The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1906-03-16
DEFENDS THE
DRAINAGE LAW
An Interesting Article on Timely
Topic by fort Myers Press.
THE PLAN IS FEASIBLE
10 Drain the Upper Everglades and Re.
claim Millions Of Acres. Some
Arguments Answered.

The settlers of Lee county and par
ticularly those living along the shoes
OF the CaloOsahatchee river are disap-
pointed over the holding up by the
courts of Governor BrOwards plans to
drain the Everglades. Our citizens saw
in this the settlement of the vexed
question of dispoaing of the overflow of
water from Okeechobee into the valley
OF the CaloOsahatchee, and both those
who have favored the Hicpochee dam
and those who opposed this plan agreed
that the opening Of canals to the East
Coast would have the effect of relieving
the Caloosahatchee and doing away with
overfiows on this river. As to the
merits Of the plans Ut the State officials
to accomplish this result it cannot be
said that all agreed, as many looked
upon the five cent special tax as pretty
heavy, and thought that tax OF two
cents per acre on all private and State
lands would create great enough rev.
enue to accomplish the work of reclaim
my a vast body of rich soil, say in Z
period of ten years.
Living al We do here in Lee county
on the borders Of this vast tract to be
reclaimed and therefore more directly
Interested than other sections of the
State, there i3 keen regret that the
land companies and others OPPOSING the
plans of the State officials, could not
have come To come agreement that
would prove of mutual advantage to
the private land owners and the state.
We believe that the OPPOSITION has made
a mistake in opening tire all along the
line with the intention of killing the
project. All sorts Of arguments and
theories have been brought forward to
show that the plan to reclaim the Ever
glades is not feasible, or at least can
not be accomplished without the ex-
penditure of tremendous sum of money.
That the scheme is practicable was
shown by the fact that the engineers of
the Disston Company advised that COM
pany to enter into contract with the
State to reclaim the vast bodies of much
lands surrounding Lake Okeechobee,
and such contract was entered into.
The work, however, was never carried
out. The only artificial outlet of the
great lake is that of Hicpochee canal
into the Caloosahatchee and this was
not at first intended for drainage ca
nal, The canal opened to the south,
and intended to be- cut through into the
lower Everglades, was abandoned after
ten miles were cut. This canal could
be completed for an expense Of not over
$50, 900, and this with canal into New
river, or the one contemplated being
cut from the st. Lucie river, together
with the Hicpochee canal, would go a
long way toward accomplishing the
work of permanently lowering Lake
Okechobee six feet below it's normal
level and thus retaining something like
one million acres of rich muck land ly-
Ing for distance of fifteen miles of
the great lake in all directions.
After this was accomplished it would
Of course be necessary to cut lateral
canals, and possibly fourth main ca
nal would be needed either into the
Everglades or direct to the sea.
A canal cut into the St. Luce river
would accomplish the twO-fold purpose
Of drainage and navigation. The latter
purpose would in itself prove of great
advantage to the people of Florida. 1t
would connect the two sections of the
ower peninsular without the necessity
Of making great detour of several
hundred miles. Engineers would find
ways Of controlling the water sufficient
for navigation of steamboats, In these
canals, and once they were declared
navigable the Government would take
charge and the work of improvement
would be carried on by the War depart
meht in charge Of rivers and harbors.,
Despite the fact that Judge Locke in
the United States court has given the
drainage scheme solar plexus blow,
the fight is still being waged on the
Continued on page 81