The Punta Gorda herald., 1920-04-29
MARVELLOUS PHENOMENA"
An Editorial From Arcadia Enter
prise of April 23rd.

An impression has been gained by
the papers of Lee county and the
south end of DeSoto county that
there has been launched at this place
la propaganda to kill the Ca!oosahat-
chee-Palm Beach canal just in the
act of completion in favor CT a pre-
posterous canal by the way of Pun
to Gorda and Shell Greek to Lake
Okeechobee.
The idea advanced by these advo-
Gates Of the cphemeral route" via
Shell Creek is that the sea level is
either higher at Punta Gorda than at
Fort Myers. or that Lake Okeechobee
is lower when it is approached from
the latter place. We gain this i'm
preston from the claim made by
these eminent apostles of a new
theory Of civil engineering tnat there
would be nc locks required in the
Shell Creek route" as is necessary
in the CaloocahGtchee project.
Another claim is that Notifications
would be necessary to protect the
water way from foreign attack, and
that the only way to construct them
would be On Pine Island which Is
eight feet under water at high tide. "
This is ably taken care of by the Es-
tero Eagle, who aptly points out that
under this condition of affairs. Pine
Island does not exist at all for the
reason that there is only three feet
CT tide on the west coast, this leaving
the island under five feet of water at
the lowest tide. OF course, no land
under water at all times to the depth
of five feet is put on the map. Ac-
cording to this CLAIM Pine Island
DOES NOT EXIST AT ALL!
The editor of this paper passed
Pine Island over two years ago down
the Matlacha Pass at high tide, and
If we remember rightly it took us
some five hours to make the trip.
The island was plainly visible all that
time, and must have been some
twelve or fifteen miles long and
stuck up out of the water consider
ably. There are thousands of acres
of fine orange groves upon it. We
are told there is packing house and
the large maps show a town called
st. James at the north end. If the
island is under water five feet at low
tide and eight feet at high tide the
lot of the inhabitants must not be
very felicitOus one, to say the least.
We presume the oranges are gather
ed in the same manner as oysters or
drained with fish spears and har-
poOns.
The advocates Of the Punta Gorda-
Shell Creek (ChattahOo-
chee) "route" claim that ships could
be moved by tide water to the lake
going up, and from the lake to tide
wator coming down, doing away with
the necessity Of locks and using the
forces of nature as motive power
This is an item not to be overlooked,
and it is most fortunate that the sea
level is somo fifteen feet higher at
Punta Corda than it is any other
place on the Earth's surface; that is,
fortunate for Punta GorGa This
beautiful, wiGe-awake city has never
in the memory of man failed to ad-
,ortise every advantage it possesses in
ne way Of natural gifts, but appar-
emily II overlooked its most marvel
Ous and astounding blessing. Tho
only place where the sea level bellies
is name and IS NOT LEVEL is Pun
o Gorda; surely the Commercial
Ilub Of that place is dead beyond
This uneveness of the
.ea level at this place is the solitary
exception which proves the rule. We
advise Punta Gorda to provide ac-
for thousands of stu
tents of natural phenomena and get
'cady for an influx cf all the profess
'ors of geology and physical geogra-
ply in the world. The case of Ft. |
Myers is correspondingly sad. That
place, by an injustice or oversight on
he part of the Creator is placed on
sea level which is considerably lower |
han our DeSoto County sea port. |
We would advise all investors in real |
estate to stay shy of Ft. Myers, for |