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“In The Land of the Tarpon”1: The Silver King, Sport, and the Development of Southwest Florida, 1885–19152

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2012

Kevin Kokomoor
Kevin Kokomoor*
Affiliation:
Florida State University
*
kdk08c@fsu.edu
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Abstract

Tarpon fishing offers the opportunity to pursue a narrative of environmental and sport history that focuses on the mutuality between ecology and development. Angling for tarpon illustrates the capacity of an offshore, sporting species to alter the landscape and growth of an entire region. Tarpon fishing reshaped the southwest coast of Florida. In the Charlotte Harbor region, the confluence of human and nonhuman species catalyzed a sporting enterprise that grew dramatically in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Fishing for tarpon in the Gulf of Mexico was almost exclusively a sporting pursuit, because the unpalatable tarpon had little commercial value. The convergence of the sporting and environmental histories of southwest Florida, the demographics of fishermen and fish, and the development of sporting industries regionally and nationally all provide evidence of the close ecological mutuality that defined tarpon angling during its peak years. On account of features of the fish's annual and life cycle, the region, and the sport, this fishing seemed not to overtax populations of the fish themselves.

Type
Essays
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 191 - 224
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2012

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Footnotes

1

New York Times, Mar. 5, 1893, 20 (hereafter NYT).

2

The author thanks Dr. Gary Mormino and Dr. Andrew K. Frank for encouraging this project.

References

3 Forest and Stream, Apr. 28, 1892, 394 (hereafter FAS).

4 Worster, Donald, “Transformations of the Earth: Toward an Agroecological Perspective in History,” Journal of American History 76 (Mar. 1990): 1089CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Sport histories have generally downplayed participatory outdoor adventures in favor of organized and urban sports such as baseball or football. For studies that specifically downplay outdoor sport: Mrozek, Donald J., Sport and American Mentality, 1880–1910 (Knoxville, TN, 1983), 170–71Google Scholar; Paxson, Frederic L., “The Rise of Sport” in Sport and American Society: Selected Readings, 2nd ed., ed. Sage, George H. (Reading, MA, 1974), 83Google Scholar. See also: Rader, Benjamin G., American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Televised Sports, 3rd. ed (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1996)Google Scholar; Riess, Steven A., City Games: The Evolution of American Urban Society and the Rise of Sports (Urbana, 1991)Google Scholar; Wiggins, Daniel K., ed., Sport in America: From Wicked Amusement to National Obsession (Champaign, IL, 1995)Google Scholar; Gorn, Elliot J. and Goldstein, Warren, A Brief History of American Sports (Urbana, 2004)Google Scholar.

6 State and local histories include: Tebeau, Charlton W., A History of Florida (Coral Gables, FL, 1971)Google Scholar; Gannon, Michael, ed., The New History of Florida (Gainesville, FL, 1996)Google Scholar; Brown, Edgar Canter Jr., Florida's Peace River Frontier (Orlando, FL, 1991)Google Scholar; Grismer, Karl H., The Story of Fort Myers; The History of the Land of the Caloosahatchee and Southwest Florida (St. Petersburg, FL, 1949)Google Scholar; and Matthews, Janet Snyder, Journey From Horse and Chaise: A History of Venice, Florida (Sarasota, FL, 1989)Google Scholar.

7 A recent example of such an interpretation: Callum Roberts, The Unnatural History of the Sea (Washington, 2007). In Florida, relevant studies include: Davis, Jack E. and Arsenault, Raymond, Paradise Lost?: The Environmental History of Florida (Gainesville, FL, 2005)Google Scholar; and Kirby, Jack Temple, Mockingbird Song: Ecological Landscapes of the South (Chapel Hil, 2006)Google Scholar.

8 On hunting and the conservation mindset, Nash, Roderick, Wilderness and the American Mind, 3rd ed. (New Haven, 1982)Google Scholar; Reiger, John F., American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation (New York, 1975)Google Scholar; Trefethen, James B., An American Crusade for Wildlife (New York, 1975)Google Scholar. On the cultural history of hunting: Pettegrew, John, Brutes in Suits: Male Sensibility in America, 1890–1920 (Baltimore, 2007)Google Scholar; Herman, Daniel J., Hunting and the American Imagination (Washington, 2001)Google Scholar; Cartmill, Matt, A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature Through History (Cambridge, MA, 1993)Google Scholar; Altherr, Thomas L., “The American Hunter-Naturalist and the Development of the Code of Sportsmanship,” Journal of Sport History 5 (Spring 1978): 7–22Google Scholar.

9 As angler S. A. Binion surmised, although they could be found elsewhere, “from all accounts, Charlotte Harbor and its numerous creeks and inlets . . . seem to be the headquarters of this prince of fishes.” FAS, Apr. 28, 1892, 394.

10 The first tarpon was reportedly captured on rod and reel off Punta Rassa in 1885 by William H. Wood of New York City. For national recognition of this catch, FAS, Apr. 16, 1885, 228–29; FAS, Apr. 23, 1885, 251; FAS, May 6, 1886, 287; “Fishing,” Outing, an Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Recreation, July 1885, 504. “Tarpon Fishing With Rod and Reel,” Scientific American, May 23, 1885, 327.; Grant, Robert, “Tarpon Fishing in Florida,” Scribner's, Aug. 1889, 156Google Scholar; Washington Post, May 9, 1886, 7 (hereafter WP).

11 Livingston, Robert J., “Inshore Marine Habitats” in Ecosystems of Florida, eds. Myers, Ronald L and Ewel, John J. (Orlando, FL, 2003), 549Google Scholar. See also, Bureau of Land and Water Management, Charlotte Harbor: A Florida Resource (Washington, n.d.), 5–6.

12 Charlotte Harbor: A Florida Resource, 5–7, 9, 11.

13 Ibid., 9.

14 For more on the Charlotte Harbor estuary, Taylor, John L., “The Charlotte Harbor Estuarine System,” Florida Scientist 37:4 (1974): 205–16Google Scholar; NYT, Feb. 14, 1892, 20; Frank Parker Stockbridge and Perry, John Holliday, So This is Florida (Jacksonville, FL, 1937), 149Google Scholar. Also: NYT, Mar. 5, 1893, 20; Barbour, Florida for Tourists, Invalids, and Settlers (1882; Gainesville, FL, 1964), 148–49Google Scholar; Grant, “Tarpon Fishing In Florida,” 157–58.

15 Southworth, Alvan S., “The Silver King,” Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, Dec. 1888, 662Google Scholar. Also: NYT, May 7, 1886, 8; NYT, Dec. 30, 1888, 10; Felton, Thomas C., “Tarpon Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico,” Outing, Jan. 1888, 331–35Google Scholar.

16 Grant, “Tarpon Fishing In Florida,” 156–57.

17 FAS, Nov. 12, 1891, 327.

18 One of the fish's unusual characteristics is an air bladder that allows them to capture atmospheric oxygen. This adaptation allows them to thrive in the farthest reaches of brackish waters, even in some freshwater environments, and in murky or stagnant areas. Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, “Tarpon: Silver King of the Coast,” Sea Stats, June 2005, 2–3, available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/34595046/Sea-Stats-Tarpon?in_collection=2498616 (accessed Jan. 6, 2012)Google Scholar.

19 Ward, Rowland, The English Angler in Florida, With Some Descriptive Notes of the Game Animals and Birds (London, 1898), 26–29Google Scholar.

20 FAS, Mar. 18, 1895, 394; FAS, June 22, 1895, 511; FAS, May 14, 1898, 391.

21 Anglers wrote extensively on these changing methods. See: FAS, June 22, 1895, 511; WP, Mar. 1, 1905, E12; Ward, The English Angler in Florida, 57–58.

22 Sea Stats, June 2005, 2.

23 Slaughter, Frances E. B., The Sportswoman's Library (Westminster, UK, 1898), 1:170, 174, 177Google Scholar; Dimock, A. W., “King Tarpon, The High Leaper of the Sea,” Outing, Mar. 1909, 707–11Google Scholar.

24 FMNP, May 15, 1897; Slaughter, The Sportswoman's Library, 1:178–79.

25 FMNP, May 15, 1902.

26 FAS, July 2, 1898, 5; FAS, Apr. 3, 1909, 540.

27 FAS, July 2, 1898.

28 Dimock, “King Tarpon, The High Leaper of the Sea,” 710.

29 Reiger, American Sportsmen, 21–22. On the concept of sportsmanship as it applied to tarpon angling, Kokomoor, Kevin, “The ‘Most Strenuous of Anglers’ Sports is Tarpon Fishing': The Silver King and Progressive-Era Sporting Men,” Journal of Sport History 37 (Fall 2010): 347–64Google Scholar.

30 According to the 1898 catch list of the Fort Myers News Press (hereafter FMNP), of the 163 fish caught during that season, 64 were caught by anglers from New York, 47 from Kentucky, 15 from New Jersey, 12 from Pennsylvania, 9 from Virginia, 4 from Great Britain, 3 from Ohio, 2 from Washington D.C., and 2 from Rhode Island. Two were Fort Myers locals, and 2 were caught by anglers who did not give their city or state of origin. FMNP, Apr. 28, 1898.

31 For the post-Civil War development of Florida as a winter resort, Gannon, ed., The New History of Florida, 257–60, 277.

32 Barbour, Florida for Tourists, Invalids, and Settlers, 147–48.

33 The population of Florida's major cities in 1890: Key West, 18,080; Jacksonville, 17,201l; Pensacola, 11,750; and Tampa, 5,532. For 1920: Jacksonville, 91,558; Tampa, 51,608; Pensacola, 31,035; Miami, 29,571; Key West, 18,749; and St. Petersburg, 14,237. Thirteenth Census of the United States Taken in 1910 (Washington, 1913), 2:299Google Scholar; Fourteenth Census of the United States Taken in 1920 (Washington, 1923), 3:195Google Scholar.

34 Gannon, ed., The New History of Florida, 276. For more on Tampa's role in southwest Florida, Tebeau, A History of Florida, 285–86, 309–26; Mormino, Gary R. and Pozzetta, George E., The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885–1985 (1978; Gainesville, FL, 1998)Google Scholar; and Hewitt, Nancy A., Southern Discomfort: Women's Activism in Tampa, Florida, 1880s–1920s (Urbana, 2001)Google Scholar.

35 “There are indications that the tarpon cult is growing in this part of the country,” a writer penned from Chicago. “Quite a number of our anglers outfit for Florida every winter.” FAS, Jan. 20, 1900, 47Google Scholar. The development of the sport was widely covered in national sporting periodicals, as well as major newspapers. The northern sporting scene, particularly in New York, embraced tarpon; shortly after the first recorded capture in 1885, new rods, reels, and tackle were available from the city's most reputable sporting dealers. For examples of these developments, Southworth, “The Silver King,” 662–66; Ward, The English Angler in Florida, 6; A. W. and Dimock, Julian A., Florida Enchantments, with Numerous Illustrations from Photographs (New York, 1908), 162–63Google Scholar; and Grant, “Tarpon Fishing in Florida, 154–68. Examples of press coverage include: NYT, Dec. 30, 1888, 10; NYT, Feb. 8, 1890, 3; NYT, July 1, 1895; WP, Feb. 23, 1902, 14; WP, Dec. 4, 1898, 28; FMNP, Mar. 14, 1889. Southworth, “The Silver King,” 662–63, 665–66. For advertisements for tarpon supplies in northern sporting shops, FAS, Dec. 10, 1891, 423; FAS, Jan. 2 1890, 483; FAS, Feb. 20, 1890, 100; FAS, Jan. 7, 1892, 22; FAS, Jan, 12, 1893, 6; FAS, Jan. 5, 1895, 5; FAS, Jan. 4, 1896, 6; Outing, Mar. 1898 and Mar. 1899, 53.

36 For a selection of railroad advertisements featuring tarpon and the southwest coast of Florida: Christian Union, Dec. 12. 1891, 1192; Outing, Oct. 1891, xix; FAS, June 25, 1904, 10; NYT, Dec. 22, 1914, 18.

37 On railroads and southwest Florida: Tebeau, A History of Florida, 283–84; Gannon, ed., The New History of Florida, 259–60, 268–71; Turner, Gregg M., Images of America: Railroads of Southwest Florida (Charleston, SC, 1999), 10Google Scholar; Cleveland, U.S. and Williams, Lindsey, Our Fascinating Past, Charlotte Harbor: The Early Years (Punta Gorda, FL, 1993), 105–06, 107, 115, 122–23Google Scholar; Dudley Sady Johnson, “The Railroads of Florida, 1865–1900” (PhD diss., Florida State University, 1965), 156, 159, 166, 170. For the roles of Plant, Henry and Flagler, Henry, Turner, Gregg M. and Bramson, Seth H., The Plant System of Railroads, Steamships and Hotels: The South's First Great Industrial Enterprise (Laurys Station, PA, 2004)Google Scholar; Braden, Susan R., The Architecture of Leisure: The Florida Resort Hotels of Henry Flagler and Henry Plant (Gainesville, FL, 2002)Google Scholar; and Mueller, Edward A., Steamships of the Two Henrys: Being an Account of the Maritime Activities of Henry Morrison Flagler and Henry Bradley Plant (Jacksonville, FL, 1996)Google Scholar. For steamer transit: FAS, Mar. 12, 1891, 152; FAS, July 1, 1899, 10–11.

38 Perry, W. A., American Game Fishes: Their Habits, Habitat, and Peculiarities; How, When, and Where to Angle for Them (Chicago, 1892), 17Google Scholar. For more on the winter schedules of anglers, see: “The Tarpon Season at Charlotte Harbor,” Feb. 1891, 108; WP, Dec. 4, 1898, 28Google Scholar; Murphy, John Mortimer, “Tarpon Fishing, Florida,” Outing, Feb. 1, 1891, 398Google Scholar.

39 Articles that explain the tarpon season include: “The Tarpon Season at Charlotte Harbor,” Outing, Feb. 1891, 108; Perry, American Game Fishes, 17; WP, Dec. 4, 1898, 28; Murphy, “Tarpon Fishing, Florida,” 398; FAS, Apr. 28, 394.

40 “The Tarpon Season at Charlotte Harbor,” Outing, 108; Perry, American Game Fishes, 17; WP, Dec. 4, 1898, 28; Murphy, “Tarpon Fishing, Florida,” 398.

41 FAS, Aug. 25, 1900, 151; NYT, July 21, 1895, 19; Dimock and Dimock, Florida Enchantments, 31. On the prices of these services, NYT, Dec. 18, 1894, 6; Southworth, “The Silver King,” 663.

42 Edward Prime, for instance, was a fixture on the sporting scene in the 1880s and 1890s when he was “not off in the mountains or in the bays.” In 1889 the New York Times posted his record for the year, which included over thirty fish captured. NYT, June 8, 1889, 8.

43 For a sample of articles on Quay's involvement: FAS, June 9, 1887, 436; FAS, Apr. 19, 1888, 250; WP, Feb. 26, 1899, 17; NYT, Apr. 27, 1890, 16; Outing, Oct. 1891, xix; NYT, Aug. 27, 1896, 10; FAS, Aug. 29, 1896, 172; FAS, Sept. 19, 1896, 232.

44 WP, Feb. 26, 1899, 17.

45 FAS, June 23, 1887, 478. For comments on the table quality of tarpon: Grant, “Tarpon Fishing in Florida,” 155; Hay, O.P., “Tarpon-Fishing in Florida,” Outing, Jan. 1898, 378Google Scholar; NYT, June 18, 1905, SM4; WP, May 9, 1909, M1; FAS, Aug. 25, 1900, 151.

46 FAS, April 7, 1887, 232.

47 On Charlotte Harbor commercial fisheries: Covington, James W., “Trade Relations Between Southwestern Florida and Cuba: 1600–1840,” Florida Historical Quarterly 38 (Oct. 1959): 114–28Google Scholar; Hammond, E. A., “The Spanish Fisheries of Charlotte Harbor,” Florida Historical Quarterly 51 (Apr. 1973): 355–80Google Scholar; and Edic, Robert F., Fisherfolk of Charlotte Harbor, Florida (Gainesville, FL, 1996)Google Scholar.

48 Felton, “Tarpon Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico,” 331.

49 For anglers commenting on the wastefulness of the sport: Aflalo, F. G., Sunshine and Sport in Florida and the West Indies (Philadelphia, 1907), 107–08CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Warrender, Hugh V., “Pass Fishing for Tarpon,” The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Mar. 1898, 417Google Scholar; Ward, The English Angler in Florida, 36, 113–14; Dimock and Dimock, Florida Enchantments, 168, 173; Dimock, “King Tarpon, The High Leaper of the Sea,” 717; NYT, Mar. 19, 1893, 20; NYT, June 18, 1905, SM4.

50 Florida Department of Environmental Protection, “Tarpon: Silver King of the Coast,” (St. Petersburg, 1997), repr. in Sea Stats, June 2005, 3–4.

51 FAS, June 30, 1894, 556.

52 Norton, Charles Ledyard, A Handbook of Florida, 3rd ed. (New York, 1891), 264Google Scholar.

53 FMNP, Apr. 28, 1898.

54 FMNP, May 14, 1908.

55 FMNP, May 17, 1894.

56 FAS, Feb. 1917, 3.

57 Dimock, “King Tarpon, The High Leaper of the Sea,” 717.

58 Babcock, Louis L., The Tarpon (n.p., 1921), 63, 96–97Google Scholar.

59 Bickel, Karl A., The Mangrove Coast: The Story of the West Coast of Florida (New York, 1942), 276, 285Google Scholar.

60 Turner, Images of America, 10; Cleveland and Williams, Our Fascinating Past, 105–06, 107, 115, 122–23.

61 On steamers in the region, see: Grant, “Tarpon Fishing in Florida,” 158–59; FAS, Apr. 7, 1887, 232Google Scholar; FAS, Mar. 12, 1891, 152; FAS, Apr. 28, 1892, 394; FAS, July 1, 1899, 10–11; Ward, The English Angler in Florida, 3–5.

62 NYT, Feb. 14, 1892, 20.

63 FMNP, Mar. 27, 1886.

64 FAS, Apr. 7, 1887, 231.

65 Punta Rassa was not recorded in the census until 1910, when it reported 121 residents. Thirteenth Census of the United States, 2:306. For the area's cattle history: Brown, Florida's Peace River Frontier, 197–200; Akerman, Joe A. Jr., Florida Cowman: A History of Florida Cattle Raising (Kissimmee, FL, 1976)Google Scholar.

66 FAS, Dec. 30, 1886, 448; FAS, Apr. 7, 1887, 232; FMNP, Feb. 27, 1886. On the hotel's popularity: FMNP, Feb. 20, 1908; FMNP, Apr. 15, 1909; FMNP, Apr. 20, 1911. When the old barracks burned down in 1907, not many memorialized it as the lonely army outpost first named Fort Dulaney, the Seminole War headquarters of General Winfield Scott, an important Civil War installation, or even a notable piece of Florida cracker-cowman history. Instead, it was eulogized as George Shultz's “Tarpon House.” “It is a pity the historic place is destroyed,”Forest and Stream grieved. “It will probably be rebuilt.” FAS, Jan. 12, 1907, 60.

67 Grant, “Tarpon Fishing in Florida,” 158; Southworth, “The Silver King,” 665.

68 FAS, Dec. 20, 1886, 448; FAS, Apr. 7, 1887, 232; FAS, Jan. 19, 1888, 506.

69 St. James City did not have its own census return until 1930, when 99 people were listed as residents. Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930 (Washington, 1931), 1:207Google Scholar.

70 Grant, “Tarpon Fishing In Florida,” 157–58.

71 FAS, Dec. 27, 1888, 459. Also, FAS, Jan. 19, 1888, 506.

72 NYT, Feb. 14, 1892, 20; FMNP, Mar. 28, 1889.

73 FAS, Apr. 7, 1887, 231; FMNP, Mar. 28, 1889.

74 FAS, Dec. 27, 1888, 459.

75 A sailboat out of St. James City, for instance, cost five dollars per day, rowboats three, and bait generally about sixty cents; each could be purchased in town if anglers had not brought their own. Grant, “Tarpon Fishing In Florida,” 162.

76 FAS July 1, 1899, 10–11.

77 Grant, “Tarpon Fishing In Florida,” 157–58.

78 FAS, June 30, 1894, 556.

79 FMNP, Mar. 14, 1889.

80 FMNP, May 17, 1894.

81 FMNP, Feb. 17, 1898.

82 Thirteenth Census of the United States, 2:306.

83 FAS, Mar. 17, 1892, 255; FAS, July 1, 1899, 10–11.

84 FAS, Apr. 28, 1892, 394.

85 FMNP, Mar. 21, 1892; Grismer, Story of Fort Myers, 142–44.

86 Grismer, Story of Fort Myers, 142, 144.

87 FMNP, Apr. 2, 1903.

88 FMNP, Apr. 20, 1905; FMNP, Apr. 26, 1906.

89 Advertisements in FMNP, Feb. 27, 1896; FMNP, May 7, 1891; FMNP, Feb. 4, 1897; FMNP, Feb. 20, 1908; and FMNP, Mar. 23, 1911.

90 FMNP, May 13, 1897; FMNP, Apr. 26, 1900.

91 FMNP, Apr. 26, 1900.

92 FMNP, Mar. 20, 1902; FMNP, May 12, 1904; FMNP, Apr. 28, 1904.

93 FMNP, Apr. 11, 1912.

94 The small hotels near Captiva Pass included the Gulf View Cottage, Casa Ybel, and the Captiva House on Sanibel and Captiva Islands. For information on the floating hotel in Captiva Pass, see: FAS, Mar., 19, 1898, 231. For the floating hotel in Boca Grande Pass, see: FMNP, Mar. 10, 1898; FMNP, Apr. 8, 1897; Pearse, Eleanor H.D., Florida's Vanishing Era: From the Journals of a Young Girl and Her Father, 1887–1910 (Winnetka, IL: 1947), 38Google Scholar; Ward, English Angler in Florida, 56.

95 Edic, Fisherfolk of Charlotte Harbor, 44.

96 FMNP, Mar. 19, 1903; Aflalo, Sunshine and Sport, 92–93.

97 FMNP, Mar. 18, 1909; Aflalo, Sunshine and Sport, 92–93; FAS, Sept. 14, 1907, 418.

98 FAS, Sept. 14, 1907, 418.

99 “Freddie Futch Interview,” typescript in Boca Grande Historical Society, Boca Grande, Florida. Newer pass fishing techniques demanded experienced guides capable of navigating the tricky and sometimes-dangerous waters of the harbor's coastal passes. On such dangers, FAS, July 1, 1899, 10–11.

100 FMNP, Mar. 18, 1909; Edic, Fisherfolk of Charlotte Harbor, 44; “Freddie Futch Interview,” Boca Grande Historical Society; Aflalo, Sunshine and Sport, 92–93; FAS, Sept. 14, 418.

101 FMNP, Apr. 2, 1902; FMNP, May 12, 1902; FMNP, Mar. 12, 1903; FMNP, Apr. 8, 1909; FAS, Dec. 20, 1902, x.

102 Reynolds, Charles B., Florida Standard Guide (New York, 1921), 95Google Scholar; NYT, Apr. 2, 1912, 14.

103 Aflalo, Sunshine and Sport, 92–93.

104 FAS, July 1, 1899, 10–11.

105 Arnold, Anthony B., “A Brief History of Boca Grande” in Boca Grande: A Series of Historical Essays, ed. Gibson, Charles Dana (Boca Grande, 1982), 122–24Google Scholar; “Boca Grande Florida,” pamphlet printed by the Gasparilla Island Association, 1920, Special Collections, University of South Florida, 7–8. FMNP, Mar. 28, 1907; FMNP, Apr. 7, 1910; Cleveland and Williams, Our Fascinating Past, 178.

106 Arnold, “A Brief History of Boca Grande,” 124–25.

107 “Boca Grande Florida,” 30–31; Dimock and Dimock, Florida Enchanments, 19–20. According to one fishing guide, these quarters included rooms, docks, and boat slips for the use of the guides. “Freddie Futch Interview, ” Boca Grande Historical Society.

108 “Boca Grande Florida,” 30–31; The Gasparilla Inn & Club, “Our History,” http://www.the-gasparilla-inn.com/about_history.php (accessed Dec. 13, 2007).

109 Sam Whidden biography in “Freddie Futch Interview,” Boca Grande Historical Society.

110 FAS, Sept. 1921, 407–08.

111 Ibid.; also FAS, Mar. 1923, 123.

112 On Aransas Pass, Texas, FAS, July 21, 1892, 54; FAS, July 21, 1894, 52; FAS, Sept. 5, 1896, 187; FAS, July 13, 1901, 26; FAS, July 15, 1905, 52. On the Mexican fishery: FAS, Dec. 23, 1905, 518; FAS, May 6, 1911, 715.

113 FAS, Jan. 1917, 8; FAS, Jan. 1923, 11.

114 Bickel, Mangrove Coast, 276.

115 Douglas, Marjory Stoneman, Florida: The Long Frontier (New York, 1967), 274–75Google Scholar.

116 Ward, English Angler in Florida, 3–4.

117 FMNP, Apr. 26, 1906.