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

  • Wilson bests Griffith in 1956 Gold Coast Marathon by 30 seconds

    Both in 266 cubic inch hydroplanes, Stu Wilson of Fort Lauderdale bested Sam Griffith, the creator of the two-day speed boat event in the Intracoastal Waterway from Griffith’s Pelican Bay Yacht Club in Miami to West Palm Beach and back to Miami the next day.

    Run annually since 1949, the event drew over two hundred speed boats in more than a dozen classes from small runabouts with small outboard engines to hydroplanes 17 feet long powered by inboard and outboard engines generating 300 h.p. The 28-year-old Griffith had never run the course in his 17 foot hydro.  Wilson planned to follow Griffith.  Unlike Griffith, Wilson also did not have enough fuel to make it to West Palm Beach,,planning to stop at the Cove in Deerfield Beach for enough fuel to finish.  While both ran neck and neck most of the way back to Deerfield, Wilson saw Griffith go by at between 65 and 90 m.p.h. With enough gas, Wilson caught Griffith and finished 37 seconds ahead of Griffith.

    Many of the contestant stayed overnight in Miami.  Wilson drove back home by automobile, for an early rise the next morning to drive back to the boats fenced in a large guarded lot in West Palm Beach.

    Sunday morning, on the return to Miami,  Wilson and Griffith fiercely pushed their hydros to the limit, averaging more than 60 m.p.h. In the inland waterway, avoiding shoals, snags, and parts of derelict vessels just beneath the water’s surface.  Wilson again beat Griffith to the finish line by a mere 30 seconds.

  • Florida Commissioner of Agriculture declares a State of Emergency over Oriental Fruit Fly infestation September 15, 2015

    Adam Putnam has declared a State of Emergency as a result of state officials finding an infestation of Oriental Fruit Fly in the Redlands in south Miami-Dade County.

    A quarantine extends over 87 square miles prohibiting export of fruit and vegetables from the quarantined area.   The area supplies much of the nation’s winter vegetables.

    State officials have already destroyed 80 tons of fruits and vegetables grown in south Miami-Dade County.

    A copy of the State’s proclamation appears verbatim in a post below.

    Proclamation.

  • Proclamation

    Proclamation

    Tap twice on link above to view the entire Proclamation of the Commissioner of Agriculture dated September 15, 2015.

  • Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture loses protest over NASA’s launch pad

    Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture loses protest over NASA’s launch pad

  • Dr. Anna Darrow – second woman 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.  Both passed the examination to practice medicine.  Anna passed with the highest grade ever recorded at that time.  Anna was the second woman to secure a license to practice in Florida.  The Darrows practiced for ten years 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.  Roy passed away in 1926. Doc Anner continued to practice until 1949.  Anna retired to Coral Gables where she passed away in 1959.

  • National Drought Monitor- September 8, 2015, now drought in S.C. and La.

    image.

    TheNational Drought Monitor is published every two weeks. Over two hundred climatologists, geophysicists, and ther experts in predicting the weather measure the various levels of drought throughout the country. On the basis of these quantitative predictive models, the federal government attempt to measure qualitatively the severity of drought and its length in time.

    The Far West continues to show the most severe levels of drought for the longest periods of time. California continues to be under governmentally imposed water restriction. With large reservoirs in the West showing drastically falls in the levels of water in reserve for drinking and for agricultural purposes. By far, agriculture consumes the greatest amount of water. Thus, water shortages should show food shortages inasmuch as California has been for years the nation’s ‘breadbasket’ in many areas of foodstuffs.  This report now shows “severe drought”  conditions predominantly throughout South Carolina and Louisiana.

  • Three maraschino cherries dangling over vanilla ice cream?

    Is three gondola transporting skiers to various stops on Mount Blanc, Chamonix, France? Or is this three maraschino cherries dangling over several scoop of vanilla ice cream?
    Is this three gondola transporting skiers to various stops on Mont Blanc, near Chamonix, France?
    Or is this three maraschino cherries dangling over several scoops of vanilla ice cream?

  • Father and Son Banquet Cub Scout Pack 104

  • Miami Marine Stadium upon completion in 1963 on Virginia Key, Miami, Fla.

    Miami Marine Stadium in 1963 upon completion on Virginia Key, Miami, Fla.
    Miami Marine Stadium in 1963 upon completion on Virginia Key, Miami, Fla., overlooking Biscayne Bay, dedicated as the Ralph Munroe Marine Stadium on December 23rd.[Model]

    An architectural jewel designed by 28-year-old Hilario Candela, the Stadium was used for decades for concerts,boat races, even boxing matches, for crowds at a maximum number of 6,566 until it fell into disuse and functional deterioration. As of this writing, a preservation group has formed to restore and renovate the Stadium for its original uses as well as to assemble a collection of primary and secondary artifacts and materials to tell the story of the museum  from its original conception, to its use design and construction, to its deterioration from misuse and disuse, to the formation of efforts to renovate and restore the structure for its its original uses and additional uses as a museum and library of materials related to its past and intended uses.

    The Stadium was built at a cost of $1 million. The Biscayne Bay was dredged for boat racing by marine and heavy construction contractor J.B. Fraser & Sons of Ft. Lauderdale for approximately $900,000.

    Unfortunately, upon opening day of a boat race, a speedboat racer died in a boating accident. Still, the Stadium stayed in operation for decades until 1992 when the structure was declared unsafe by local building officials as a result of Hurricane Andrew. Trespassers had easy access to cover the entire structure in graffiti. The wooden seats became unsafe as a result of destruction and weather deterioration. In 1963, Candela’s 326-foot long single cantilevered fold-plate roof was the longest such single poured roof in the world.

    The Friends of Miami Marine Stadium was organized in February 20, 2008, to raise the funds to restore the Miami Marine Stadium.

  • From Houses of Refuge to the United States Coast Guard (under Department of Homeland Security)

    U.S. Coast Guard, 1790 until 2015
    U.S. Coast Guard, 1790 until 2015

    On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress had posted the Declaration of Indepndence, the Thirteen Colonies had fought the British for seven long years.  With the help of the French, the Germans and others, the Colonists defeated the British and won their freedom.

    The task now was to draft a Constitution and to build a Nation. The president, Gen. George Washington, nominated his Cabinet members and secured the consent of the Senate.  At that time,each state’s representatives elected two senators to represent each state in Washington, D.C.  Each state elected its representatives by a popular vote, yet the Constitution diluted the vote of each African American voter until after the Civil War ended and the states adopted the Fourteenth Amendment.  The president nominated the members of a supreme court to serve for life and interpret the Constitution as it applied to the states and the federal government Ours would be a government by the people and for the people.  The three branches of government were the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. Ours was to be a government limited by the Constitution.

    The Constitution limited the executive’s powers to declare war, but clearly the executive could undertake action to defend the country or to carry out the orders of the Supreme Court.  Early on, Congress could vote to spend money on lighthouses but relied on the states to provide the land. Congress, through the Department of the Treasury, could erect houses of refuge (five along each coast of Florida, beginning in 1876) to rescue and give aid and comfort to sailors left stranded when their ships wrecked along the long  rocky coastline or because of hazardous weather Later, Congress revised the law, naming the houses of refuge each a U.S. Lifesaver’s Station.  Finally, in the early 1930’s, Congress expanded its service once again, now calling the agency the U.S. Coast Guard, but still under the Treasury Department. After 9/11, Congress placed the Coast Guard under the Department of Homeland Security, again broadening its powers one more time