with small islands covered with passed that effectively ended th e plume trade. Hats dec a heavy growth of bay and maple trees. orated with plumes had become so popular that plume To make it even more confusing, a spring rain birds were facing extinction by the end of the nineteenth began to fall. The boys set up ten ts on th eir canoes in or century. Bradley's death proved a major force in revers der to continue their search without getting themselves inl!: the tid e. and their supplies thoroughly drenched. Late in the af When Bradley was killed on July 8, 1905, Governor ternoon they selected a camp on a high bluff on the north Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, for whom thi s county side of the river. They named all their camps; thi s one was named, sat in Tallahassee. Guy had never heard of was called Camp Look Out Bluff. Broward County. created 10 years after his death. But, All night long rain pelted their tents, but morning as a boy he had lived briefly - and had almost died-in dawned bright and clear. That day Charlie caught a Fort Lauderdale; and as a teenager Guy Bradley, who large black bass and later killed a wood ibis, or as th ey was to become famous as an unrelenting foe to all plume called it, a gannet. They camped that night at a big ham hunters, went on a "skylarking" plume hunt on Cypress mock on the edge of a large sawgrass swamp, calling the Cree k near today's Pompano Beach. site Camp Gannet. The Bradley family, who came to Florida from the The next morning they followed a small channel Chicago area, celebrated th e nation's centennial by through sawgr ass and lily pads when all signs of a chan moving from Central Florida to South Florida. In April nel van ished. They paddled back to the river. "On of 18i6, E.R. Bradley, his wife Lydia, their sons Louis coming to a shallow part of th e river we found a ten-foot and Guy and th eir daughter Flora arrived at Hypoluxo alligator that did not int end , for some reason known only Island in Lake Worth. to him , to let us pass," wrote Charlie. " Every time we The Bradley boys promptly made friends with start ed past him he would cha rge us with mouth wide young Charlie Pierce, whos e memoirs of pioneer days open. At last, seeing there was no other way for us to get have given us our best account of life in Southeast by, I killed him ." Florida before the arrival of Hen ry M. Flagler. That night ,they camped on an island not far from Gu y Bradley went plume hunting rar th e first tim e Lookout Bluff. Guy and Lou each killed a purple as a boy of eight. But even then he had his troubles. He grackle. Ch arlie killed two gra ckle, caught a bull head was a sickly youth, a tag-along who followed after his and speared a sma ll soft-shelled turtle. 21 The next morning Guy caught two bream, but the "What we call a peckit bird is a yea r-old blue heron, boys con sidered th e fishing "too slow, "They resumed ex white in color, without plume. and not good for ploring. On this day, they moved westward on Cypress anything," complained Charlie. Cr eek*. following it for about a mile and a half. Near That night they slep t in their boats, since they were sundown thev selected a camp in a small grove of cab unable to find a dry campsite. They were awakened in bag" palms. Since th ey had to wade through mud to the night by a big alligator who came up to their boat to reach the site, the camp was christened "Camp Stick in eat the bod ies of the birds they had thrown away after the Mud." taking the plumes. Lou started to get up and shoot him Late in th e afternoon they reached Lettuce but the sound of voices convinced the gator it was time to Lak e.** named for its heavy infestation by an aquatic leave. plant called wat er lettuce. Most of the next day was The next morning they found dry land. The north spent trying to determine how to move the canoes bank stood about three Ieet above the creek and was through thi ck plants and floating islands, one at least 50 covered with grass and a grove of palmettos, and also ft>"t wide . served as a home for a ground rattler about three feet Just before dark, the plume birds began to fly to long. Charlie promptly killed it. their nesting place up Cypress Creek, Lou killed two After dinner. they killed more birds, returning to herons. one white and one Louisiana; Guy shot a camp just before darkness. From observing the west Louisiana heron and a grey curlew, and Charlie killed ward flight of birds along th e creek, they concluded there two whitt> herons, one Louisiana Heron and one litt le was a large rookery somewhere west of their camp. It blue heron. was necessary at this point to switch to back-packing, Around noon the following day, they fina lly broke But Guy's lack of strength became a problem again . clear of the lettuce and reached open water. "Here the "Guy is not at all well and I expect we will hav e to creek banks are lined with tall and stately cypress trees, wait for him to rest on the way. " wrote Charlie. His fears some of them as much as seven feet thick at the base; proved to be justifi ed . Guy had to stop about "very hal! growing very close together, and all covered with a heavy mile or so, drapery of grey Spanish moss, " wrote Charlie. "It was " It was a fearful pla ce;' he wrote. "dense masses of the wildest, loneliest and at the same time the most fern s. briars and imm ense cypress trees. Some of the beautiful sight we had seen on any of our hunting trips.