Cattle town brims with fish and history
By Stephen E. Raymond/For The Tampa Tribune

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ST. LUCIE LOCK - After an enjoyable stay at Franklin Lock, east of Fort Myers, this lock between Lake Okeechobee and the Atlantic seemed like a dud.

The small campground, about five miles from downtown Stuart, has nine pretty and manicured sites within 20 yards of the canal. Each has a concrete pad, picnic table and fire ring, along with water and electricity, and they are all near a dump station and hot showers.

While we were there, fishermen sat on granite boulders at the canal's edge, catching mullet every day. But, again, I found the technique too intricate.

Under almost any other circumstances, this would have been a superb place to stay, but - and this was a big but - the lock was closed for repairs and there was no water traffic. And boats had provided the constantly changing pictorial panorama at Franklin.

As a consequence, we stayed only three days while exploring around Stuart.

Our travels took us west through 20 or so miles of cattle country and citrus acreage to Indiantown, a frontier town of a couple of thousand with a heavy sprinkling of migrant farm workers.

We missed a bet here.

In the middle of town stood Seminole Country Inn, a grand old two-story stucco building of immense size for this small town. The year of construction, 1926, was proudly emblazoned on the front of this cream-colored, boom-era building. It looked remarkably well-preserved, and I had no difficulty picturing a gaggle of pushy real estate salesmen with flat Panama lids. They would have had no qualms about selling submerged lots and wilderness home sites to suckers.

Lots and land were sold back then for a little paper, then were resold a half-dozen times again before the year was out. Each time the price jumped dramatically.

The offices for my mythical hustlers were doubtless in this building, which would have stood out like the Taj Mahal on the stark Florida prairie. This immense hotel would have been a showcase then and is still a conversation piece today.

I'm sure, if we'd hunted, we could have found on the outskirts of Indiantown in almost any direction the remnants of an abandoned and platted subdivision. Time would have broken and twisted its curbs and sidewalks and eaten its narrow roads and replaced them with sand spurs and weeds, but where roadbed once existed would show as starkly, as did the platting at old Sun City between Tampa and Ruskin for decades after developers' dreams dissipated on Bay area thunderheads.

We should have, but didn't, look inside this rare old building, which ought to be and may indeed be saved for posterity. The sign suggested it still functioned as a hotel and it might still have been the cultural heart of this small oasis of civilization surrounded by saw grass and farms.

Another day we went north to a genuine fish camp at Blue Cypress Lake, 22 miles west of Vero Beach in the middle of the cattle country and no different today than 100 years ago.

This Central Florida lake is the headwaters of the St. Johns River.

Middleton's Fish Camp is at the end of a graded road, five miles north of State Road 60. It occupies one of several fingers that have been excavated by dragline at the northwestern edge of the lake.

A compact little community of mobile homes and travel trailers, owned by folks who may have come here at first for a few days but then settled permanently, occupies this finger. These are the real fishing experts.

There are no facilities at Middleton's except water, cold showers and rudimentary toilets, but this doesn't deter fishermen. And Middleton's is definitely aimed at the fisherman.

Camping space is free and limited to perhaps a dozen units on a first-come, first-served basis.

The small store has bait, tackle, ice, some groceries, gasoline, boat rentals and guide service. The lake is large, the number of users is limited. This is a refreshingly complete fish camp and I'm convinced you can smell the fish out there.

North of Stuart we looked over the Savannas, a St. Lucie County park formerly the water reservoir for Fort Pierce. It is 1.2 miles west of U.S. 1 and the Indian River.

The Savannas Recreation Area is a utilitarian park with adequate shade at most sites in its angler-oriented campground.

Some 500 acres of the park's 550 acres were returned to nature, and state agencies planted lake grasses and stocked the facility when the city turned to wells for its water.

The Savannas has 44 sites, most with water, electricity, sewers, tables, fire pits, hot showers, laundry and security.

South of Stuart 15 miles and fronting on U.S. 1 is Jonathan Dickinson State Park, a full-service park.

It has two camping areas, one snuggled under huge, bushy Australian pines, the other under tall long-leaf pines near the Loxahatchee River. Together, the campgrounds have 135 sites, most with water and electricity.

The Loxahatchee was named a National Wild and Scenic River in 1985 and one of four trails in Jonathan Dickinson follows the river. There is a boat tour of the river where deer, alligators and otters are abundant.

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