by Willie Drye
165. “It leaps like a flung lance”: Douglas, Marjory Stoneman, The Everglades: River of Grass (Sarasota, Florida, Pineapple Press, 1997) pp. 342–343
166. For all of the exotic wildlife in the Everglades: Author’s visits to Everglades, 1993–97, 2000, and 2013
167. Otto Neal, who worked on the Tamiami Trail: The Collier County (Naples, Florida) News, April 26, 1928
167. At first glance, the walking dredge: Author’s visit to Collier-Seminole State Park, Naples, Florida, November 20, 2013
167. Meece Ellis, who worked on the construction project: Orlando Sentinel, March 1, 1998
168. But other accounts say that men died: Douglas, Marjory Stoneman, The Everglades: River of Grass (Sarasota, Florida, Pineapple Press, 1997) p. 344
168. Many men who hired on with the construction project: Haney, P.B; Lewis, W.J.; and Lambert, W.R., Cotton Production and the Boll Weevil in Georgia: History, Cost of Control, and Benefits of Eradication (Athens, GA: College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, The University of Georgia, 2012) p. 14
168. “First a crew went forward through sawgrass”: Douglas, Marjory Stoneman, The Everglades: River of Grass (Sarasota, Florida, Pineapple Press, 1997) p. 344
168. At one point, Collier was asked how many shifts: Naples (Florida) Daily News, July 4, 1976
168. “The men on the job were wonderful”: The Collier County (Naples, Florida) News, April 26, 1928
168. “They were not violent men, but their lives were full of violence”: Crews, Harry, Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader (New York, Touchstone Books, 1995) p. 24
169. “He had not wanted her”: Crews, Harry, Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader (New York, Touchstone Books, 1995) p. 20
169. Moonshine was another source of diversion: The Davenport (Iowa) Democrat, August 26, 1926
169. Ellis, the former dredge operator: The Orlando Sentinel, March 1, 1998
169. Roan Johnson was another young Georgian: The Miami Herald, August 31, 2003
169. The nights were “dark as only a swamp”: Crews, Harry, Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader (New York, Touchstone Books, 1995) p. 19
169. The men were fed in the work camps: The Orlando Sentinel, March 1, 1998
170. The work gang that followed the crew clearing: Author’s telephone interview with Bob DeGross, Chief of Interpretation and Public Affairs, Big Cypress National Preserve, Ochopee, Florida, May 28, 2014
170. “Sometimes the drills stuck in the mud: Douglas, Marjory Stoneman, The Everglades: River of Grass (Sarasota, Florida, Pineapple Press, Inc., 1997) p. 344
170. In its November 1928 issue: Explosives Engineer magazine, November 1927, reprinted in History of the Tamiami Trail, published by The Tamiami Trail Commissioners and the County Commissioners of Dade County, Florida, 1928, p. 22
170. The limestone was crushed: Author’s telephone interview with Bob DeGross, Chief of Interpretation and Public Affairs, Big Cypress National Preserve, Ochopee, Florida, May 28, 2014
170. “Just ten days behind the schedule”: The Collier County (Naples, Florida) News, April 26, 1928
171. With a bottle of whiskey on the floorboard: Crews, Harry, Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader (New York, Touchstone, 1995) pp. 22–23.
171. . . . a heavily guarded armored car left Miami: New York Times, March 9, 1927
171. On March 16 at the Boston Braves’ spring training camp: The Evening Independent of St. Petersburg, Florida, May 16, 1927; Modesto (California) News-Herald, March 17, 1927
172. On August 7, 1927, Horace Alderman and his partner: Buchanan, Patricia, “Miami’s Bootleg Boom,” Tequesta, vol. 30, 1979, pp. 25–26
172. In late September 1927, Menninger met briefly: South Florida Developer, October 28, 1927
173. Warfield’s doctor told the New York Times: New York Times, October 25, 1927
173. “Stuart as a community will feel this blow”: South Florida Developer, October 28, 1927; Kingsport (Tennessee) Times, October 25, 1927; The Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) Times, November 23, 1927
Chapter Ten: Mr. Brown in Paradise
174. Maybe the Everglades sunset lifted the spirits of the Boston Braves: Miami Daily News, March 27, 1928; Miami Daily News, March 28, 1928
174. Their bus would be one of the first vehicles: Lincoln (Nebraska) State Journal, March 28, 1928
174. . . . Miami’s boosters were confident that a large crowd: Miami Daily News, March 28, 1928
175. Brooklyn won the game, 9–0: Evening Independent, 3-30-1928
175. “If Adam and Eve could have seen Florida”: South Florida Developer, January 13, 1928
175. “Oh, I am so sorry for you folks”: South Florida Developer, January 13, 1928
175. Menninger also reported that the Brown-Cummer Company: South Florida Developer, January 27, 1928
175. The Seaboard Air Line Railroad closed its offices and railroad shops: South Florida Developer, February 3, 1928
175. Still, the 1927–28 tourist season: Stuart Daily News, January 5, 1928
176. “There are more tourists in Stuart”: South Florida Developer, March 23, 1928
176. “But I have just seen the state”: South Florida Developer, January 22, 1928
176. Parker Henderson, who was mayor of Miami in 1917: Miami Metropolis, November 20, 1916
176. The school, in the Blue Ridge foothills: Miami Metropolis, July 26, 1919
176. In August 1927, shortly after his father’s death: Miami Daily News, August 28, 1927
176. . . . a businessman who’d apparently done very well: Tuscaloosa News, May 6, 1986
177. Capone boldly dropped his alias: Miami Daily News, July 1, 1928
177. “When I got in, a bunch of the boys met me at the train”: Miami Daily News, January 10, 1928
177. Noting that Miami’s climate was “more healthful than Chicago’s”: Miami Daily News, January 10, 1928
177. “I like Miami so well”: Miami Daily News, January 10, 1928
177. “I believe now is the time to buy down here”: Miami Daily News, January 10, 1928
178. . . . spotted by a local sheriff who was eyeing the next election: Stuart Daily News, January 3, 1928
179. When Capone’s associates in Chicago wired money to him: Kobler, John, Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone (New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1971) p. 220; Pittsburgh Press, October 9, 1931
179. Around mid-January, Capone called Henderson to his room: Newark Advocate and American Tribune, July 31, 1928; New York Times, August 1, 1928
179. “He would order food for about fifty people”: Miami Daily News, July 13, 1928
180. Capone showed his appreciation: New York Times, August 1, 1928
180. . . . the US Coast Guard began assembling patrol craft: Miami Daily News, January 13, 1928
180. A reporter duly jotted down the president’s comments: Miami Daily News, January 15, 1928
181. On January 17, Al Capone moved from the Ponce de Leon Hotel: Miami Daily News, January 17, 1928
181. “This morning attention turns”: The Capital Times, Madison Wisconsin, January 20, 1928
181. Two days after Brisbane’s column: Miami Daily News, January 21, 1928
182. A few days later, Capone and his brother Ralph: Galveston Daily News, January 31, 1928
182. Capone was fond of telling people that he’d served: Miami Daily News, June 20, 1928
182. . . . he tried to join the Coral Gables post of the American Legion: Charleston Gazette, March 9, 1928
182. On March 27, James and Modesta Popham sold: Miami Daily News, June 22, 1928
182. Henderson, in turn, quietly sold the property to Mae Capone: Pittsburgh Press, October 9, 1931
183. With the opening of the Trail only days away: The Capital Times of Madison, Wis., April 1, 1928
183. Edwin Menninger described the Trail: South Florida Developer, April 6, 1928
183. “This magnificent Tamiami Trail will open”: San Antonio Light, April 5, 1928
184. “T
he tremendous influx of visitors”: Sarasota Herald, April 24, 1928
184. . . . even the famously busy Thomas Edison: Albion, Michele Wehrwein, The Florida Life of Thomas Edison (Gainesville, The University Press of Florida, 2008) p. 136
184. “Approaching autos caused countless flocks of egrets”: Fritz, Florence, Unknown Florida (Coral Gables, Florida, University of Miami Press, 1963) p. 146
184. “No longer was it the unconquerable domain”: Palm Beach Post, November 30, 1981
184. “. . . an amazing engineering feat”: Author’s interview with Bob DeGross, May 28, 2014
184. The day after the Trail opened: Fort Myers Tropical News, April 28, 1928
185. The Republican primary campaign of 1928 would go down in infamy: Tuohy, John W., The Chicago Mob. A History. 1900–2000 (Bad Guys and Bullets Press.Com, 2010) available online at http://gunsandglamourthechicagomobahistory.blogspot.com/2012/12/pineapple-primary.html
186. George Merrick owed an estimated $29 million: Lewiston Daily Sun, July 6, 1928
186. On Monday, June 18, accompanied by three bodyguards: Miami Daily News, June 19, 1928
186. The day after the terse meetings: Miami Daily News, June 20, 1928
187. The following day, the Miami Daily News escalated: Miami Daily News, June 20, 1928
187. “Capone Deal Involves Lummus”: Miami Daily News, June 22, 1928
188. That same day, Parker Henderson gave up the lease: Miami Daily News, July 31, 1928
188. On Thursday, June 28, the Miami Beach City Council: Evening Independent, June 28, 1928
188. While Al Capone was tussling with local leaders in Dade County: Miami Daily News, August 5, 1928
188. In Knoxville, two of the men went to a Nash car dealership: New York Times, July 4, 1928; New York Times, July 5, 1928
189. On Sunday, July 1, around three p.m., Frank Uale was having a drink: New York Times, July 2, 1928; New York Times, July 4, 1928
190. . . . Uale had been laid to rest in a $15,000 coffin: Miami Daily News, July 6, 1928
190. . . . Capone’s plot to create an “alcohol empire”: New York Times, July 9, 1928
190. Henderson met first with Miami police chief Guy Reeve: Miami Daily News, July 31, 1928
190. Henderson stayed out of sight between meetings: Miami Daily News, August 7, 1928
191. The storm’s eye made landfall just before dawn: Miami Daily News, August 8, 1928
Chapter Eleven: Blown Away
192. But Edwin Menninger, now publisher of both the South Florida Developer and the Stuart Daily News: The Evening Independent, August 9, 1928
193. Still, one sad death during the storm was discovered later: Miami Daily News, August 9, 1928
193. In his story for the Associated Press: The Evening Independent, August 9, 1928
193. The storm had dumped more than a foot of rain in some places: Palm Beach Post, August 14–17, 1928; South Florida Developer, August 17, 1928
193. One of those dikes near the town of Okeechobee on the lake’s northern shore: Palm Beach Post, August 14, 1928
194. But in early July 1928, near the end of his four-year term as governor: Miami Daily News, July 6, 1928
194. William Griffis, editor of the Okeechobee News, disputed him: South Florida Developer, August 17, 1928
194. Davida Gates, who grew up in Belle Glade in the 1920s: Gates, Davida, Growing Up Ain’t Easy!: A South Florida Depression Chronicle (Livingston, Texas, Pale Horse Publishing, 2008) p. 35
194. They were joined by thousands of migrant workers, most of them black: Hurston, Zora Neale, Their Eyes Were Watching God (New York, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, p. 2006) pp. 131–132
195. Money had not poured into the Glades towns the way it had in Miami: Canal Point News, reprinted in the South Florida Developer, September 14, 1928
195. “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty”: Miami Daily News, August 12, 1928
195. “Almost as great a boom as the east coast of Florida had in 1925 is the development that is now under way in the upper Everglades”: Canal Point News, reprinted in the South Florida Developer, September 14, 1928
195. On September 10, an Associated Press story predicted that the same coastal towns that had been roughed up: South Florida Developer, September 14, 1928
196. “Florida looks forward today to one of the best and most prosperous winters”: South Florida Developer, September 14, 1928
196. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche noted that while irony’s purpose is to humble and shame: Gemes, Ken, and Richardson, John, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013) p. 112
197. That same morning the SS Commack, an American freighter bound from Brazil: Monthly Weather Review, September 1928, p. 347
197. About 280 miles southwest of the Commack, the captain of the SS Clearwater: “Beating the Hurricane,” by William G. Shepherd, Collier’s magazine, November 17, 1928, pp. 8–9, p. 40
197. Hurricane Charley, which carved a path of destruction across the Florida peninsula in 2004: Barnes, Jay, Florida’s Hurricane History (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2007) p. 16
197. That storm’s maximum sustained winds reached at least 145 miles per hour: Pasch, Richard J., Brown, Daniel P. and Blake, Eric S., “Tropical Cyclone Report/Hurricane Charley/9-14 August 2004, published by the National Hurricane Center, p. 2
197. A meteorologist in Pointe-à-Pitre: Monthly Weather Review, September 1928, p. 347
197. Alexander Hamilton, who was born in the British West Indies: Hamilton, Alexander, letter to the Royal Danish American Gazette, September 6, 1772; available online at http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-01-02-0042
197. The hurricane that crossed Guadeloupe in September 1928: Monthly Weather Review, September 1928, p. 347
198. At ten p.m. on September 12, a cannon boomed: “The West Indies Hurricane Disaster September 1928/Official Report of Relief Work in Porto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Florida,” by the American National Red Cross, p. 5; Box 750, Folder 284, West Indies Hurricane 9-13-28, Donated Records Collection (Formerly Records Group 200), Records of the American National Red Cross 1917–1934, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
198. The storm’s arrival happened to coincide: Emanuel, Kerry, Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 118; Kleinberg, Eliot, Black Cloud: The Great Florida Hurricane of 1928 (New York, Carroll & Graf, Publishers, 2003) p. 47
198. As the eye passed over Guayama: Monthly Weather Review, September 1928, p. 349
198. The San Lorenzo, a Puerto Rican passenger liner: The Times of London, September 19, 1928
198. And it may have been worse at Guayama: Monthly Weather Review, September 1928, p. 351
198. In Coamo, only about eighteen miles northwest of where the storm came ashore, Felicia Cartegena: “The Hurricane’s Tragic Toll,” no byline, The Literary Digest, October 6, 1928, p. 14
199. And there was one more unusual death: Palm Beach Post, September 14, 1928
199. Red Cross officials later estimated that the hurricane had left: American Red Cross news release, September 16, 1928; Box 750, Folder 284, West Indies Hurricane 9-13-28, Donated Records Collection (Formerly Records Group 200), Records of the American National Red Cross 1917–1934, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
199. The Palm Beach Post of Friday, September 14: Palm Beach Post, September 14, 1928
199. By mid-month, Lake Okeechobee was frighteningly high: Monthly Weather Review, August 1928, p. 77; Monthly Weather Review, September 1928, p. 89; Will, Lawrence E., Okeechobee Hurricane: Killer Storms in the Everglades (Belle Glade, Florida, The Glades Historical Society, 1990) p. 49
199. “Florida May Feel Storm’s Wrath”: Palm Beach Post, September 15, 1928
199. Around three p.m. Saturday, the eye of the storm passed over the German steamer August Leon
hardt: Monthly Weather Review, September 1928, p. 347
200. At eleven p.m. Saturday night, the U.S. Weather Bureau in Washington, DC, issued statement: Miami Daily News, September 16, 1928
200. Brisbane was detached and flippant about the powerful storm: Palm Beach Post, September 16, 1928
200. That same morning, American Red Cross vice chairman James Fieser: American Red Cross news release, September 16, 1928; Box 750, Folder 284, West Indies Hurricane 9-13-28, Donated Records Collection (Formerly Records Group 200), Records of the American National Red Cross 1917–1934, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland
200. On his small farm near Belle Glade, Jack Zuber: Miami Daily News, September 24, 1928
201. “This hurricane is of wide extent and great severity”: Monthly Weather Review, September 1928, p. 348
201. Attorney Everett Muskoff Jr. and his wife: The Evening Independent, September 18, 1928
201. Around the same time, Frances Ball left the Hotel Pennsylvania: Frances Ball, letter to parents, September 17, 1928, from the collection of Palm Beach County Public Library, Belle Glade, Florida
201. About forty miles inland from West Palm Beach: “The Night 2,000 Died,” produced by Glades-area students in the Gifted and Talented Program, 1988; from the collection of the Palm Beach County Public Library, Belle Glade, Florida
202. Around 2:30 p.m., downtown West Palm Beach was being drenched: Lowell Sun, September 25, 1928
202. At the Harvey Building, Frances Ball and her friend: Frances Ball, letter to parents, September 17, 1928, from the collection of Palm Beach County Public Library, Belle Glade, Florida
202. By five p.m., Margaret and Amos Best and their children: Lowell Sun, September 25, 1928
203. Nineteen people had gathered at the home of Pat Burke: “The Night 2,000 Died,” produced by Glades-area students in the Gifted and Talented Program, 1988; from the collection of the Palm Beach County Public Library, Belle Glade, Florida
203. Jack Zuber noticed that the water in a nearby canal: Miami Daily News, September 24, 1928
204. “A little after seven the lull came”: Frances Ball, letter to parents, September 17, 1928, from the collection of Palm Beach County Public Library, Belle Glade, Florida