Category Archives: History of the St Lucie Canal

Two 1924 “Extreme Tropical Cyclone Rainfall Events” Affecting Completion of the St. Lucie Canal

I want to thank Tony Cristaldi of the National Weather Service, Melbourne, Florida, for writing and sharing historic weather information that gives strong insight into why in 1924 the St. Lucie Canal was so damaged that its completion date has been “clouded in history,” and thus the subject of my most recent blog posts.

The October 1924 Cuba hurricane is the earliest officially classified Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on the SSHS. According to Tony Cristaldi, NWS Melbourne: “Heavy rain fell along, and well ahead (north) of its center, with between 1 and 2 FEET falling across SOFL from Oct 18-23, and this is only part of the story….” Image: courtesy of Wiki.

The Great Rain of 1924, Postponing the St. Lucie Canal 

Storm Damage that Almost Destroyed the St. Lucie Canal

Mr. Cristaldi’s message is below. It is a fascinating read! Tropical Storm #9’s rainfall levels; the Great Cuba Hurricane’s immense rainfall-interestingly, a hurricane who later would be declared a Category 5 Storm; and the combined 1924 rain levels in our region of today’s Treasure Coast of up to three feet !

Thank you Tony for this wonderful documentation -as together we learn all we can for the 100 Year Anniversary of the St. Lucie Canal -coming up in 2024 even though the storm damage pushed its “opening” to 1925 or 1926 and maybe later….

Below: Letter National Weather Service’s Tony Cristaldi:

“Hi Jacqui,

I’ve been an avid reader of your blog for a few years now. I did a some research into this rainfall event, and learned a few things. This was one of two separate extreme tropical cyclone rainfall event which impacted SEFL in October of 1924.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1924_Atlantic_hurricane_season

The first, a moderate strength (60 mph) Tropical Storm (#9), was centered over the Gulf of Mexico, well to the west of Florida, but was part of a prolonged wet period which produced between 5-15″ of rainfall up and down the entirety of the Florida east coast from October 4-10.

The second, which occurred only days later, was the infamous “Great Cuba Hurricane of 1924”. Heavy rain fell along, and well ahead (north) of its center, with between 1 and 2 FEET falling across SOFL from Oct 18-23.

While I could not find daily/monthly rainfall totals for the PSL/Stuart area, there are records avaialble for Vero Beach for that month. 25.01″ of rain fell there that month, including almost 12″ from the first system and nearly 9″ from the second (during the 2-day period where 15″ fell at Stuart).

Given the heaviest rainfall totals occurred south of Vero Beach during both events, one can probably assume that between 2.5 and 3 FEET of rain fell near the Inlet entrance that month, a truly historical month in terms of weather.”

Tony Cristaldi
National Weather Service
Melbourne FL

Thank you Tony! And for readers, you can conveniently follow NWSMelbourne  for today’s hurricanes and rainfall events. I know I do! Obsessively!

1924 Storm Damage that Almost Destroyed the St. Luice Canal

Florida Memory, Everglades Drainage District, St. Lucie Canal, undated.

Over the past year, I have been trying to learn everything I can about the history of the St. Lucie Canal. Details are hard to find, especially because the canal has served two masters: Florida’s Everglades Drainage District (1916-1930) and the USA’s Army Corps of Engineers (1930 to present).

I would be remiss if I did not thank the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corps of Engineers for making many outstanding and rare historical documents available to me.

In light of next year’s 2024 “100 Year Anniversary” of the St. Luice Canal, it is my hope that with sufficient access to historical documentation, the present and following generations will continue work to undo the massive ecological damage of the St. Luice Canal; this can only be accomplished with full understanding of its history.

Today, I focus on an ACOE 1954 document entitled:

Basic Considerations, Partial Definite Project Report, Central and Southern Florida Project For Flood Control and Other Purposes, Part IV, Lake Okeechobee and Outlets, Supplement 4–Design Memorandum, Effects of Fresh-Water Discharges Through St. Lucie Canal

The succinct history in this slender document really helps give insight into my previous post, The Great Rain of 1924 and the Postponement of the St. Luice Canal. The Storm of 1924, that occurred in October of the year the canal was “completed” caused serious damage to the St. Lucie Canal and was then followed by famously destructive hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 and then another serious storm in 1930. After such a run of Mother Nature’s wrath, the canal that had been built as the primary control outlet for Lake Okeechobee became too much for the state and thus the federal government took over.

In an alternate universe of my dreams, the St. Lucie Canal was overcome by Mother Nature. She shoaled in the manmade cut through her upland pine and pond cypress forests with the raging waters of Allapattah Flats. Lake Okeechobee was never diked and flows free as God intended. Wildlife abounds. Ofcouse that is not what happened, Humankind, the great controller, had another plan, and thus our world today…

Begin transcription of ACOE document:

c. History–Surveys for a canal route which would allow excess water from Lake Okeechobee to be released in St. Lucie River were made as early as 1905; however, construction was not begun until 1916. The location chosen was selected because it presented the shortest and least expensive route to tidewater. Original construction of the canal to a capacity of 5,000 cubic feet a second with Lake Okeechobee at elevation 15.6 feet was practically complete in 1924 by the Everglades Drainage District. It was controlled by two dams, one near the lake and the other near the lower end. Local runoff from the storm of October 18-21, 1924, overtopped the spoil banks in several places, cut deep channels into the canal, and carried a million yards of eroded material into the channel. The channel capacity was reduced to about 70 percent of the 5,000 cubic feet a second design flow. The spillway at the lower end of the canal was not opened prior to the storm and a channel about 65 feet wide was washed out around the dam down to a bottom elevation of -4 feet. Serious shoaling from local inflow also resulted from the storms of 1926 and 1928. The design capacity of the canal became available after excavation by the drainage district of about 2,000,000 cubic yards of deposited material in 1927 and additional 1,000,000 cubic yards in 1928. However, sand bars formed during the storm of 1930 and channel capacity was again reduced. In 1930 the United States accepted control of Lake Okeechobee as an authorized project and since that date the canal has been maintained and operated by the Corps of Engineers. Construction of fixed spillways at 16 inflow points along the banks of St. Luice Canal was initiated in 1933 in order to prevent sediment from entering the canal. The locations of those spillways are shown on plate 1. Crest elevations were below natural ground but high enough to provide stilling basins in the wash channels upstream. A constricted section about 6,000 feet long, in which the bottom width was only 65 feet instead of 155 feet as designed, was left in the canal near the lower dam. In 1937 that construction was removed and the waterway improved to provide a navigation channel 6 feet deep. The River and Harbor Act of August 26, 1937, provided for replacement of obsolete structures at locks Nos. 1 and 2 in the canal by a new lock and spillway at the site of the lower dam. The main spillway was completed in 1944 except for the Trainter gates. Temporary wooden flashboards were used until the seven steel Trainter gates were installed in 1950. The canal was enlarged in 1949 to provide a navigable depth of 8 feet and a discharge capacity of about 9,000 cubic feet a second with lake stage at 15.6 feet.

End transcription…

Cover
Page 3, History w/ my notes
Spillways map referred to in text

Next post, I will continue with Section 5. “Discharges through St. Lucie Canal.”

 

 

The Draining of Allapattah Flats-C-23

Recently I wrote a post entitled: “Learning the Beauty of Pre-Drainage Lands – St Lucie Canal.” One of the most prevalent natural features asked about is “Allapattah Flats.” I recall hearing the mysterious words “Allapattah Flats” while growing up in Martin County. Now, almost 60 years later, I recognize I really do not know what they were…

Page 1, EDD 1915 St Lucie Canal Survey Lake Okeechobee to Okeechobee Atlantic Divide, Florida Archives. Click to enlarge and view Allapattah Flats.

What I mostly heard about as a kid was not “Allapahttah Flats” but “Allapattah Ranch.”  Although Allapattah Ranch was a boon in the 1950s, it was part of the total drainage and destruction of this enormous and magnificent swamp documented on many old maps like “Map of the Seat of War in Florida,” compiled by order of Bvt. Brigr. General Z. Taylor in 1839. Through the centuries many words were used for Allapattah Flats -all alluding to alligators like Al-Pa-ti-o-kee Swamp below, or just Halpatiokee. Obviously, there was a lot of fresh water on the land.

Excerpt 1839 Map of the Seat of War, Z.Taylor

In a 1952 Stuart News article shared from Sandra Thurlow’s archives, reporter Ernest Lyons  entitles his 1952 news article “Griscom Bettle’s Allapattah Ranch Has 4,000 Acres Under Water Control, Lush Grass on Marin Highway.”  Lyons article is a great learning tool. He goes on to explain that 23,000 acres of land was purchased from the Southern States Land and Timer Company around 1947. The land being drained and developed is “six miles deep” along Martin Highway and extends “four miles west from Marin Hammock.” It contains pine ridge land serrated by maiden cane sloughs that “bite” into muck, sand, and clay soils -shells and marl deposits- once an ancient seabed. The lands are so flat -when it rains – the water just spreads out.

Lyons has an easy way to remember Allapattah Flats’ location. It is described as a “long marsh extending down back of Ft. Pierce to the St Lucie Canal.”

There were 2 – 4 feet muck deposits atop marl under 1 – 3 foot of water. The muck is what  the landowner is after. He wants to drain and then churn this ancient sea up so soft  green grasses can grow on the rich exposed land for cattle.

These thousands of year old “Flats” were separated from the east coast on one side and from Lake Okeechobee on the other. Likely the Green Pine Ridge on the east and the Orlando Ridge on the west.  Lyons states the ridges themselves were 8 -12 miles wide!

At this point the article goes into the controversial C-23 canal…

This canal was so controversial. A bad thing for the St. Lucie River. The locals had already had tremendous problems in Bessey Creek and around Palm City with shoaling and fish leaving the area. Now on top of the St. Lucie Canal there would be the C-23 canal. Lyons talks about how the C-23 is being built as an “emergency canal” as part of the Central and South Florida Plan of 1948 post great flood of 1947.

Lyons explains how C-23 starts at the first curve above Bessey Creek Bridge and then cuts through slough depressions again and again between pine ridges. The ACOE is ameliorating the worries of the public by promising “controls” that are to be established every few miles to regulate the water through the Flats.

Bessey Creek and a newly constructed C-23 looking southwest in 1965. Photo archives of Sandra Thurlow.

C-23 was started in 1951 and completed in 1961, nine years after this Stuart News article was written in 1952. What a shame that so much was destroyed and so little saved of the wondrous Allapattah Flats. They really were a part of the Everglades itself. Thankfully some restoration began in 2014 and continues.

Click on image to enlarge:

Bessey Creek flows into the St Lucie River. Here a newly constructed C-23 photographed in 1965. Allapattah Flats sprawl south and west of canal. The creek is the exiting point for C-23 into the St Lucie River. The canal was built between 1951 and 1961. As land development and farming of the surrounding lands has increased so has the pollution from the canal. (Ruhnke-Photo archives of Sandra Thurlow)
Summary of C-23 written by FDEP in 2000. See map for location of C-23 canal.

*1924 is the 100 year anniversary of the St Lucie Canal AKA C-44. C-23 was built later ’51’-61′ as people continued to drain the area; C-24 ’58-’62; C-25 ’49-62. These dates are from the SFMWD and may include land acquisition.

Full 1839 Z. Taylor map showing pre-drainage lands
Time Capsule Flight ALLAPATTAH FLATS-ALIPATIOKEE SWAMP

Learning the Beauty of Pre-Drainage Lands – St Lucie Canal

-Florida’s Everglades Drainage District  survey for St Lucie Canal, 1915. Chief Engineer, F.C. Elliott. The St Lucie Canal was built  from Lake Okeechobee to the St Lucie River from 1916-1924. Trees and water bodies to be cut through are written at the top of the two page survey and are a rare record of pre-drainage lands. Click on images to enlarge.

Page 1, EDD 1915 St Lucie Canal Survey Lake Okeechobee to Okeechobee Atlantic Divide, Florida Archives.
Page 2, EDD 1915 St Lucie Canal Survey Okeechobee Atlantic Divide to South Fork of St Lucie River, Florida Archives.

The pre-drainage lands between Lake Okeechobee and the St Lucie River have been drastically changed. Drainage, agriculture production, and land development have altered the natural system. What did it look like when the Everglades Drainage District engineers first saw these lands? Fortunately, Florida Archives contains surveys directed by chief engineer, Fred C. Elliot from 1915. These rare blueprints provide a broad idea of the native vegetation, trees, creeks, lakes, sloughs, and ponds of that era. Something many of us have no idea of today…

When you click on the two above images you will see that at  the top of the survey are written vegetation descriptions:

East to West they read:

Okeechobee Marsh, Flat Woods and Ponds,  Allapattah Flats, Pine Woods, Cane Slough, Pine Woods, and Creek Hammock.

Yes, along the east side of Lake Okeechobee where Lock 1 was constructed at Port Mayaca, lies the “Okeechobee Marsh” the “Edge of Glades.” This area was indeed part of the greater Everglades system as Lake Okeechobee would expand during rainy times, overall about thirty percent larger than today.

As the land rise east from the Okeechobee Marsh the survey notes “Flat Woods and Ponds.” These flat woods were mesic or wet. More than likely, it was slash pine and some other species. Ponds, sometimes dry, were everywhere, especially near Lake Okeechobee. East of the “Flat Woods and Ponds” was “Allapattah Flats,” a huge wetland, also called Halpatiokee or Alipatiokee Swamp. This “swamp” is well marked on historic maps and even mentioned by Buckingham Smith in the first U.S. Everglades survey of 1848.

We can see that “Allapattah Flats” cradled the higher lands and “Settlement of Annie” today’s Orlando Ridge and Indiantown. The wet marsh flowed south to the waters of the Loxahatchee Slough. The survey marks multiple ponds and the “Okeechobee Atlantic Divide” to the east of “Allapattah Flats.” Once the St Lucie Canal was built, these waters that mostly flowed south were directed to the St Lucie River.

Roads are noted on the survey, and the “Old Trail Jupiter Road” is cut through by the St Lucie Canal in the area of today’s Timer Power’s Park in Indiantown. Note “Plat’s Ranch” along the trail. Other roads that led from the “Settlement of Annie” were the trail south to Big Mound City, the trail north to Fort Bassinger, and the road east to Stuart that still exist today as Highway 76.

The survey notes more ponds and “Pine Woods” as the canal continues east. Pine Woods are more forest like with trees closer together than Flat Woods. Tall, stately, virgin slash pine (yellow pine) possibly hundreds of years old would have dominated this region providing excellent habitat for bears, panthers, deer, woodpeckers, and a plethora of other animals. For native Americans and European pioneers the lands between Lake Okeechobee and the St Lucie River was a treasured hunting ground.

Going east, right before the upturn in the canal, we run into an “Arm of Cane Slough,” on the east side and below the “Green Pine Ridge.” The Green Pine Ridge was surrounded  by “Pine Woods.”  A slough, as in Cane Slough, is a marsh-like shallow river. “Cane Slough Creek” merged with “North Creek” to feed the St Lucie River’s South Fork. Note the cypress dome and large lake in the area between the road to Stuart and the proposed canal just under the “Green Pine Ridge.” Look how large and wide Cane Slough became as it neared the St Lucie! Today this developed area is all but “history.”

As the Pine Woods fade, we come to  “Lock and Dam 2,” today’s St Lucie Locks and Dam & the 7 Gates of Hell. Interesting to see that the connection occurs at the head of “North Creek” where there a significant drop in elevation begins to the St Lucie River. At “North Creek,” the vegetation changes from “Pine Woods” to “Creek Hammock” containing a variety of close knit trees and shrubs leading to the South Fork of the St Lucie River.

During this time, 1915, the North Creek was located above Cane Slough Creek, the two merged and fed the South Fork of the St Lucie River. It is ironic that the canal survey that killed the St Lucie River provides one of the only records of the area’s pre-drainage glory.

Insert survey 2, 1915
Historic postcard- natural Florida creek, maybe North Creek that the St Lucie Canal was connected to looked something like this? Collection, Sandra Henderson Thurlow.
1940 Aerials U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, UF -vegetation notes JTL