The 'WPB Canal' and the City's Inland Port: 1917-25

By Bob Davidsson
        The peaceful tranquility of Howard Park in downtown West Palm Beach today belies the site's history 100 years ago as the city's center of commerce and the hub of Palm Beach County's agricultural export industry.
        It was the vision of the city's business leaders that transformed an Everglades drainage canal into a commercial transportation network connecting the agricultural communities of Lake Okeechobee to the heart of West Palm Beach between the years 1917-25.
        The completion of the West Palm Beach Canal in 1917, connecting Lake Okeechobee at Canal Point with the Lake Worth Lagoon, provided farmers with a direct route to the coastal city, where they could ship their produce to northern markets via Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway.
        The City of West Palm Beach enhanced the transportation waterway on May 17, 1918 with the opening of a canal extension or "stub" leading north to a ship turning basin in the city's business district.
        The city's inland port featured docks for steamships and barges, boat slips and an agricultural produce market. An FEC railroad spur connected the basin to the main rail line for rapid shipment of produce.
        It was reported on the opening day of the city's turning basin (today a small pond in Howard Park) that 5,000 crates of agricultural products were loaded onto 10 railroad freight cars for transport to northern cities.

Origin of the West Palm Beach Canal
        In the year 1907, the Florida Legislature created the Everglades Drainage District (EDD) with a mission of increasing agricultural production in South Florida by draining submerged marsh lands through a series of canals leading to the coast.
        Between the years 1915-28, the Hillsboro, New and Miami rivers became drainage outlets to the sea through interconnecting canals originating in Lake Okeechobee and the northern Everglades.
         In 1911, West Palm Beach attorney and developer George Currie (1858-1926) successfully petitioned Florida Gov. Albert Gilchrist on the behalf of the chamber of commerce to include a canal from Lake Okeechobee to the Lake Worth Lagoon as part of the Everglades Drainage District.
        Currie served two terms as mayor of West Palm Beach in 1903-05, and was the treasurer of Dade County prior to the creation of Palm Beach County in 1909. He later donated a strip of land along the Lake Worth Lagoon to the City of West Palm Beach in 1920 known today as "Currie Park".
        The dredging of the West Palm Beach Canal was approved by the State of Florida in 1913. The engineering project was awarded to the firm of Johnson & Company of Miami.
        The July 1914 edition of the "Water Chronicle" (Vol. 4) entitled "Inland Navigation" reported, "Johnson & Co., engineers and contractors of Miami, are progressing with their contract to complete the West Palm Beach Canal, extending from Lake Worth to Lake Okeechobee."
        "They soon will install two additional dredges, a dipper and a suction," the report continues. "This equipment will complete the canal to 42 miles long and require 7 million cubic yards of excavation. The first half is to be completed within two and a half years, and the entire work within four years."
        Soon after the completion of the West Palm Beach Canal in 1917, the West Palm Beach City Commission approved $14,000 in construction bonds to finance the dredging of the northern extension (stub) and ship turning basin.
        The stub canal (today located parallel to Parker Avenue) was dredged to a depth of 20 feet and was 50 feet in width when it opened in May 1918. The depth of the stub canal and turning basin was adequate for use by passenger steamships and motorized barges making the journey from Canal Point to West Palm Beach.
        The passage of vessels from Lake Okeechobee into the West Palm Beach Canal required the deepening of the lake's channel in 1921, and the construction of a lock to maintain uniform water levels for shipping. The Florida Legislature approved funds for the construction of "Lock #1" at Canal Point on June 2, 1919. Work on the project began in September of that year.
        As recorded in the 1919 Laws of Florida, the authorizing legislation reads, "The Board of Drainage Commissioners of the Everglades Drainage District out of funds coming into their hands as such are hereby authorized, empowered and directed to build, erect and construct in the West Palm Beach Canal...a suitable lock so as to furnish safe, convenient and practical means of transportation for vessels navigating Lake Worth and the West Palm Beach Canal between Lake Worth and Lake Okeechobee."
        To help pay the salaries of the lock tenders, the state allowed the collection of tolls ranging from two to five cents per linear foot for passenger boats entering the canals. Local farmers shipping produce to market usually paid half that rate.
        On Jan. 1, 1914, one year after the opening of the Hillsboro Canal in southern Palm Beach County, the first speed limits were enforced by the State of Florida to reduce erosion in the canals. Craft traveling "upriver" toward  Lake Okeechobee had a speed limit of 5 mph, while "downriver" ship traffic could power up to 6 mph.

The Years of Prosperity: 1920-24
        By the year 1920, the population of Palm Beach County increased to 18,154. West Palm Beach was the county seat and largest city with 8,659 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
        New farming communities such as Belle Glade, Chosen, Ritta, Utopia and Port Mayaca dotted the shores of Lake Okeechobee. The Florida Department of Agriculture reported in 1920 that Palm Beach County led the state in truck farming.
        The West Palm Beach Canal, dredged to a depth of 12 feet and with a new lock in operation, was open for both passenger service and the barging of agricultural products between Lake Okeechobee and West Palm Beach.
        In the comprehensive "History of Florida Past and Present, Historical and Biographical," published in 1923, author Harry Gardner Cutlers reported, "During the year 1921, there were unloaded at the canal dock in West Palm Beach for shipment to northern cities, 191,796 hampers or crates of vegetables including cabbage, string beans, tomatoes, egg plants and peppers."
        "In the month of December 1921," he reported, "16,088 crates or hampers of vegetables were shipped from the city, as compared to 16,824 during the same month of the preceding year (1920); which is a fair illustration of the practical value of development in the district."
        The developers of the Palm Beach Loxahatchee Company purchased 6,500 acres of land adjacent to the West Palm Beach Canal to create an accessible farming community called "Loxahatchee Farms". Today the township is incorporated as Loxahatchee Groves.
        The completion of the Everglades Drainage District canal system in South Florida formed a new inland transportation network connecting the Lake Okeechobee communities to West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers. During the early 1920s, more than 150 commercial vessels - including passenger steamships, barges and fishing tenders - plied Lake Okeechobee and its outlets to coastal cities.
        The annual "Report of the Chief Engineer, U.S. Army (Part 2)" recorded a total of 1,612 passengers boarded ships for transport in the West Palm Beach Canal during the year 1924.
        Brothers Bill and Ben McCoy of West Palm Beach operated a nautical transport service for passengers commuting between Moore Haven, located on the western shore of Lake Okeechobee, and their home port. The Menge Brothers Steamboat Company, based in Fort Myers, operated a flotilla of eight steamships and three barges on Lake Okeechobee and its canals.
        For a brief period, the Holland and Butterworth Company of Miami promoted a passenger service up the Hillsboro Canal from Deerfield to Lake Okeechobee. The company charged $3 for a three-day cruise that left Deerfield on Saturdays and returned on Mondays.
        Beginning in 2019, the "Foreverglades," a 41-foot replica of a 1920s-era freight steamboat, was displayed by artist Sofia Valiente in Howard Park, site of the former West Palm Beach turning basin and inland port.
        The "Foreverglades" replica used the steamboat "La Roseada" as its design model. The "La Roseada" was a typical stern-wheeled, steam-powered freight vessel that cruised the West Palm Beach Canal and the waters of Lake Okeechobee in the 1920s.
        Side-wheeled steamships were too wide to navigate the narrow drainage canals of South Florida. The stern-wheelers were more maneuverable and could reverse from obstacles in the waterways.

The End of the Canal Era
        The age of inland commercial navigation along the West Palm Beach Canal entered a period of steep decline beginning in 1925. By the time the Hurricane of 1928 destroyed the docks at the West Palm Beach turning basin, its downtown agricultural market was already deserted.
        The West Palm Beach Canal could not compete as a transportation network with the first cross-county highway and a new railroad extension linking the coastal city to the Glades and Lake Okeechobee farm communities.
        On July 4, 1924, William J."Fingy" Conners' new toll highway opened to traffic between West Palm Beach and the City of Okeechobee. The highway followed the route to Canal Point blazed by the West Palm Beach Canal.*
        One year after the opening of the Conners Toll Highway, the Seaboard Coast Line railroad completed an extension from West Palm Beach to Okeechobee City in 1925. Growers began shipping their produce by truck and on the new rail line.
        With the building of the Herbert Hoover Dike in the 1930s, access to the West Palm Beach Canal from Lake Okeechobee was further restricted for boat traffic. The waterway became the drainage ditch as it is known today - the C-51 canal.
        Fortunately, in its second century, the West Palm Beach Canal may once again become part of a transportation network. A public-private partnership called the "Palm Beach County Blueway Trail" is working on a plan to connect the canal to the county's inland chain of freshwater lakes as well as the Lake Worth Lagoon via a boat lift.
(c.) Davidsson. 2020.
*NOTE: Read related article below. Additional articles are indexed and archived below in "Older Posts".

The 'Flagler of Okeechobee' Connects WPB, Glades

By Bob Davidsson
        An estimated 20,000 residents of Palm Beach, Okeechobee and the future Martin counties gathered in the City of Okeechobee on July 4, 1924 to celebrate the grand opening of a new highway connecting their Everglades farming communities to the coastal city of West Palm Beach.
        Amid the Fourth of July parade, fireworks and political speeches, one man above all was honored at the event - the guiding force and financier  of the new Okeechobee-to-West Palm Beach toll road, William James "Fingy" Conners Sr.
        Okeechobee City Mayor T.W. Conley boasted, "What Henry Morrison Flagler is to the East Coast of Florida, Conners is to Lake Okeechobee."
         Present at the milestone celebration were Florida Governor Cary Hardee (1921-25),  who signed Conners' private toll road franchise into law, and Governor-elect John Martin (1925-28), the namesake of the new county that would soon be carved out of the northern third of the Palm Beaches.
        Both governors concurred that the "William J. Conners Toll Highway" was a "great work of engineering" uniting the Glades communities with the coast.
          The June 22, 1924 edition of the New York Times announced the importance of the new highway to the State of Florida and the nation.
        "What a pioneer from New York State has done and is doing for Florida," the Times reported, "will be rewarded in the form of a public celebration on July 4 when Okeechobee City will take official notice of the opening of traffic of the Conners Florida Highway, connecting the West and East Coasts and affording a straight route from Miami or Tampa to Palm Beach for automobiles, horses or pedestrians."

William James 'Fingy' Conners Sr.
        Fingy Conners was an unlikely pioneer in the transportation history of Florida. He was born Jan. 3, 1857  to Irish-Canadian immigrant parents in the poor blue-collar First Ward of Buffalo, N.Y. By the time he was 19, both of his parents and his sister were dead.
        As a youth, Conners worked as a stevedore, unloading the grain ships that carried their products from throughout the Great Lakes to the mills and storage facilities in Buffalo. He formed a gang of young toughs like himself along the waterfront.
        According to the urban legend, Conners' left thumb was cut off during a gang ceremony. He reportedly shouted, "I lost my fingy!" Thus, he earned his nickname for life - "Fingy Conners".
        Conners first business venture was the opening of a saloon catering to the dock and mill workers. He soon expanded it to a "Labor Contracting Office" supplying (and exploiting) immigrant laborers from New York City for projects in Buffalo.
        Fingy became a force to reckon with among the city's political and business leadership. He was known as the "uncrowned king of the docks." However, when his efforts to organize Buffalo's dock workers into a private monopoly failed in the 1890s, he invested in real estate and purchased two of Buffalo's daily newspapers.
        After the turn of the 20th century, Conners made his fortune as chairman of the Great Lakes Transit Corporation, which controlled 85 percent of the packaged freight trade by ship and rail along the Great Lakes. His company also was one of the largest employers in the State of New York.
        Conners and his wife visited Palm Beach in 1917 and thereafter became seasonal residents of the Palm Beaches until his death in 1929. He purchased 4,000 acres of undeveloped muck land east of Canal Point as part of Everglades land boom.
        There were no roads connecting the Glades agricultural communities to coastal Palm Beach County. Produce was barged from Lake Okeechobee to the City of West Palm Beach via the West Palm Beach Canal (today known as the C-51).
        Conners decided to build a highway extending along the east shore of Lake Okeechobee from Okeechobee City to Canal Point (today U.S. 98), then continuing southeast across Palm Beach County to the 20-Mile Bend where a rough unpaved road existed along the West Palm Beach Canal.
        To pay for the project, Conners successfully lobbied the Florida Legislature for the approval of his private toll road in less than three hours.

The Conners Toll Highway
        The 1924 edition of the Engineers News-Record (v. 93) reported, "A private toll road is being built through the Everglades and along the shore of Lake Okeechobee to afford a cross-state connection for lower Florida. Tampa and Miami are remote from each other simply for lack of a direct connection."
        Conners' vision was to upgrade the existing 19-miles of rutted unpaved road (the future S.R. 80) with a new 33-mile toll highway starting at 20-Mile Bend with Canal Point and Okeechobee City as its destinations. He established the "Conners Toll Highway Company" to manage the project.
        Conners hired engineer R.Y. Patterson to build the highway. Constructing a paved roadway through the Everglades marshes required the use of a dredge and temporary rail system to transport shell-rock fill for the 24-foot-wide road bed.
        To complete the project, Conners purchased of 72,000-acres of land along the east shore of Lake Okeechobee for $700,000. He cut his expenses by selling farm property along the new route. The total cost of the project surpassed  $1.8 million.
        Work on the highway began on Oct. 16, 1923. Conners hard-driving engineer completed the first leg of the highway to Okeechobee City in just eight months, in time for the July 4, 1924 grand opening celebration.
        In 1925, Conners received a contract from the State of Florida to continue building a paved highway extension from Okeechobee City to Sebring. This included the replacement of a ferry crossing with the construction of the "Hardee Memorial Bridge" spanning the Kissimmee River.
        For the first time, a direct cross-state roadway existed between Tampa and Southeast Florida. The estimated drive from West Palm Beach to Tampa, via the existing central Florida route, was reduced from 11 hours to four hours.
        Three toll booths were set up at the 20-Mile Bend and Canal Point in Palm Beach County and south of Okeechobee City. The fees were $1.50 per car and 50 cents per passenger on the state's private toll highway. For agricultural haulers, the toll averaged .03 cents per mile.
        It didn't take long for local pride in the new Glades-to-East Coast highway to turn to resentment over the issue of  tolls. An average of $2,000 per day filled  the private coffers of Fingy Conners. Commissioners began fielding complaints in both Palm Beach and Okeechobee counties. Local politicians lobbied their legislators to remove the tolls.
         However, Fingy Conners continued to profit from his toll highway until his death on Oct. 5, 1929. Following the stock market crash, the Conners Toll Highway Company sold its investment to the State of Florida for $660,000. The tolls were permanently removed on June 10, 1930.
        An official "Conners Toll Highway Historical Marker" was erected in 1986 by the Glades Historical Society, in cooperation with Florida Department of State, along U.S. 98, north of Third Street, in the community of Canal Point.
*NOTE: Read additional articles below or archived in Older Posts.
(c.) Davidsson. 2020.