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Ben Hill Griffin, III (Frostproof), says: “My grandfather migrated from Georgia after the Civil War to work in the phosphate mines in Fort Meade. He had nothing more than a few dollars and meager belongings but he had ‘perseverance.’ They cleared the land with gripping hoes and hauled water up from the lake for the land and personal needs.”

Sixth generation cattle rancher and former Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court, Jim Alderman (Okeechobee), says his great grandfather, Streaty Parker migrated from North Carolina. At Fort Meade, he led the “Hickory Boys” to stop cattle rustling.

Margaret Alderman’s life (Mims) spans more than six generations of cattle ranchers. E. O. Morgan her husband’s granddaddy was the “Cattle King of the South.”

Gene Crosby, Cattle Manager of the Deseret Ranch was raised in Holopaw, a former timber town. When the industry went under, his daddy got a job at the Deseret Ranch where Crosby grew up.

But times have changed as creeping urbanization threatens the once vast rangelands of Florida. Today, many small ranchers cannot support their family raising cattle. One of the largest “micropolitan”cities in the United States covers Oxford rancher, Mann Bailey’s birthplace. He says, “sometimes people stare at me in my everyday working cowboy clothes but I don’t think they realize I am the Native not the oddity.”

These are true stories of struggle, survival, courage, fortitude and foresight as told by the pioneer “cow hunters” in their own words.

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“The cowboy is not the dying breed he is said to be by those that drive down the highway looking for him. As Lee Marvin told Jack Palance in the 1970′s movie, ‘Monte Walsh‘: ‘As long as there is one man on one horse pushing one cow, there will always be cowboys’.”

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The true Legacies of Florida’s “cow hunters” who tamed the last frontier is recorded in their historic lessons and lifestyle, working the land as they knew it, and learning its ways. The pioneers respected the land and wildlife that gave them spiritual and economic sustenance; the gift of a unique lifestyle in an era that will never return, yet their heritage continues.

“Would Do, Could Do and Made Do,” was a way of life as the cow hunters lived through struggle and forbearance. As told in their own words and pictures, this book is a living tribute and memorial to the lessons they inscribe for future generations.

“Although we came here during hard times,” recalls pioneer Moore Haven rancher Tommy Bronson, “was a time when you could shake a man’s hand on an agreement and your word was the same as a contract.”
“We worked every day, said Bobby Roberts of Immokalee, “there wasn’t a day off except for Sunday when we all went to church. There was no book of guidelines and little law enforcement, leaving the families to protect their own.”

Like other adventurers who came before, building a ranch on thousands of acres of native Florida prairie and in the swamp in the middle of nowhere was a physical, mental and financial challenge. But as Nokomis rancher Al Johnson’s granddaddy told him, “Son, you don’t get to know the needs of the land until you walk it.”

Florida was a wild frontier in the 1800s when Willard Redditt’s great granddaddy picked up stakes to homestead in Conway, part of Orange County. In the 1870s, Dewey Fussell, Polk County rancher said that “this part of the county had only a few settlers. Cows cost $8 to $12 per head. During those times, families drove cattle together, everybody knew everybody, and their cows.”

“Cattlemen have always operated on the fringes,” said Ft. Pierce pioneer Bud Adams, “they have made money, lost fortunes, and endured hardships; they would not have wanted it any other way.” In the words of Kenansville rancher, Doug Partin, “I’ve spent my whole life on a horse and my grandchildren won’t see it the way it was,” except through the vision of their words as told in this book.

Today, more people than Palmdale’s entire population are moving into Florida each day.

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The pioneer culture and Florida’s last wilderness is threatened by growth that exploits “blue gold” water and the land. The sprawling ranches set amidst tall cabbage palm prairies are disappearing. The cost to stay is more than the price to sell with high inheritance taxes and the evaporation of a cattle based economy.

The early pioneers forecasted Florida’s future in their own lifetime as they struggled to hold onto a way of life in a place where few chose to carve a living.

Their stories predict the high premium of development: light pollution, traffic, sewage, crime and the “napalming” of native trees replaced by “ornamental” shrubs, cement, and gated communities. They foresaw the destruction of natural eco-systems, water shortages and communities where wildlife extermination businesses spring up to destroy “pesky” intruders such as squirrels, woodpeckers, snakes and other Everglades species.

The story of Palmdale, Florida, and its people reflects a proud cultural heritage living on the edge of civilization. Palmdale is a ghost town today with only a few ranches left and the Seminole Indian Tribe living off a small market economy against the odds of metropolitan growth, dollars and political power.

This story reflects a tragic national trend threatening the survival of rural America.

“I am a true ‘Florida cracker’ but with a little extra salt!”

Whether it is hunting “piney wood rooters,” parting cows, rounding up wild horses, hunting alligators or heading-up the six family owned W&W Lumber Yards, Iris Wall is at home in what she says “is the best town on Earth” Indiantown, Florida.

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A soft breeze feathers through thatches of palmettos spiking a crimson horizon, as dragonflies “toe-dance” from peak to peak, flashing their turquoise iridescence along a whimsical path. Beams of sunlight stream through waving cabbage palms tracing their graceful stalks into native scrub. Quietly, the morning awakes in this small crevasse of Glades County, nestled on the western shore of Lake Okeechobee in the vast Everglades prairie; a living spectacle of Nature’s unobtrusive Beauty that captures the senses and stamps its unique imprint upon space, time, and those who carry their weary bodies from the bustle of city drama into the fresh air of the pristine wilderness.

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Celebrating National Day of the Cowboy

published in Florida Cattleman’s Magazine

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The 1800s cattle drives are carved deeply into the legends of Florida history when “cow hunters” drove their herds over hundred of miles on the old “cracker trail” to markets in Punta Rassa, shipping them aboard paddle boats to Cuba and Key West to replenish the beef supply after the Civil and Spanish American Wars, and by train from Ft. Pierce north to the breadbasket of the country.