Florida’s Big Dig

The story of the Intracoastal and other thoughts on water, waterways, land, and ecology

recent posts

about

I am Bill Crawford. I was born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., bisected by the Intracoastal. I graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in commerce, with distinction, concentrating in finance. I obtained my juris doctor degree from Stetson University College of Law. I have practiced law for more than 43 years. I am a professional historian and author of the award-winning book, “Florida’s Big Dig,” (2008) the story of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. I have practiced law in Florida since 1975. Along the way, I developed a keen interest in researching and writing history, publishing numerous scholarly journal articles and one award-winning book, “Florida’s Big Dig,” the story of Florida’s Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, using my legal pbackground to understand legal transactions, deeds, wmortgages, bonds, preferred stock, and legal descriptions of land and water. In recent years, I have maintained a limited practice consulting with other professionals on various historical land and water issues, including sovereign, riparian, and submerged land rights, focusing on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway and Florida inland waterways. I maintain a broad regular website here at www.floridasbigdig.me and a website solely on how the book was researched as well as some of the major themes explored. The website on the book itself is at www.floridasbigdig.com. The website on contacts for professional services is at www.floridasbigdiglawyer.com?. A fifteen-page outline of my book

Month: January 2015

  • Before eminent domain: the writ of ad quod damnum

    Florida did not become a state until 1845. In the Treaty with Spain in 1819, the East and West Floridas would become the Territory of Florida under federal jurisdiction in 1821 until the “territory” became a “state” under the United States Constitution. Most of the meager population inhabited the extreme northern portion of the territory.…

  • Sandy Hook Light — the oldest working lighthouse in the U.S.

    Built on June 11, 1764, at Sandy Hook, N.J., Sandy Hook Light is now located about one and one-half statute miles from the tip of Sandy Hook as a result of the natural occurrence of littoral drift. Its original location was only 500 feet from the tip. The natural accumulation of sand drifting in the…

  • First Board of Commissioners of the Florida Inland Navigation District (“FIND”) (1928)

    Under the 1927 federal legislation authorizing the Corps of Engineers to take control of the Florida East Coast Canal for conversion into the larger Intracoastal Waterway, Congress required Florida to designate a local sponsor. That local sponsor designated by the Florida Legislature was FIND, a special taxing district made up of eleven east coast counties…

  • Matanzas Inlet – South St Johns County

    Originally posted on Florida’s Big Dig: Matanzas Inlet -South St. Johns County In 1881, the private St. Augustine-based Florida canal company agreed to dredge an inland waterway from Miami, Fla., to St. Augustine, Fla., and later to Jacksonville, Fla., a distance of approximately 400 miles. For every mile of waterway dredged, state legislators agreed to…

  • Flagler railroad v. Florida Canal Company: the Fight for Control of Transportation and Land

    In 1881, the Florida canal company asked for and received a state land grant of 3,840 acres for every mile of waterway dredged. Henry Flagler asked for the same land grant for every mile of railway track laid. But Flagler was years late in making application because the Legislature had reserved for granting more east…

  • A Floating Hotel and Restaurant in the Intracoastal during the 1930’s

    In the 1930’s, Commodore Avylen Harcourt Brook, second chairman of the Florida Inland Navigation District, diligently worked with community leaders to bring the Amphitrite, a floating hotel and restaurant to Fort Lauderdale. Actually, the Amphitrite served as a warship in the Spanish-American War and the First World War; later, she was decommissioned and sold to…

  • Lake Mabel (Port Everglades) Named by Surveyor for Son’s Girlfriend (1870)

    In his 1870 Government Map of this section, Surveyor General Marcellus Williams named this feature Lake Mabel after Mabel, fiancee’ of James White. White and Mabel accompanied the surveying party along with Williams’s son, Arthur T. Williams. The Intracoastal Waterway runs through the middle of the Lake, paralleling the east coast of Florida from what…

  • Jupiter Inlet — Live Webcam

    http://video-monitoring.com/beachcams/jupiter/slideshow.htm?station=Panorama# A number of universities and independent scholars have been studying the effects of wind and wave action upon our shorelines. In 1924, a number scholars and politicians formed the American Society of Shoreline and Beach Protection. Even before the incorporation of this Association, the Army Corps of Engineers had been studying the effects of…

  • Matanzas Inlet – South St Johns County

    In 1881, the private St. Augustine-based Florida canal company agreed to dredge an inland waterway from Miami, Fla., to St. Augustine, Fla., and later to Jacksonville, Fla., a distance of approximately 400 miles. For every mile of waterway dredged, state legislators agreed to convey to the canal company 3,840 acres of state-owned land. Upon the…

  • Florida Coast Line Canal & Transportation Co. Toll schedule for the Intracoastal Waterway (1920)

    Evidence is scant but it appears that State trustees first permitted the private canal company to collect tolls from vessels transiting the inland waterway at various points in 1911. The method of collection was to stretch chains across sections as narrow as fifty feet. When the vessel paid the toll exacted, the toll keeper relaxed…