Airboat Tour the Everglades

A little about the Everglades

The Everglades is a subtropical wetland that extends from Kissimmee and Orlando area and runs south through the state into lake Okeechobee and continues south and drains into Florida Bay. It is approximately 15,000 years old and dates back to when the paleo-Indians such as the Tequesta and Calusa lived in the southern half of Florida.

It is also a unique Eco system and there is nothing else on earth like it, Its size varys depending on who you ask, but generally the Everglades goes from the south side of lake Okeechobee south to Florida bay is approximately 4000 square miles. BUT it originally extended to the Orlando area which now has mostly become civilized and farmed. The Everglades is so large the it creates its own weather from evaporation and heat that replenishes itself.

The Everglades is home to over 375 species of birds of which 150 are considered to be rare. Most of the birds we see on airboat trip in the Everglades are different species of Herons Egret, Curlew, Roseate Spoonbill and Black neck Stilt.

The Everglades also provides drinking water for all of South Florida so take that in! It is full of sloughs and marshes as well as Hardwood Hammocks and Pinelands that supports life such as deer, black bear, wild pig, bobcat and panthers.

So you can imagine through all of the years and rich history the Everglades has from importing various goods through Florida.

Florida has seen its share of rum running in its past history. It is also called bootlegging, it was a popular activity during Prohibition and was done to avoid the law and also taxation. Additionally, rum running became very popular for the same reasons that bootlegging did. Although the terms bootlegging and rum running are used interchangeably, this is incorrect as bootlegging refers to smuggling over land whereas rum running typically occurred on the Florida Straits known as the Gulf-stream off the Florida coast. the Miami River was used to bring rum into Miami and then run into the Everglades, hidden and then shipped to the north, some names were Capone and others.

Another aspect is the fact that the term “bootlegging” was believed to have originated several decades before rum running when Civil War soldiers would sneak liquor into their camps by concealing the bottles inside of their boots or down the legs of their pants, hence the name of the practice. Conversely, the term “rum running” was born during Prohibition during the 1920’s and early 1930’s. During this period in history, ships would head out from the Island of Bimini nearby and would transport rum to the numerous Florida speakeasies along the coastal areas.

One of the most famous rum runners was a captain by the name of Bill McCoy who began smuggling rum from Bahamas and especially Bimini into southern Florida. It didn’t take long for the US Coast Guard to realize what he was doing so he would meet smaller boats about 3 miles offshore in order to transfer the rum. This 3 mile limit was based on the US jurisdiction over foreign waters and was soon called the “Rum Line” while the vessels lined up to take the product from McCoy were referred to as “Rum Runners.

One of the most notable pieces of evidence of the rum running era is a ship called the Sapona. It had a concrete hull and ran aground during a 1926 hurricane near Bimini, and the remnants of the ship are still visible today above the water line. It is a popular scuba diving site as well as a navigational landmark for numerous boating enthusiasts. Additionally, the US Army used it as a bombing target practice site during the Second World War and most of the original concrete hull is no longer visible as a result. Scuba divers have oftentimes found empty rum bottles at the dive site as well.

Juan Ponce de Leóns arrival in 1513 in Miami’s’ Biscayne Bay was the birth of South Florida but People really settling and evolving South Florida in the early 1800s. People that lived were farmers, fisherman, hunters that made a living along the coast as well as the Everglades. Many people farmed the Everglades back then and still to this day.

​The Everglades throughout the years has seen its fair share good and bad, in time people who started the growing process by building and farming has had a bad effect of the “River of Grass”,

as the water flows north to south civilization has obstructed the natural flow of water in fact in the before the 1940s water flowed freely to the coast lines around the southern part of the state providing fresh water to area of saltwater keeping the salinity levels low, low salt levels keep the shallow bays surrounding South Florida healthy. Now with the NATURAL flow cutoff it has brought salt levels higher thus damaging Ecosystems. people that lived in the Everglades were called “Gladesmen”. They were farmers fisherman , they lived there! So if you camps in the Glades you’ll know how it started! SO RIDE WITH ME AND FIND OUT THE REST OF THE STORY!

​Picture to the upper left is the Miami River in 1914 it back then was called the Miami Canal and was used to run rum and goods into Miami and into the Everglades

Picture to the left are rum runners in the New River in Fort lauderdale

One is a thunderstorm in the Everglades or also known as the “River of Grass”

Picture of wading birds in February, one of the better times of year to see birds. Egrets and Herons

Picture was taken in early 1917 of farmers in the southern Everglades that were draining the swamp in order to Farm, This now known as Palmetto Bay florida which is 25 miles south of Miami Internal Airport.