Ditch of Dreams: The Cross Florida Barge Canal and the Struggle for Florida's Future

by Steven Noll, David Tegeder

Overview

For centuries, men dreamed of cutting a canal across the Florida peninsula. Intended to reduce shipping times, it was championed in the early twentieth century as a way to make the mostly rural state a center of national commerce and trade.

Rejected by the Army Corps of Engineers as "not worthy," the project received continued support from Florida legislators. Federal funding was eventually allocated and work began in the 1930s, but the canal quickly became a lightning rod for controversy.

Steven Noll and David Tegeder trace the twists and turns of the project through the years, drawing on a wealth of archival and primary sources. Far from being a simplistic morality tale of good environmentalists versus evil canal developers, the story of the Cross Florida Barge Canal is a complex one of competing interests amid the changing political landscape of modern Florida.

Thanks to the unprecedented success of environmental citizen activists, construction was halted in 1971, though it took another twenty years for the project to be canceled. Though the land intended for the canal was deeded to the state and converted into the Cross Florida Greenway, certain aspects of the dispute--including the fate of Rodman Reservoir--have yet to be resolved.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813037547
Publisher:	University Press of Florida
Publication date:	11/22/2009
Series:	Florida History and Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Steven Noll is senior lecturer in history at the University of Florida.
David Tegeder is associate professor of history at Santa Fe College.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Introduction 1

1 Surveys and Steamboats 11

2 Boom or Boondoggle? 53

3 The Dream Deferred 100

4 Groundbreaking, Breaking Ground 142

5 New Visions, New Strategies 178

6 Floating Logs, Dying Trees, and Clogging Weeds 210

7 Death of a Dream 268

Epilogue: From Canal to Greenway 315

Appendix: Guide to Manuscript Collections by Location 331

Acknowledgments 337

Notes 343

Bibliography 373

Index 387

Editorial Reviews

Highly recommended.”—Choice



“Tells the story of the transformation of twentieth-century American liberalism, the fracturing of the New Deal coalition, and the birth of the environmental movement.”—New Books in American Studies



“Reveals as much about modern-day Florida as it does the state’s past—particularly when it comes to competing visions of progress, growth, preservation, and the use of political power to achieve those goals.”—Florida Trend



“Reads like an epic, a tale spanning centuries and filled with avarice, courage, determination, hubris, and a heroine out of central casting. Steven Noll and David Tegeder leave no stone unturned in their outstanding rendering of this most peculiar episode of Florida’s often-shameful environmental history.”—Tampa Bay History



“Noll and Tegeder do an excellent job of placing the canal within the context of local, state, and national politics.”—Journal of Southern History



“Touches every era and most great figures of Florida politics.”—Daytona Beach News-Journal



“A compelling narrative of the competing visions for Florida’s future, offering subtle insights into the contemporary politics of land use, federalism, pork-barrel politics, and the evolution of environmentalism.”—Enterprise and Society

From the Publisher