Trains, Trains, Trains June 30, 2009

Flagler with his first wife Mary (back) and her sister Isabelle in the 1850's

In my previous post I wrote a little bit about the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and how it destroyed the Miami/Key West line of his railroad.

December 31, 1885: Flagler purchased railroad between Jacksonville and St. Augustine.

1892: Charter from the State of Florida to allow building of railroad to Miami

May 28, 1892: Incorporated the Florida Coast and Gulf Railway

March 22, 1894: Railroad reaches Lake Worth

April 2, 1894: Railroad completed to West Palm Beach

September 13, 1895: Railroad name changed to Florida East Coast Railway

April 16, 1896: Railroad completed to Miami

January 22, 1912: First official train arrives in Key West Florida

September 2, 1935: Labor Day category 5 hurricane rips through the keys destroying the Miami/Key West line of the Florida East Coast Railway.

1935: Florida East Coast Railway sells railway to state in order recoup losses from the  unrepairable  rail line. It was later converted to a bridge for car travel and then shut down when the Overland Highway was built.

Flagler died a year after the Miami/Key West was completed and so never learned of the destruction the hurricane caused and the subsequent selling off of his company to the state. If you want to learn more about Henry Morrison Flagler beyond the railroad you can go here.

Now you can take a tour of Flagler’s Florida by visiting Sarasota History Alive. They have a postcard slide show which follows the Florida East Coast Railway from Jacksonville, Florida all the way to Key West. It ends with a map of the railway. Each postcard slide has a short but informative captions explaining what is in each postcard and the view it is taken from.

Want to ride a real train? Check out these places to take a tour and ride a real train:

*1. Seminole Gulf Railway: Home of Florida’s Murder Mystery Dinner Train in Ft. Myers, Florida

2. Inland Lakes Railway Florida in Eustis, Florida

3. Conch Tour Train in Key West, Florida while it’s not an actual train it is a nice way to tour the island.

Not interested in taking a train ride. Try visiting a railroad museum:

1. Boca Express Train Museum in Boca Raton, Florida

2. Florida Railroad Museum in Parrish, Florida

3. South Florida Railway Museum in Deerfield Beach, Florida

4. Whitehall Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Florida.

*With the exception of the Conch Tour Train I have never been on any on any of these tours or museums. The last time I was on the Conch Tour Train I was around 6 years old. Drop a line if you’ve been on any of these tours and if they are worth it or if you know of any other Florida train tours. This is not an exhaustive list of museums or tours just a little something to get you interested. If you do go or have been on any of these tours or visited any of these museums drop a line and let me know if you enjoyed it.

Deadly Storms: Two hurricanes that changed Florida history (A blogchain post) June 28, 2009

This post is for the June blogchain through Absolutewrite. It doesn’t have a theme which makes it a little easier for me since this blog is specific to Florida. The topic started out with Global Warming and moseyed through personal responsibility and corporate waste. Forbidden Snowflake then wrote about national disaster for her country Switzerland and would the EU help if their economy collapsed. So I thought talking about hurricanes that affected Florida would be great because nothing effects a state like a national disaster.

Great Miami Hurricane 1926: During the Roaring 20’s in the United States Florida was having a land boom. People were buying lots of land sight unseen. If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “Yeah, and I have some land in Florida I want to sell you.” This is the time period it comes from because it was unbelievable. If you ever tour the everglades you might still come across a sign that might look likes the one to the right.

” Edit Resource for “Photographs depicting Seminole Indians with dugout canoes, 1920-1928 (bulk 1920) [electronic resource] “”]Land in Miami and all over Southern Florida was being bought up. Every bubble bursts and the land boom ended in 1925 and came to a complete standstill September 18th, 1926 with the arrival of a category 4 hurricane whose eye was directly over Miami. This hurricane caused $90 billion dollars in damaged if it had hit Miami today. 800 people went missing along with 373 deaths and 6,381 injuries. It proved to non-Floridians who were the ones most likely dead, missing, and injured that Florida was a dangerous place to live. Since most of these folks left shelter when the eye took half an hour to pass over Miami leaving many to believe that the storm was over. Their unfamiliarity with hurricanes was the death blow of Florida’s land boom. The Great Depression was soon to follow but most of Florida was already there in 1929.

This storm does not have a name because hurricanes and tropical storms were not given names until 1953 and they were all female until 1979 when the National Weather Service began alternating between male and female names.

Florida Keys Labor Day Hurricane 1935: On September 2, 1935 a category 5 hurricane ripped through the keys leaving 408 dead and $6 million in damages. Flagler’s Miami/Key West line of the railroad was so damaged that it was sold to the state. Most of the deaths from this unnamed hurricane were World War I veterans.

Built the Miami/Key West line of the railroad that later became known as Flagler's Folly.

They were part of the Bonus Army that first visited the White House when Hoover was in office to demand the bonus they were to recieve in 1945 early. They were chased away from the White House but later brought their greivances to FDR. He enlisted them in the WPA and gave them work building a bridge from the mainland to the keys to replace the ferry service that was in current use.

Due to red tape, confusion, and a lack of communication the evacuation of the veterans by the train was delayed and overturned by a tidal wave during the hurricane. The World War I veterans who were only given temporary shelters that could not withstand a hurricane were lost. As you cross the 7-mile bridge, also called the overseas highway, you can still see what remains of Flagler’s Folly.

Two bridges on the w:Overseas Highway within the Florida Keys. The bridge on the left is the modern highway bridge, while the bridge on the right is the original bridge built by the Florida East Coast Railway, retrofitted to automobile traffic after 1935, and later closed.

The other participants in this blogchain are:

Razib Ahmed: http://hobbyeconomist.blogspot.com/ — Hobby Economist
Fokker Aeroplanbau: http://rightfarright.blogspot.com/ — I’m Always Right, Far Right
Bettielee: http://farseeingfairytales.blogspot.com/ —- Far Seeing Fairy Tales
Bsolah: http://www.benjaminsolah.com/blog —- Benjamin Solah, Marxist Horror Writer
Forbidden Snowflake: http://www.alleslinks.com/ —— Delirious
Rosemerry: https://beyondtourism.wordpress.com/ — Beyond Tourism: Florida’s Yesteryear
Dnic: http://four-lettered-words.blogspot.com/ ———- Four-Lettered Words
Lady Cat: http://www.randomwriterlythoughts.blogspot.com/ — Random Writerly Thoughts
Tika: http://tikanewman.blogspot.com/ ———- Tika Newman
Bill Ward: http://www.billwardwriter.com/ — BillWardWriter.com
dancingandflying: http://madeofcarbon.blogspot.com/ —- Made of Carbon

Please visit their blogs and leave a comment.

Today in Florida- June 24, 1863 June 24, 2009

Background about Florida during the Civil War:

Florida was the third state to secede from the Union on January 10, 1861. They were only preceded by South Carolina which seceded from the Union December 20, 1860 and started the American Civil War and Mississippi which seceded the day before Florida did on January 9, 1861.

At the time right before the Civil War Florida was divided into three separate sections which was based on geographical features. East Florida along the East Coast. West Florida which was along the Gulf Coast and the Panhandle. Then Middle Florida which was the plantation belt and what people commonly think of when they think plantations and the Civil War.

Fourth Governor of the state of Florida October 5, 1857 - October 7, 1861

East Florida has always been strongly influenced and the Spanish had different policies with their slaves than did Americans. So they were more lax. West Florida which was more cut off and isolated from the rest of Florida due to geography and so slaves were more trusted and even given guns in order to hunt for food. Both of these regions were largely anti-secessionists and pro-union.* It was Middle Florida with it’s traditional view on slavery and being a part of the plantation system along with the rest of the of the South that was secessionist.

Governor Madison Starke Perry who was a plantation owner in Alachua county set up a Secessionist Convention and with most of the political being held in the hands of the plantation owners Florida seceded from the Union. The anti-secessionists who wanted to put it to a popular vote of the people were left out of the convention and did not have the political power to have their voice heard.

1863: U.S.S. Tahoma today captured a confederate flatboat in a bayou near the Manatee River. The flatboat was carrying cargo of sugar and molasses.**

Commissioned December 20, 1861 Decommissioned August 27, 1867

During the first six months of 1863 it blockaded the west coast of Florida. During this time it captured seven blockade runners one of which was the Confederate flatboat carrying sugar and molasses near the Manatee River. It also captured the Silas Henry, the British schooner Margaret, the schooner Crazy Jane, the schooner Statesman, and the British blockade runner the Harrington. It also destroyed the Mary Jane.*** With the capture of of these schooners and sloops the Tahoma acquired along with the flatboat’s sugar and molasses it also acquired cotton and turpentine.

During its time cruising the west coast it also destroyed some important salt works. Salt was a major export of Florida for the CSA. Salt was used in preserving food and kept it from spoiling in a time before refrigeration when was only accessible in winter and only by the rich in summer.

*Gannon, Michael. The New History of Florida. University Press of Florida. 1996. Brown, Jr., Canter. “The Civil War, 1861-1865

**Florida Historical Society

***Washington Civil War Association