Wild West Sheriff George Hinkle gets out of Dodge, heads to Fort Lauderdale for different life

 

Early Fort Lauderdale
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

In 1883, George T. Hinkle beat incumbent Bat Masterson for sheriff of Ford County, Kansas. Part of the “wild west” of the late 19^th century, Kansas was the home of Dodge City and a singular lawlessness. It attracted gamblers and gunslingers and opportunists of all stripes. 

Hinkle helped clean up some of it; he served two terms and was said to be better suited for the law, more respected than his predecessor. Masterson, born in East Canada, and a one-time deputy to Wyatt Earp, moved on to Tombstone, Arizona.   

George Hinkle (1846-1922) moved on to another “wild” place in 1911; he settled in Fort Lauderdale with his third wife, Nellie (Williams) Hinkle. 

He may have been attracted to the area by advertisements and news about a land boom in Fort Lauderdale in 1910. At any rate, his life was much different in Florida than it had been near Dodge City.

In 1914, he registered as a Democrat in Fort Lauderdale and added that he was a 69-year-old  farmer. Records indicate he described himself as sheriff, Indian scout, officer and grocery store owner.

He and his wife opened the West Side Grocery Store on NW 4^th Street in Fort Lauderdale in 1916. Hinkle died in 1922 and Nellie continued to operate the store. She died in 1961.

Hinkle’s son from his second marriage, Milt, was a well-known cowboy and friend of Butch Cassidy (of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fame). Milt’s colorful life was featured in a Saturday Evening Post article in 1919. He settled in Kissimmee, Florida in 1922 after making a name for himself in South America. In Florida, he was known for his wild west shows, which included herding cattle with a motorcycle.  

Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.   

Sources:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flgsbc/resources/biographies_h-l.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Masterson

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/147007001/milt-hinkle

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, characters of Fort Lauderdale, biographies of Fort Lauderdale people, Bat Masterson, Fort Lauderdale in 1911, Fort Lauderdale in the 1900s, film researcher, George Hinkle

A cultural exchange: Seminoles take flight ... over the Everglades

 

Posted by Jane Feehan

The story below, in language we’d consider way off the politically-correct charts, describes a trip Seminoles took by air in 1929. A flight on the  Defender*, Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation's largest non-rigid airship, took the group over their  Everglades "haunts." While amusing and poorly written, the news story also sheds light on Seminole customs. And, it points to something else: This flight was borne of the desire to help bridge the cultural gap between the white man and Seminole. 

Florida Seminole leaders saw their favorite hunting grounds, the Everglades, from the air for the very first time Thursday …

They also had their first ride in a dirigible, when the Goodyear Zeppelin Corp. baby blimp Defender took them over the area. But disappointment lurked in the eyes of Cory Osceola, chief of the east coast Indians. He was banned by tribal law from the trip. By the law of the Florida redmen, he is forbidden to take any chances with his life or do anything out of the ordinary routine of living until his infant son is able to walk. The six-month-old papoose is just getting about on his hands and knees.

The six who made the trip were surrounded by about 125 eager-eyed members of the tribe, with papooses in the majority, just before the big gas bag rose in the air. Cory Osceola, who had listened attentively to the pilot as he explained to him in English the workings of the craft, addressed the crowd telling them in the Seminole tongue what he had learned of it.

During his address there were frequent ejaculations of surprise and a deep interest was manifested as he was halted in his talk to be questioned by some brave.

Chestnut Billie, one of the youngest in the party who made the flight was included because of his air-mindedness and his avowed intention of learning to fly.

*About the Defender: It was was 184 feet long, 43 feet in diameter with a gas capacity of 185,000 cubic feet. It had a cruising radius of about 1,000 miles. The Defender, stationed at Opa Locka during winter,was christened by Aviator Amelia Earhart Aug. 20, 1929 at the Cleveland Air Races. 

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Sources: 

Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 6, 1929

Miami News, Dec. 26, 1929

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 24, 1930

Tags: Florida history, Seminole history, Everglades, blimp history, aviation

Commercial Boulevard Bridge to Lauderdale-By-The-Sea once scorned, now vital

 

Commercial Boulevard Bridge
Florida State Archives/Dept of Commerce

By Jane Feehan


The beach town of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, and particularly Mayor Gil Colnot, long resisted the building of the Commercial Boulevard bridge in the early 1960s. Colnot embraced “No bridge” as a plank in his winning 1958 election platform.*

A municipality of about 1,300 in 1960, Lauderdale-By-The-Sea held itself as the quintessentially small all-American town, insulated by its location east of the Intracoastal north of its much larger neighbor, Fort Lauderdale. A bridge would bring life-altering unwanted traffic.

But the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) moved forward with construction of a million-dollar bridge in 1964 (estimated $2 M at completion). Commercial Boulevard was a major east-west thoroughfare; the bridge was necessary. It was dedicated October 16, 1965 and opened to traffic a few days later; the impact was immediate and significant.

The number of visitors increased four-fold. Traffic jammed through the town. By 1970 FDOT counted 22,000 vehicles passing through Lauderdale-By-The-Sea in 24 hours. 

Records in 2010 revealed 37,500 drove through daily and by 2018 traffic was up to 42,000 daily. More than 56,000 are expected through its streets by 2027. For years there were no parking meters. Now, “bring quarters” or credit card may be a visitor’s mantra; pay to park is ubiquitous.

Tourists came, population grew - about 6,800 permanent residents by 2019 - as it did elsewhere in Broward County and business thrived.

The 350.4-foot-long bridge is classified today as in overall fair condition (superstructure and substructure).


Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.


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* Colnot held the mayoral seat for 20 years.


Sources:
Richard, Candace. Seventy-Three Years By The Sea. LBTS: The Community Church of Lauderdale-By-The-Sea (2000).
Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 17, 1965
www.Bridgehunter.com

Tags: Lauderdale-By-The-Sea history, bridges in South Florida, growth of South Florida in the 1960s, Lauderdale-By-the-Sea in the 1960s, film researcher, Fort Lauderdale history

Fort Lauderdale's early golf courses and the one still operating today

 

Broward County golf course in construction 1973
State of Florida Archives

By Jane Feehan

Fort Lauderdale embraced golf as a way to promote the city and draw tourists as early as 1921.  The city’s first course, a nine-hole affair, was built off Dixie Highway (today the site of the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport) to attract visitors on their way to Miami. President-elect Warren Harding played a round there shortly after the fairway opened.

Golf expanded in December 1926 with construction of the Westside Golf Course. A tournament between Miami and Palm Beach pros opened the two-course  attraction (one was 18 holes, the other, nine). Reporters of the time described Westside as providing 6,410 yards to play with a par 71. There was one long hole of 830 yards, several of 500 yards, and others of 200. Greens fees were $1.50 per day or $30 per month. Memberships were offered at $50.

The clubhouse opened January 1927. Fort Lauderdale architect Francis L. Abreu* designed most of it. The Miami News listed the golf course architect as Capt. H.C.C. Tippett.

Today, Westside is the beautiful 36-hole Fort Lauderdale Golf and Country Club, four miles from 

downtown. Its clubhouse underwent a $4.8 million renovation in 2007. It stands as the oldest private country club in South Florida.  Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*Abreu left Fort Lauderdale after the 1926 hurricane a few months prior. See a list of his designs at: 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/08/fort-lauderdales-first-architect.html

For more on Fort Lauderdale golf, see:

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2013/02/golf-deemed-game-for-fat-old-feeble.html
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Sources:

Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America. Charleston: Arcadia (2004).

Weidling, Philip J. , Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (1966)

Miami News, Nov. 29, 1926

Fort Lauderdale Golf and Country Club

http://www.fortlauderdalecc.com/Club/Scripts/Home/home.asp

For golf in South Florida, the Fort Lauderdale area, visit:  http://www.sunny.org/sports/golf/

Tags: Fort Lauderdale golf history, West Side Golf course, Fort Lauderdale in the 1920s, first golf course in Fort Lauderdale, South Florida golf, golfing in Fort Lauderdale, South Florida golfing, film researcher, Fort Lauderdale history, history of fort Lauderdale

Carl Fisher links Florida to the nation with Dixie Highway

Dixie Highway opening in Dania 1915

Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Miami Beach developer and automobile industry pioneer, Carl G. Fisher, planned, financed and opened America’s first transcontinental motorway, Lincoln Highway, in 1915. At the same time, he visualized the benefits of a road that would link Florida to the rest of the nation.

That vision became Dixie Highway*.

“The Dixie highway should bring thousands of automobiles into the state,” wrote Fisher in 1915.

Indiana native Fisher, builder of the Indianapolis Speedway (1909), planned for the road to start at Lincoln Highway in Chicago with its terminus in Miami. The project was financed by individuals, businesses, and local and state governments organized as the Dixie Highway Association in 1914. Starting in Chicago, the road split into two routes at Indianapolis as it wended south.

“I consider the southern loop of the Dixie highway the most difficult to complete on account of the territory through which it passes and the lack of ready funds,” said Fisher.

Dixie Highway Miami region
1922
Florida State Archives

Nevertheless, the first car passed through Dania, Florida, near Miami, on Dixie Highway October 24, 1915; the trip from Chicago took 13 days. The car was part of a caravan headed by Carl Fisher.  A twisted mish mash of local roads, the highway was taken over by the federal government as part of the US Route system in 1927. Dixie Highway was the first paved road along Florida's east coast. 

And so they drove down Dixie Highway, people in “thousands of automobiles” with dreams of Florida sunshine and golden opportunities. Carl Fisher built a road and they came – in droves.

Dixie Highway along
Indian River 1923
Florida State Archives

*Note: During September, 2021, parts of Dixie Highway in Miami were re-named Harriet Tubman Highway, in honor of the 19th-century abolitionist.

For Tamiami Trail, see: 

https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/08/tampa-to-miami-on-tamiami-trail.html.

Sources:

Federal Highway Administration

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/back1102.cfm

Miami Daily Metropolis, June 11, 1915

Miami Herald, Oct. 26 1915

Weidling, Philip J., Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (1966).

Tags: Florida history, Fort Lauderdale history, Dixie Highway history, Carl G. Fisher, Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental road, film research, early Florida investor 1900s,

Tampa to Miami on the Tamiami Trail

1923 Trailblazers
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

 

By Jane Feehan

The Tamiami Trail, linking Tampa and Miami, opened to great fanfare – 25 aerial bombs, an aerial marriage, live music and speechmaking - on April 25, 1928. It marked the completion of work begun in 1915 that was interrupted by a World War and funding shortages.

In 1922, Lee County ran out of money to complete its portion of the road. Advertising mogul Barron Gift Collier stepped up to the plate with a pledge to pay the shortfall if the state would carve out a new jurisdiction and name it Collier County. The state complied; work on the Trail continued. (Most know Collier today for its posh county seat, Naples.)

Completion of the east-west connection between Fort Myers and Miami Beach was nudged along by Miamian Capt. J.F. Jaudon who conceived the idea of a trail in 1915. A large holder of land in the Everglades and Miami who stood to benefit by the project, Jaudon organized a group of businessmen from West Florida in 1923 who rode in Model T Fords across the Everglades guided by two Seminoles. The “Trail Blazers,” as the group dressed in Safari khakis became known, dramatized the need to finish the Trail to Miami. Five and a half years after the Model T trek, the road connected Fort Myers and Miami Beach.

Dynamite was used for every foot of the way through the Everglades. The highest point on the road, which today serves as the northern border of Everglades National Park, is 12 feet above sea level. Tamiami Trail received U.S Highway designations in 1926. Portions are U.S. 90 , U.S. 27, U.S. 41 (hidden designations).The southeast part of the Trail extends through Coral Gables, downtown Miami, over S.W. Eighth Street (Calle Ocho), across the Venetian Causeway and to Miami Beach. It ends at Brickell Key Drive.

Unfortunately, the scenic road interrupted the flow of water through the Everglades, the “River of Grass,” compromising wild life and forever changing its ecosystem. Today, proposed reclamation initiatives include digging channels through parts of the Trail and building bridges to ease the flow of water. Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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Sources:

Miami News, April 30, 1926

Miami News, April 25, 1928

Miami News, June 8, 1958

Douglas, Marjorie Stoneman. The Everglades, River of Grass. Miami: Banyan Books (1947). 

For the Florida Turnpike story, see: https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/06/floridas-turnpike-opens-in-1957-miami.html

Tags: Florida history, Florida roadways, Tamiami Trail, U.S. 90, U.S. 27, U.S 41, Collier County, Everglades National Park, film researcher

SS Sulphur Queen sunk by explosion or lost in the Bermuda Triangle?

Remains of SS Marine Sulphur Queen,
US Coast Guard photo

By Jane Feehan

Long the stuff of Bermuda Triangle legend, the SS Marine Sulphur Queen disappeared a few days after departing Beaumont, TX Feb. 2, 1963. mans

The 524-foot T2 tanker was headed for Norfolk, VA through a well-traveled shipping lane with 15,000 tons of molten sulphur. One routine communication came from the ship before it was noticed missing Feb. 4. On Feb. 6, the Sulphur Queen and its crew of 39 officially went missing. No distress calls had come from the tanker. As many as 15 planes scanned the coast from Cape Hatteras, N.C. to the Florida Keys and as far west as Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. No debris was found during the official search that was called off 11 days later.

Theories flew at the time, including hijacking or drifting into Cuban waters. All were disproved. Just after the search ended, debris and two stenciled life jackets with the name Sulphur Queen were found by a Navy torpedo retriever boat. “A considerable amount of wreckage was found in the area,” reported the Miami News, (Feb. 20, 1963). The area of recovery was 14 miles southeast of Key West. More flotsam was picked up weeks later on beaches near Fort Lauderdale, Miami and the Keys. In May, the Miami News reported authorities received a call about a wooden name plate from the tanker in a dump in Boca Chica in the Keys. The caller said it showed evidence of explosion.

Hearings about the Sulphur Queen’s disappearance revealed the tanker’s shoddy construction (launched 1944) and frequent fires. The tanker was traveling on a route beset with 40 mph winds and 14-foot seas. The biggest mysteries were the missing crew and no distress call. A sudden explosion may have accounted for both puzzles. Final determination: the Sulphur Queen was lost near the Florida Straits, and though the ship was judged unsafe, cause of disappearance could not be determined.

Facts aside, the Sulphur Queen’s disappearance became one of the popular ghosts of Bermuda Triangle lore. The first connection between the missing tanker and the Bermuda Triangle was made less than a year later in a story by Vincent Gaddis (Argosy Magazine, February, 1964) who dramatically wrote "the ship had sailed into the unknown." Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

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Sources:

Miami News, Feb. 11, 1963

Miami News, Feb 17, 1963

Miami News, Feb 20, 1963

Miami News, Feb 21, 1963

Miami News, Mar. 22, 1963

Miami News, May 12, 1963

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Marine_Sulphur_Queen

Tags: Bermuda Triangle, missing tanker off Florida 1963, Florida history, missing ships off Florida, film researcher