Spotlight on Tamiami Trail: Spectacular Images Capture Seminole History

Welcome back to the latest installment in our Seminole Snapshots Series! This week, pack your car snacks because we are taking a journey down the famous Tamiami Trail. Also known as US Highway 41, Tamiami Trail is a long stretch of road that connects Tampa to Miami. Cut directly through the Everglades swamps of South Florida, this ambitious piece of construction would forever alter both Florida and Seminole tourism. This week, explore with us some of the incredible, iconic images that show Seminole life along the trail.

 

The Beginning of the Trail

At the turn of the 20^th century, powerful movers and shakers in some of Florida’s biggest cities began to tackle the “problem” of the Everglades. Focusing on drainage, dredging, and canal projects, many would seek to seize land back from the water in order to support the booming population. This would massively change the landscape of Florida, affecting the Everglades’ delicate ecosystem and sheet flow.

An idea began to percolate about cutting a trans-peninsula highway directly through the Everglades, with the goal of making travelling between Florida’s biggest cities easier. The Board of Commissioners for Dade County, under some intense political pressure, agreed to fund part of the highway in 1915 by providing their civil engineer for the project. This was only four months after members of the brand-new Central Florida Highway Association had proposed the idea.

Only two days later, on August 5, 1915, the first survey group would begin work on the first 3.5 mile stretch of road. But no one involved in the project could have predicted the incredible feat of civil engineering that would be needed to pull it off. Below, a group of Seminoles lead a possible survey group on Tamiami Trail circa 1919. Three men in traditional bigshirts carry photo and survey equipment through tall grass. Two white men trail behind the trio.

 

Cut Through the Swamp

Shaping, blasting, and cutting through the Everglades ended up being an incredibly arduous and monumental task. The conditions were hot and sweltering, and the limestone was deep and almost impassable. Originally funded from individual counties, the project ran out of money multiple times. In 1919 Lee County would run out of money for the project. Eventually, James F. Jaudon from Miami offered financing from the Chevalier Corporation if they agreed to reroute through Monroe County. Their proposal was accepted, and construction began in 1921 on what is now Loop Road in the Big Cypress National Preserve.

In 1922, the State of Florida ran out of funding for the east-west portion of the road. Soon after, Baron Collier, an advertising executive with ties throughout Southwest Florida, offered to fund the project in exchange for having a new county created and named after him. Contention immediately rose as the county was created in 1923, as Collier County almost entirely encompassed the originally proposed route. The Chevalier route mentioned above, which already had so much money and time invested, only had a few miles of road left to be completed. The State Road Department would side with the original route, and construction would begin again in earnest.

In 1923, as part of a publicity stunt a group of prominent men named the “Tamiami Trailblazers” would launch an expedition out of Fort Myers with the goal of reaching Miami. The subject of a previous Seminole Snapshots, W Stanley Hanson, was part of this group. They left Fort Myers on April 4, 1923. The entire journey took 23 days, with numerous hiccups. The group would also include Little Billy Conapatchee, and they would pass through his camp. Below, you can see an image from the Trailblazer’s expedition.

 

Resilience and Adaptation

The Tamiami Trail officially opened on April 26, 1928, after years of inconsistent funding and incredible amounts of labor and money. Over 2,000 workers would blast their way across the state, with the bulk of the work being completed in the last 5 years with financing from Baron Collier.  In total, the Tamiami Trail cost around $8 million. That would be over $150 million adjusted to 2025 dollars. Its construction also utilized over 2.6 million sticks of dynamite.

But, by 1928 and for better or worse, the trail was completed. This highway would completely transform South Florida, and usher in an age of tourism not seen before. Below, you can see Seminoles participating in the Trail opening in Everglades City on April 26, 1928.

The construction of Tamiami Trail was a double-edged sword for the Seminoles of South Florida. On one hand, it was another augmentation of their ancestral Everglades. The road cut directly through the heart of the Everglades and had a huge impact on the natural ecosystem. But it also spurred a huge tourism boom, which many Seminoles responded to by setting up family camps along the new Trail.

The rise of personal automobiles also had a marked impact, with Tin Can Tourists motoring their way immediately along the newly opened Trail. The first Tin Can tourists were nomads, seeking out hidden gems, small towns, and Seminole camps in Model Ts modified as campers. The 20s and 30s were booming decades for these wanderers. Eventually, it would also lead to the Golden Age of Camping as Floridians felt the post-War flush in the 1950s and 60s.

 

Life on Tamiami Trail

Throughout it all, Seminoles would set up tourist destinations for visitors to flock to. Just off the Trail, visitors could experience authentic Seminole family camps, crafts, and demonstrations. Tamiami Trail was a huge hub for tourist activity, as you can see in the 1940s postcard below. Note that the cross-section from Fort Myers to Miami is the “headquarters of the Seminole Indians.”

It is important to remember that these camps were more often than not permanent residences for many of the Seminoles who lived in them. That means that beyond the tourist trade, all aspects of their lives operated out of the camps themselves. Below, you can see a row of frogging boats outside William McKinley’s camp on the Tamiami Trail canal circa 1946. Frogging, or gigging, is a traditional method of catching frogs with a long pole or multi-pronged spear. At one point, it was a major part of the Seminole economy.

Here, you can see a Seminole woman and two children gigging for frogs near the Tamiami Trail, circa 1951.

Here, you can see an aerial view of a family camp on Tamiami Trail. This particular camp is the one Bill Osceola grew up in.

Many prominent Seminoles of the time either set up camps along the Trail or grew up in them. Below, you can see a shot of a group of Seminole men, women, and children at a family camp along Tamiami Trail. The man on the far right is Cory Osceola. Two of the women in the photo are holding a pestle with mortar, which was used to grind corn. “Chief Cora (sic) Osceola Camp Tamiami Trail” is handwritten on the bottom of the image.

 

Family Camps

During the 1930s and 1940s family camps along Tamiami Trail began to become very established. One that is heavily featured in the photographic record is that of Chestnut Billie. Below, you can see Chestnut Billie (center) flanked by John Willie (left) and Dr. Tiger (right).

Often, the photographs showed Seminoles performing day to day tasks, sewing patchwork, wood carving, and cooking food. Here, you can see a shot featuring the kitchen at Chestnut Billie’s Camp along Tamiami Trail, circa 1932. The Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum featured the postcard in the 2005 exhibit Seminoles Look Back: Our People in Postcards. It was noted during the exhibit that “All our kitchens had tables which served as work counters. The table on the left was probably reserved for containers holding waters.”

Below, you can see a group of women cooking around a star fire. This central fire was described in 1913 by anthropologist Alan Skinner, where he observed that “large cypress logs are cut and laid under the cook-house, radiating from a common center like spokes of a wheel. At the ‘hub’ the fire is lighted, and as the wood burns it is constantly shoved inward and hence never needs to be cut into shorter lengths. At this fire, the only one in the camp, the women cook for the entire village” (Skinner 70). This image was taken by Ralph Doubleday, who we previously featured in a Seminole Snapshots post.

In this week’s featured image, you can see another shot depicting the star fire in Chestnut Billie’s Tamiami Trail camp, with two women sitting in front of it. You can tell the shot was taken the same day as the one above, as the women are the same as in the lower right hand of the above image. In this one, you can see some great detail of their patchwork clothing and numerous necklaces (2003.15.157, ATTK Museum).

 

Tourists at the Camps

Although a huge number of the photographic records can be seen in the postcards that were taken and sold at the camps, there were still a good amount that were taken by the tourists themselves. Here, you can see two men and two young Seminole Boys standing by a car. One man has his back to the camera and the other is turned toward the car. The two young boys are both wearing children sized long shirts. Written on the back in pencil is “Seminole Indians Tiamiamia (sic) Trail Mar 1938.”

In the below image, you can see a shot taken by a tourist. Three men (two, possibly boys) pole a canoe in the background canal. The reverse reads “A visit on the Tamiami Trail. January 1942.”

The Tamiami Trail had an incredible impact on the Seminole economy, as well as Seminole tourism, in the 20^th century. Seminole camps along the trail are symbols of Seminole resilience and adaptation in the face of a shifting world. We encourage you to seek out more information and images from this period of time. These images, and those like them, provide a vital look at Seminole culture and history during this pivotal time, and paved the way for the Seminole Tribe of today.

 

Additional Sources

The author accessed these sources digitally. Page reference numbers may not align with paper and hardback copies.

Skinner, Alanson. “Notes on the Florida Seminole.” American Anthropologist, vol. 15, no. 1, 1913, pp. 63–77.

 

Author Bio

Originally from Washington state, Deanna Butler received her BA in Archaeological Sciences from the University of Washington in 2014. Deanna moved to Florida in 2016. Soon, she began working for the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office. Deanna was the THPO’s Archaeological Collections Assistant from 2017-2021. While at the THPO, Deanna worked to preserve, support, and process the Tribe’s archaeological collection. She often wrote the popular Artifact of the Month series and worked on many community and educational outreach programs. She lives in Lakeland, FL with her husband, two sons, and dog.