Florida’s Big Dig

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

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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

  • The danger behind the Hoover Dike is Lake Okeechobee

    The danger behind the Hoover Dike (or Levee) is Lake Okeechobee. And the danger of a catastrophic breach in the inadequate dam surrounding Lake O is imminent.   On September 17, 1928, a monstrous hurricane  hit Lake O and the surrounding small farming settlements, sending tons of dirty lake water southward and eastward into Palm Beach County after breaching the “weak levees.”

    The storm killed thousands of black and white farm laborers and their families.

    Devastation at Belle Glade
    Lake Okeechobee through a makeshift dike. The official death toll is 1,836, but historians and hurricane researchers say it’s probably closer to 2,500 or 3,000. Public Domain.
    The  best description of what the flood was like may be in the paraphrased account of James Nathaniel Laramore, a black farm laborer.  Laramore lost his entire family in the flood.  The  waters of Lake O crashed through the weak levees, turning over Laramore’s truck, killing his mother-in-law.  One of his two children drowned in his arms; the other, in his father-in-law’s arms.  Laramore tried to keep his wife afloat, but after several hours his grip weakened and she slipped beneath the flood.

    “Sometime during that hell on earth, Laramore passed out.  When he awoke, Laramore was floating in a world of gray.  The clouds met the water and the horizon was gone.  It was neither day nor night.”  Laramore wasn’t sure how many miles the flood waters had taken him, but it took him three days to walk back to the “lake communities.”

    THE HURRICANE OF SEPT. 17, 1928, made landfall near West Palm Beach, Fla. with winds topping 145 mph.  The storm surge caused waters to pour out of the southern edge of Lake O, flooding hundreds of square miles as high as 20 feet above the ground. As many as 2,500 people drowned.  Total damage in the area was estimated at $25 million. Known popularly as the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, it is also known as San Felipe Segundo Hurricane, with winds as high as 160 mph upon striking Guadeloupe, reaching a Category 5 storm.

    After the storm, President Herbert Hoover personally inspected the damage. The Corps drafted a plan calling for construction of floodway channels, control gates, and major levees along Lake O’s shores.  One solution was the building of the Herbert Hoover Dike.  Today, the Corps has been addressing leakage from iron piping and erosion to further secure the levees and the construction of a seepage berm at a cost of $67 million for the first stage.  Let’s hope the Corps’ plans  are soon enough and sufficient  to avoid any conceivable storm like the catastrophic flood of 1928.

    Sources:Wikipedia, and “Black Pioneers in Broward County: a Legacy Revealed” (Written and published by The Links, Inc.,1976), p. 38.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Women’s History Month: Dr. Anna Darrow – 2nd woman licensed as a physician in Florida

    Dr. Anna Darrow, second woman to be licensed as a physician in the State of Florida.
    Dr. Anna Darrow, second woman to be licensed as a physician in the State of Florida.

    Doctors Roy and Anna Darrow moved to Florida in 1911. The Darrows had first traveled to Florida in 1909 to take the Florida medical exam. Both passed, but Dr. Anna scored 98 percent, the highest grade ever scored up until that time. She was the second woman to be licensed as a physician in the State of Florida. It was two years before they could make arrangements to leave their home in Chicago.

    Anna Libertina Lindstedt was born on September 16, 1878, in Jasper County, Indiana, to Swedish immigrant parents.  The Lindstedt family moved to Chicago when Anna was thirteen.  Anna soon married Charles Roy Darrow.  After first settling in Long Beach, Calif., the Darrows moved to Ogden, Utah, to open a furniture store.  When a customer could not pay for a purchase, the customer, an art teacher, gave Anna art lessons to pay for the furniture. Later, Anna became an accomplished painter.

    In 1903, Anna became ill during pregnancy.  Anna recovered.  As a result, both Darrows decided to enroll in Dr. Still’s College of Osteopathy in Kirksville, Mo. After the birth of their second child , the Darows returned to Chicago, taking night work at the Jenner Medical College and enrolling in the Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery now known  Loyola University Medical School.  While both graduated, Anna graduated with honors in 1909. Unfortunately, Roy contracted influenza, which brought on a heart condition.  A patient of the Darrows, a land agent for Flagler in Florida, secured a position for Roy as a surgeon with the Flagler railway to allow Roy to recover in a warmer client.

    in 1909, the Darrows relocated to Florida.  As noted, both passed the examination to practice medicine.  The Darrows practiced for ten years in the Florida wilderness for little or no compensation; in Tantie (Okeechobee), where Anna helped patients throughout that area in intolerable conditions.  She acquired the sobriquet “Doc Anner” in Okeechobee before moving to Stuart in 1922, and then two years later, the Darrows relocated to Fort Lauderdale again to practice medicine but in better circumsta  Roy passed away in 1926. Doc Anner continued to practice until 1949.  Anna retired to Coral Gables where she passed away in 1959.

  • ALERT: Florida anchoring ban bills heading for final vote – UPDATE

    ALERT: Florida anchoring ban bills heading for final vote – UPDATE

  • Corps to cut flows starting Fri., March 4, after continuing flows Feb. 16

    Story on continuing flows is on front page, dated Feb. 16th.

    Story on stopping flows is in Local Section, same date, dated Mar. 2, states flows will stop Mar. 4.

    Source: Fort Myers (Fla.) News–Press

    Corps to cut flows starting Fri., March 4

  • Lake Okeechobee Discharges Continue At Maximum To Florida Coastal Estuaries

    Lake Okeechobee Discharges Continue At Maximum To Florida Coastal Estuaries

  • Discharges from Lake Okeechobee continue, cause economic damage

  • NASA’s First X-plane is a Bold Step Towards the Resurrection of Supersonic Air Travel

    NASA’s First X-plane is a Bold Step Towards the Resurrection of Supersonic Air Travel

  • Women’s History Month

    “NO DOCUMENTS.  NO HISTORY.”

     

     

     

    Mary Ritter Beard, (1876-1958), famous women's historian and archivist.
    Mary Ritter Beard, (1876-1958)

     

     

     

     

    — Mary Ritter Beard, famous American archivist, historian, and suffragist who helped to lead a movement for the collection of documents throughout the world of the many lives and works of women who made a difference around the world (1935-1940) in the collection of an international women’s archives.

     

    See, post on Olive Tjaden, infra.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Ten Personal Submarines, some on Display at upcoming Dubai Boat Show

     

  • Women’s History Month — Camille du Gast

    Born on May 30, 1868 and died on April 24, 1942, Camille Du Gast was considered among the first competitive female race car drivers and motor boat drivers in the world and later known as “one of the richest and most accomplished widows in France.”

    Camille Du Gast as one of the earliest women race car drivers.
    Camille Du Gast as one of the earliest women race car drivers.

    Camille was an accomplished balloonist, parachutist, fencer, tobogganist, snow skier, rifle and pistol shot, horse trainer, concert pianist and singer.  She was the second woman to compete in an international motor race.

    In France, Camille later became known for her charity work.  She was president of the French Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, campaigned against bullfighting, provided health care to disadvantaged women and children in Paris from The Great War through and including World War II.  She served as vice-president of the French League for the Rights of Women.

    To this author, Camille’s record demands her recognition as one of the most important women in world history whose life and works made a difference in the lives of women and those less fortunate and set the highest standard for selfless work benefitting the lives of others. Sources: Wikipedia and credible source materials cited in Wikipedia.