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".
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