Sight-Seeing Boats in Mid-Twentieth Century Broward County By Denyse Cunningham Broward County has long attracted boaters. The Seminole would ply the Everglades and coastline in dugout canoes. Early white settlers traveled by water as there were few passable roads. Boats would take passengers up and down the North New River Canal to examine Everglades land for sale. And once the area’s population grew, the potential of tourist money was evident; sight-seeing boats became a popular attraction and they remain so today. In 1912, Captain Felix Forbes’ launch the Dixie, made weekly sailings to Stranahan’s dock on the New River in Fort Lauderdale. This was the beginning of Forbes Pioneer Boat Line. In 1913, he added the boats Mayfl ower, The Mindanao, one of the 1 four boats of the Forbes Wanderlust, Eva, Everglader and La Rochelle. Pioneer Boat Line, 1913. Broward County Historical By 1916, Forbes was making regular trips up the Miami Commission, Alta Work Canal, taking passengers all the way to Lake Okeechobee, Collection. Fort Myers and back.2 He would leave Tuesday morning and return on Thursday evening, charging $7 for round trip passage. After he received the contract to carry mail, Forbes acquired the former yacht Mindanao. Because so many potential land purchasers used his boats, Forbes built a hotel on Ritta Island.3 Later, his brother, Captain Edward E. Forbes, had the successor boat line, the South Shore Transportation Company, with the boats Fox and Arline G.4 Boats would transport passengers to view Everglades land for sale as well as delivering mail, ice, crops and other commodities. Lawrence E. Will described part of his boat trip in 1913 in his book, A Cracker History of Volume 31 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 41 Okeechobee: Ed Hammer, Ed Saar and Fred C. M. Stone, as well as the Liberty, Aunapu were boatmen. a freight boat captained by John W. Here [Fort Lauderdale] we Ziegler, plied the waters between hired our ex-policeman friend, Two of the earliest tour boats were the Miami and Lake Okeechobee via the Felix A. Forbes, to take us in his Kathleen and the Sea Gull operated New River canals. These excursions power barge EVERGLADER by Freeman’s Tours “on the beautiful offered the newcomers a full day of up the North New River Canal New River and to the Everglades.” 57 miles to where my father In the mid teens, John W. Freeman and others had bought their and his wife, Alice, moved to Fort land, four miles from Lake Lauderdale. Freeman was listed Okeechobee. as the owner of a houseboat in the 1920 Federal Census and as the As the sun was rising we captain of two boats operated by headed upstream, rounding the Freeman Tours, making him the the wooded curves of the earliest tour boat operator. His boats beautiful New River. Beyond “transported sightseers from the the entrance to the canal, we streets of downtown to the shores of passed through the locks, six Fort Lauderdale’s beach.”5 miles from town. After that for the whole livelong day Keeping the canals clear for boat till sundown, we chugged up traffi c became impossible. The the monotonous canal with canals, which had been used to nothing to be seen on either transport people and crops to the hand but saw grass. railheads, had silted over by 1921 and steamboat traffi c ended.The last Boats would also take farmers out to passenger boat from Belle Glade was their land in Davie. The Margie M. the Passing Thru.6 Freeman’s Tours Brochure. Courtesy and the N. B. Broward were two such of the Wilton Manors Historical boats. Davie pioneers Felix Forbes, Vessels like the Skylark, captained by Society. The Kathleen. Broward County Historical Commission, John Henry Moore Collection. 42 • Broward Legacy time it was the only boat stationed by the old vegetable docks in downtown Fort Lauderdale not devoted solely to fi shing. Newspaper columnist Wesley Stout described the Abeona as the “Queen of the New River.” The double-decker Abeona had been a Consolidated Shipbuilding’s express cruiser, which cost $54,000, or $1,000 a foot, in 1924.13 The Abeona’s fi nal resting place was the Ravenswood Marina at 4470 Ravenswood Road in Dania Beach. Downtown Fort Lauderdale, 1937. Broward County Historical Commission, Other boats and tour boat companies Jack Egan Collection. in Broward County soon followed the Abeona. These included: leisure activities. The tourist boats goddess who protected children Suwanee, Okeechobee, Annie Otto, not only allowed visitors to view when they left home. Owner Harry Jungle Queen, Water Bus, We-Kiva, the beauty of the city, but at times F. Kestner brought the craft down Fireball, Miss Everglades, Poraco, enhanced such beauty by merely to Fort Lauderdale from Essington, New River Queen, Venetian Boat being on the water themselves.”7 Pennsylvania. Kestner and his wife, Lines, Inc,. Everglades Jungle Cruise, May, fi rst arrived in Fort Lauderdale Scotty Allen, Miss Juanita, Miss Fort Lauderdale beach was a place in 1919 and operated a fi shing boat Gateway, Circular Jungle Cruise, where early residents could go for service for tourists.11 They moved to Glass Bottom Boat Company, Aqua entertainment, but before the Las Fort Lauderdale permanently around Glades Sightseeing Service, and Olas Bridge was constructed in 1917, 1933 and started a sight-seeing boat Caroline. The Nellie G II sailed out people had to take boats to the barrier service. It was popular from the start. of Pompano and Arthur-K and Nikko island. The only structures on the According to one source, during Gray Line out of Hollywood. beach at the time were the life-saving the 1935 tourist season the Abeona station, the private lodge of Thomas carried 2,556 passengers.12 At one These boats all carried tourists past Watson, and the vacation cottage of reclusive Hugh Taylor Birch. Not much happened at the beach during the week, but it was a popular destination during holidays and weekends.8 “Capt. Richard ‘Dick’, T. LaVigne with his boat, the Excelsior, is credited with being the fi rst to run excursions on Sundays to the old wooden casino located on the beach.”9 LaVigne was listed as a “boatman” in the 1918 Fort Lauderdale city directory.10 Another early sightseeing boat in Broward County was the Abeona, named for an ancient Roman Tour boat on New River. Martin Rubin Collection. Volume 31 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 43 Glass Bottom Boat. Broward County Glass Bottom Boat. Broward County Historical Commission. Photo by Anthony Historical Commission, James Kozla. Vreeland Collection. Glass Bottom Boat, Broward County Historical Commission, James Vreeland Collection. 44 • Broward Legacy “Little Florida.” Broward County Historical Commission, James Vreeland Collection. “scenically beautiful, geologically Everglades), a rock quarry, the Fort intriguing, and comprehensively Lauderdale Naval Air Base (now satisfying” sights they would the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood typically not see at home. These International Airport), the Cooley included natural jungles and man- monument, limestone mines and made “wonders,” the Everglades, grottos, the Dania Harbor, the site of orange groves, the State Forest old Fort Lauderdale, and the United Reservation,14 the whirlpool,15 “Little States Coast Guard Base. 21 Florida,”16 mangrove swamps, the Dania Chimpanzee Farm,17 wildlife The world of the wealthy could be such as manatees and birds, Tarpon observed by sight seers who cruised Bend, Starlight Landing,18 the giant past charter fi shing boats, palatial Banyan tree,19 a palm nursery, and yachts, the “World’s Largest Yacht the Florida Sea Life Aquarium. Basin” Bahia-Mar, and Victoria Park. A popular feature on the tour was Boats would stop at tourist attractions the opportunity to view beautifully such as Indian villages complete landscaped waterfront island estates. with alligator wrestling and trinkets Since many of these homes faced for sale. A thrilling water ski show the water, they could only be truly could be viewed. Another attraction Florida Power and Light Building. appreciated from a boat. Estate was the Briner Electric Fountain, a R. L. and Helen Landers Collection. homes pointed out by the guide might feature of the winter home of Charles include the Briner Estate,22 the Birch J. Briner located in the Riverside one of the show places of Broward Estate,23 Evinrude Estate,24 home of Subdivision at 1000 SW Fifth Place County.”20 O. R. Burkart of St. Louis,25 home in Fort Lauderdale. During the of Jack Valentine, Valentine Bar of tourist season Briner would keep the Man-made marvels seen on the boat Music and the Stranahan Home.26 fountain lit with multicolored lights rides included the Florida Power and There were hundreds of island estate at night. “Thousands visit it each Light Company building (torn down homes on Venetian Waterways, Rio winter, the fountain having become in the 1990s), World Sea Port (Port Vista Isles, Victoria, Hendricks, Volume 31 • Number 1 • Broward Legacy • 45 Navarro and Coral Isles, along with many others. The homes’ porticos, colonnades and expanses of glass doors faced the water and could only be truly appreciated by boat. The earliest boat tours pointed out actor Joe Jefferson’s houseboat, the Wanderer, which was docked at Shady Banks, east of present- day I-95. Today, guides on modern sightseeing cruises still recount celebrity gossip and historical facts with varying degrees of truth. The Route of the We-Kiva. Broward County Historical Commission, Patrick A large number of low stationary Scott Collection. bridges meant that many of the canals in Fort Lauderdale could not be reached by large boats. Boats with low height clearance could navigate more waterways because they could go under low fi xed bridges and could provide views to more private homes.