Monroe Station Up In Flames
You can get to the west coast of Florida faster taking Alligator Alley but the Tamiami Trail was my usual route to Fort Myers. I don't mind passing the Miccosukee Indian Village and traveling on a two lane road for most of the 135 mile trip +/-.
Before there were trips to visit family on the west coast there were several abortive trips to visit my father's attempt at being a Florida land baron. He bought 1/4 of a 1/4 section of land between the trail and Alligator Alley. Sight unseen from a map he was assured that the land was about as high and dry as anything you might find in the Big Cypress National Preserve as it came to be known when the National Park Service got involved.
"The Homestead" of 40 acres included no mules and there were no roads to the land. The real estate agent thought the land could be used for an orange grove, hunting, and there were rumors that Shell Oil would be drilling some exploratory wells eventually.
West on US 41 about sixty miles west of Miami there was Monroe Station. Folks parked their "swamp buggies" that they used for hunting. Monroe Station was a country store. It was about the only place where you could get gas or a hamburger in the Big Cypress Swamp. When the federal bought the land of the Big Cypress Swamp the gas station closed and so did Monroe Station. In 2000 it was declared a National Historic Site. Repairing a old wooden building in the BCS that was abandoned in 1980's for all intents and purposes might have been possible had something been done immediately upon its purchase. But the handwriting was on the wall, most of the car traffic going west is now on Alligator Alley.
My Dad eventually sold his "homestead" to the government for $250@ acre. We bought an ancient Jeep Wagoneer with 4wd in the hope of exploring the area during the "dry season". Unable to get more than a mile north of Monument Lake on a road built by 20th century settlers who would ask my Dad to contribute money for gravel to fill potholes. With the Park Service in charge and Monroe Station shuttered there would never be much if any development in the area. The Jeep could have been designated a historic vehicle but it was recycled in trade for a car my Mom would drive after I left for graduate school in West Virginia.
On April 10th, 2016 Monroe Station burned to the ground. Nature or an arsonist finished off a historic site in the development of South Florida. As an aside if this is what happens to abandoned historic sites, maybe they should never be designated historic.
Update: Officials say three men trying a picture stunt with flaming balls of steel wool on the roof of the old building caused the fire.
The park service had received a $450,000 grant to come up with a design and stabilize the building, which was on the National Register of Historic Places, but had not yet secured another $500,000 for the full renovations, DeGross said.
Before there were trips to visit family on the west coast there were several abortive trips to visit my father's attempt at being a Florida land baron. He bought 1/4 of a 1/4 section of land between the trail and Alligator Alley. Sight unseen from a map he was assured that the land was about as high and dry as anything you might find in the Big Cypress National Preserve as it came to be known when the National Park Service got involved.
"The Homestead" of 40 acres included no mules and there were no roads to the land. The real estate agent thought the land could be used for an orange grove, hunting, and there were rumors that Shell Oil would be drilling some exploratory wells eventually.
West on US 41 about sixty miles west of Miami there was Monroe Station. Folks parked their "swamp buggies" that they used for hunting. Monroe Station was a country store. It was about the only place where you could get gas or a hamburger in the Big Cypress Swamp. When the federal bought the land of the Big Cypress Swamp the gas station closed and so did Monroe Station. In 2000 it was declared a National Historic Site. Repairing a old wooden building in the BCS that was abandoned in 1980's for all intents and purposes might have been possible had something been done immediately upon its purchase. But the handwriting was on the wall, most of the car traffic going west is now on Alligator Alley.
My Dad eventually sold his "homestead" to the government for $250@ acre. We bought an ancient Jeep Wagoneer with 4wd in the hope of exploring the area during the "dry season". Unable to get more than a mile north of Monument Lake on a road built by 20th century settlers who would ask my Dad to contribute money for gravel to fill potholes. With the Park Service in charge and Monroe Station shuttered there would never be much if any development in the area. The Jeep could have been designated a historic vehicle but it was recycled in trade for a car my Mom would drive after I left for graduate school in West Virginia.
On April 10th, 2016 Monroe Station burned to the ground. Nature or an arsonist finished off a historic site in the development of South Florida. As an aside if this is what happens to abandoned historic sites, maybe they should never be designated historic.
Update: Officials say three men trying a picture stunt with flaming balls of steel wool on the roof of the old building caused the fire.
The park service had received a $450,000 grant to come up with a design and stabilize the building, which was on the National Register of Historic Places, but had not yet secured another $500,000 for the full renovations, DeGross said.
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