PLUME DUNTON CYPRESS CREEK Stuart McIver Sounds of gun fire across th e waters of Bay brother Lou wherever he went. And to the dismay of sha ttered th e early morning silence at . Guy Charlie and Lou, he always had a hard tim e keeping up . Bradl ey, 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 . 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 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 and specimen-collecting ex­ and return to the larger boat. They were carrying birds pedition in th e Keys and the . 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 , 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 , 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 . one white and one ; 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. cypress trees were at least ten fet>t through at the base. "The creek here is about 75 feet wide and seven or We soon got enough of this plac e." eight feet deep, and on account of muddy bottom, bla ck During th e night th e weather turned eold . Just af­ in color. The trees on each side are so tall and ter sun rise Charlie heard a noise off in the wood s and heavv.i.with moss the sun seldo m shines on th e water, discovered a slough full of plume birds feeding. He killed and in consequence the creek is entirely free of wat er three white heron s and one gannet. N ext. the boys lilies. lettuce. moss or grass. But. alligators, we set> them turned north into th e swamp but at noon gave up any at everv tum. hope of finding th e rook ery. On the way ba ck.they found Around a bend in the cree k, th ey found a sma ll a patch of hu ckleberries. Charlie complained of sore island. conta ining nesting plume birds. and immediately feet at th e end of the lon g day. started shoo ting. "A bout 3 o'clock we had clean ed it The followin g da y they set out to return to their up ," wrote Cha rlie. The future Audubon warden killed can oes but Guy was still feeling so poorly he was unable two whit e heron s plus a wood ibis. but he lagged behind to keep up with the others. Again and again. he had to his olde r com panions. Between th em they killed 13 stop to rest. When they were within a mile and a half of heron s and one egret. The boys continued on up the the cam p. Lou and Charlie told Guy to go on ahead creek and at sunset birds began to fly overhead on their and rest whenever he wanted to. thus sparing them the wav back to their nests to the west. Thev shot at them as embarrassm ent of stopping the caravan at such freq uent thev new by. killing a number of birds. Guy's con­ intervals. After about a half an hour, they followed. tri bution was one white heron and a peck it bird. Then they heard th e sound of Guy's gun . Assuming he had fired as a signal, they hurried ah ead but were unable to find him . They were worried. Ahead they saw the white tents of their camp, and still no sign of Guy. *C ypress Creek winds through what is tod ay the town " As we dashed into camp, there sat Mr. Guy with a of Pom pano Beach; with todays seawalls and man­ grin on his face, " wrote Charlie, "and a dead hen turkey made canals, not to mention houses, the area bears little lying at his feet. It was his first turkey, and he felt very resemblan ce to the unspoiled wilderness the boys saw. proud of what he had done. So we named the camp Camp Hen. " **Todav. Lett uce Lake is known as Santa Barbara The next day they explored a part of th e creek near Lak e. a more glamorous designation much better suited camp, using th e remains of a burned Indian canoe they to the sale of property along th e lak e's shores. Lettuce had found. Two da ys later they left Cam p Hen and start ­ Lak e is hardly a prestigiou s address. ed west , still looking for the large rook ery that had 22 ORAWNBY CARLA STILES

23 eluded them. On their way up the creek.they came upon The next morning at high tide, they poled the Ban­ a flock of egrets, killing and wounding one. They stopped ton out into the river. Before reaching the Hillsboro to rest and spotted a flock of Carolina parakeets* flying Inlet, they ran aground. Waiting for high water, they to the west. caught a good supply of fish, 13 mangrove snapper, After an all-day rain on March 31, April 1 dawned three sea bass and onejewfish. clear and bright. They headed off into a cypress swamp The next day the tide was still not high enough to looking for birds, but had to turn back when they found free the Banton. themselves up to their waists in water. "Went down to the inlet today," Pierce's account On their wav back to camp, Charlie was walking said. "The sea was very smooth. Went out on the bar ahead, followed Indian file by Lou and Guy. Lou called where I speared a large barracuda, which was four or out, "Look, look." Charlie, his mind on plume birds, five feet long. He put up a pretty strong fight and bled looked up in the air but saw nothing. quite freely from the spear wound. Soon as I had it in the " Where? " he asked. boat, a bunch of sharks, smelling the blood, came "Aw, it's gone now," said Lou. rushing around. I slapped on the water with my spear to "What was it?" scare them away, as I thought one of them might take a " A deer right in front of us. Why didn't you look notion to bite through the canvas bottom of mv canoe. ahead instead of up in the air?" One of the sharks rushed up and grabbed the spear. "Well," said Charlie, "I was thinking and looking for When he felt the steel on his teeth, he dropped it quick plume birds and supposed that was in your mind, too." and made for open seas as fast as he could go ; in less Charlie then learned what was in Lou's mind­ than three minutes there was not a shark in sight." "April Fool." After the shark excitement, they proceeded down a Later they celebrated April Fool's Day by long shallow bay just south of the inlet where they found developing an early version of frisbee sailing. Charlie "the finest ovsters I had ever seen." One ovster was so had cooked too many flapjacks and many had spoiled. large that Charlie had Guy try his foot in the shell after So they amused themselves by sailing them off into the he had eaten the oyster. air. The camp for that day was named "Camp Flap­ "It fit nicelv," Charlie wrote, "and Guv had a fair' jacks-ali-around." sized foot for a b~y his age." . After a morning of rain, the boys went fishing in the When they returned, the water was high. They afternoon. Guy caught 15 bream and killed a gator. poled the Banton free and then proceeded on down to That night, a possum got into Charlie's plume box and the inlet. That night they ate "A grand oyster stew. destroyed two blue plumes. nothing else but oysters." The next day the boys revisited a nesting place they The next morning found a smooth sea and a good had shot out earlier. They found it virtually deserted. northwest wind blowing. At 9 0 'clock they hoisted the Charlie managed to kill one plume bird and Guy killed sails of the Banton and sailed out the inlet "on to old an alligator. Fishing was better. Guy and Lou caught 45 ocean." By II, they sailed past the Fort Lauderdale bream between them and Charlie 17. That evening.they House of Refuge which must have brought sad memories started to load their boats to leave for the Banton the to the Bradley boys . next morning. They spent most of the day struggling to On January 2. l1l1l3. Guy's father had succeeded navigate through the water lettuce. The next day, a Sun­ Washington Jenkins as keeper of the Fort Lauderdale day, they stayed in camp washing clothes and picking House of Refuge near the site of the present-day Bahia huckleberries which they converted into a sauce for their Mar, one of the largest and plushest marinas in the flapjacks. world. It was a less plush area then. That night/Charlie ate all his huckleberry sauce, but, "How Wash Jenkins and his family managed to Lou and Guy, thinking how delicious the sauce would content themsieves in this most isolated and out-of-the­ taste over morning flapjacks, saved theirs for breakfast. way place was rather hard to imagine," Charlie had This proved to be a mistake. During the night, a possum noted some years before. ate up the flapjacks and the sauce. When the Bradleys arrived at the station, Jenkins By 3 o'clock the following afternoon, the boys had was too sick to walk. He asked for passage to Miami made their way back to the Banton. on the boat that brought the Bradleys. He needed "Our bunks felt good after such a long time in the medical attention. The condition of Jenkins indicated swamps and woods," wrote Charlie. trouble ahead for the Bradleys, but they had no way of knowing it at the time. Not long after the Bradleys arrived at Fort Lauderdale, Charlie Pierce and Lou took * The Carolina parakeet became extinct about 1920 a trip back to the Lake Worth area. due to overhunting and loss of forest habitat. They were still common in South Florida until the 1890s.

24 "He was sick all the time on this trip and I did not understand just what kind of illness he had," wrote Cha rlie. " H is face was puffed and colorless and his fingernails were blue. He wanted to sleep all the tim e, so I did th e work on th e boat s alone." Another time, Charlie, Guy and Lou were hunting west of Fort Lauderd ale. For most of th e trip.Guy was so sick he lay asleep in the bow of the canoe. After supper, the boys continued paddling their canoe back into th e Ev erglades. They saw an Indian village a mile or so to the southeast and heard the dogs barking at the village. Charlie speaks of Lou's sleep that night as "troubled." The Bradleys' persistent health problems should have warned them of a serious condition, coming as it did on the heels of Wash Jenkins' terrible sickness. But they kept trying to make a go of it. Sometime later, probably in the Spring, Charlie returned to visit the Bradleys, "When I arrived at the Bradley boat landing, I was distressed to hear that Guy and his sister were very sick from the mysterious malady that afflicted Wash Jenkins when we moved him to the bay during the Fall. Flora, who was about 10 years old, died that afternoon only a few minutes after I got there. "The workmen engaged in repairing the station made a coffin and she was buried th e next day under a wide-spreading sea grape tree in the hammock northwest Guy M. Bradley . . . Co urtesy Brow ard Co un ty Historical Commission. of the house. Guy swelled up so badly he could not walk. I carr ied him to the graveside." allegedly killed Bradley in 1905, fled Flamingo after the In late Summer,Bradley resigned his post as keeper shooting and gave himself up to authorities in . of the House of R efuge and returned to Lake Worth. He After the grand jury failed to indict him, he left th e area left behind his daughter Flora, man y bitter memories ­ and settled in the tiny farming community of Pompano, and a well that some obs ervers believe was so con­ not far from the Cypress Creek Guy knew as a boy. taminated that it brought widespread sickness and, finally, the death of a child . Bibliographical Note : The principal source of in­ For the Bradleys, the New River area of Broward formation on Guy Bradley's Broward County plume County had proved to be a tragic place. But for Guy, his hunt is the Pierce Manuscript, written by Charles plume hunt along Cypress Creek had been a wonderful William Pierce. A copy of this lengthy but extremely in­ romp, an exciting part of the coming of age of a young teresting manuscript can be found in the library of the man who had been plagued by ill health as a child. On an Broward County Historical Commission. An excerpt adventurous hunt with older boys,he had killed his share from the manuscript, "The Cruise of th e Banton." was of plume birds which he would be able to convert into published in Tequesta, th e Journal of the Historical cash for 25 cents a plume. Association of Southern Fforida , in 196 2. In book form, Sometime after th e Cypress Creek hunt, Guy a short version of the manuscript appeared in 1970, as became convinced that plume hunting was wrong. What, Pioneer Life in Southeast Florida, edited by Dr. Donald or who , changed his mind? There is no record of a Walter Curl and published by the University of Miami dramatic conversion, a vision on th e Road to Damascus. Press. Ch arl es W. Pi erce's only son was Charles Leon It was probably a combination of things. H e had friend s " Chuck" Pierce, well known in Broward County as in M iami, the Kirk Munroes,* who were leaders in the presid ent of what is today the Landmark First National Audubon movement in Florida. He could also observe Bank of Fort Lauderdale. for himself th e cumulative destruction being caused by Stuart B. MeIver. a veteran journalist and film wipin g out the rookeries. And finally, Guy was a law­ writer, is a native of Sanford, North Carolina, and a abiding man. Plume hunting,legal when the boys pad­ graduate of the University of Nort h Carolina. He ha s dled up Cypress Creek , was illegal when Guy became served on the staffs of the Greensboro, No rt h Carolina, warden for Monroe Co unty in 190 2. Daily News, the Charlotte, North Carolina, News, and Broward County played a final ironic part in th e the Baltimore Sun. A resident of South Florida since saga of Guy Bradley. Capta in Wa lter J . Smith, who 1962, he now specializes in local history and is currently * Munroe was a noted author of beys' books. many of them set in a contributing editor for the Miami magazine. Mr. Mc­ Florida locales. Iver has written and prod uced more than eighty docu­ mentary film s. 2S