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Palm City’s “Man’s Man,” John S. Danforth

~ A tidbit from our upcoming book, A Pictorial History of Palm City, Florida, by Sandra Thurlow & Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch

One of early Palm City’s most interesting characters is John S. Danforth. He was a true “man’s man,” kind of like Ernest Hemingway. Danforth was a writer, a hunter, an avid outdoorsman, and really an entrepreneur. Today, there remains a creek, among other landmarks still holding his name.

According to my mother, John Danforth started modestly with a floating cabin that eventually became one of the earliest  hunting lodges in the country, “Camp Caribou.” It added to his reputation as a “knowledgeable and charismatic sportsman’s host and guide.” This success led him to leave Maine in 1892 and with his friends bring a “floating hotel” to the shores of the St. Luice River where Palm City would be born.

The floating hotel in Maine as photographed before its journey to the St. Lucie River. Thurlow collection.

Dansforth chose to came to the St. Lucie region for its wildlife, “endless” hunting,  and other opportunities lying within an untouched wilderness of slash pine forests,  palmetto, river, slough and ponds; a  perfect habitat for deer, bears, panthers, turkeys, hogs, raccoons, flying squirrels, birds, small fur-bearing mammals, fish and critters of all kinds!

This 1912 Florida Photographic Concern photo of the pinewoods of Palm City Farms was taken 20 years after John Danforth first came to the area in 1892. West of the St. Lucie River was a remote wilderness full of wildlife.

Danforth made friends with the Seminole Indians especially famous Tom Tiger, leader of the Gopher Clan. They hunted the region of the St. Luice as well as going deeper into the lower Everglades. Danforth wrote about these experiences in widely distributed hunting magazines. He wrote because he loved it and to attract others to this St. Lucie/Palm City paradise and gateway to Lake Okeechobee and the inner Everglades.

Even though as an avid animal lover it breaks my heart, I am going to include Danforth’s article that will be in my mother and my upcoming book because it is important documentation. It is entitled “Two Christmas Hunts.” It is written about Danforth’s hunting experience with the goal to kill a panther as led by Tom Tiger. The article appeared in “Shooting and Fishing” No. 9 on December 14, 1899 and is a testament to those times. A time when South Florida, including Palm city was a wildlife wilderness.

~John Danforth is buried beside his loving wife, Sarah, in Fernhill Cemetery,  Highway 76, Stuart, Florida.