So far, most of my drought postings have focused on the unprecedented Southern California five-year drought. Relieved somewhat by the Santa Anna winds bringing some rain, the State of California remains under siege. Calif. Governor Jerry Brown's mandatory resrictions on water usage remain in place. My review of the U.S. Drought Monitor on the East Coast [...]
Tag: Fla.
Freak storm overturns boats in Ft. Lauderdale
A freak storm overturned boats on Lake Sylvia (or Sylvan), a small protected lake surrounded by high-end residences in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Lauderdale anchorage Region: Atlantic ICW - FL & St. Johns R. One quarter mile from Intracoastal Date Reported: Feb 17, 2016 Reported By: Mike Ahart, Waterway Guide News Editor Source: Sun-Sentinel,NBC Miami,Boater [...]
Miami Marine Stadium upon completion in 1963 on Virginia Key, Miami, Fla.
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 [...]
The Chief of Engineers recommends Port Everglades, Fla. expansion on Friday, June 26, 2015
On Friday, June 26, 2015, the the Chief of Engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended to Congress the expansion of Port Everglades, Fla., as requested by the Broward County Commission. Broward County has now been given the 'green light' to allow the Port to compete with many of the ports on the [...]
The Palm Beach Farms Company, Percy Hagerman, and Colorado silver mining
The Lake Worth Drainage District celebrated its (1915-2015) centennial yesterday. Between 1915 and 1935, more than 125 drainage districts formed in Florida to prevent flooding. Nineteen districts formed in Palm Beach County alone. These local districts (secondary drainage) are under the supervisory control of the South Florida Management District (primary drainage). Both monitor the weather [...]
Wanderlust Wednesday: The Venice of the North; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: the Venice of America.
The City of Fort Lauderdale has promoted itself as the 'Venice of America' for almost a century because of its more than one hundred miles of manmade and natural canals throughout the 36-square-mile city. But before it proclaimed itself the 'Venice of America' beginning in the 1920s, its weekly newspaper advertised the town on its masthead [...]
Author rowing on the Intracoastal, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
The author rows a 21' long ultra-lite Alden Star rowing shell the average person can lift and launch into the water. The oars are top-of-the-line oars hand carved from light wood in Vermont. A pair of oars will set you back about $400 but, in the opinion of the author, the cost is well worth [...]
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 Boca Raton with the Boca Raton Hotel & Club (background, west)
The 1889 Corthell survey of the Florida East Coast Canal showed the Lake at 5' - 9' deep with a forty foot bluff along the near, east (Atlantic Ocean) side of the Lake. While four feet would have satisfied state specifications in 1881 (3' then), by 1889 that depth would not have been navigable for [...]
North Carolina congressman John Humphrey Small (Rep.) Intracoastal Booster
Within two weeks of Philadelphia congressman Joseph Hampton Moore (Rep.) filing a bill in March 1907 authorizing the Army Corps of Engineers to survey a route for an Intracoastal waterway from Maine south to Beaufort, N.C., North Carolina congressman John Humphrey Small (Dem.) filed a similar bill authorizing a survey from Beaufort, N.C., to Key [...]
Florida’s Big Dig 