The evening leader. (Tarpon Springs, Fla.) 191?-19??, 1919-05-10

annex all the land between that line
and the Anclote river as a subdivision
of TarpOn Springs, so that the own
ers of property in that section would
have to pay their share of the i'm
provements which would increase the
value of their properties, instead of
the citizens of the present town hav-
ing to bear all the burden and these
people deriving a large share of the
benefits without cost to them.
Then the town should devote it's en-
tire attention to making a deep water
port at the west end of Lemon street,
building long wharf out to the bay
channel much the same as the wharf
that caused st. Petersburg to become
a Mecca for tourists, by being a col
Letting place for all kinds of fish to
feed on the marine growth attached to
the piling. On this wharf there should
be built two or perhaps more fish
houses and the refuse from them
would be an additional attraction to
the fish. The fish houses would will
ingly move there from their present
location as practically all the fish
comes from outside the river, and a
large fleet of fishing smacks could be
used in the snapper fishing from that
point. This is impossible from up the
river, now or ever, as it is vain hope
ever to have deep channel up the
river, as the present channel would
have to be made wider, deeper and
straighter, and is already down to rock
III number of places; and while the
U. S. engineers will not tell you point
blank that they will not give us
deeper channel, they simply do not
recommend it, and we do not get the
channel, as we all know, and our large
sponge vessels (which correspond in
size with the vessels used in snapper
fishing) must stay out in the bay.
What fleet of snapper boats would
mean to this town can best be shown
by comparison. Tampa is 35 miles
up the bay-70 miles round trip-with
a necessity of towing in and out of the
river at Tampa. While st. Petersburg
is nearer the gulf it has an additional
32-mile haul by railway express to the
Northern market. Anclote anchorage
is the most easily accessible harbor on
the gulf coast for that class of vessels,
Cuban sma"ks sometimes coming $50
miles to make this port. While the
ports of Boca Grande, Carrabelle, and
ST. Andrews are entered by narrow
shoals outside with consequent loss of
vessels the bottom here is soft mud
and will not injure a vessel if she
naturally follow with the money COM
ing in with which to defray the ex-
pense. Telephone lines can easily be
installed, a street car line can be own
ed by the city, with connections to
both railroads and a track which will
clpport railroad traffic, and if the
railroads use them let the railroads
pay the city. Jitneys, of course, will
be glad to run there, as the road is
good.
Before taking this seriously, go to
the government chart in the post office
and measure the distance a wharf will
have to be built to reach 8 1-2 feet at
time when all the snapper fishing is
their customers, which at present they
are not able to do as our small vessels
cannot go to Mexico in the winter
time.
Regarding the bridge over Whit
comb bayou, if this port should in
crease as it should in size, this bridge
would not only be wanted but would
be needed, but until such time as is
proven the need of it, the money it
would cost to build this bridge could
be used to better advantage improving
the money-maling end of the venture.
AS we already have access to the west
end of Lemon street by hard road,
and as automobiles and trucks will be
used, the difference in distance can
temporarily be overlooked and the i'm
proving of this road and bridge will
done on the Campcho bank off the
coast of Mexico, the prevailing winds
are from N. N. E. and N. w, making
the fishing ports Of Galveton, Pensa-
cola, Mobile, St, Andrews and Cara
belle have contrary wind. On the
return trip with the fish, matter Of
several hundred miles against a heavy
sea, with a perishable cargo, a. port
that can be reached by more favora-
BILE route will have the advantage.
Also our dealers must have a con-
slant supply of fish in order to retair
should ground. Also in the winter
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