Ditch of Dreams

Traces the long standing effort to build a canal across Florida "Offers timeless lessons about pork-barrel politics and the power of citizen-environmentalism. Most important, it reminds us that todayrs"s economic coup may well be tomorrow's environmental crisis."--Cynthia Barnett, author of Mirage "Ties the exploitation of the Ocklawaha to Florida history across nearly two centuries. Moreover, they bring to life the personalities of canal supporters and detractors, including such dynamic individuals as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Claude Pepper, and Marjorie Harris Carr."--Frederick Rowe Davis, author of The Man Who Saved Sea Turtles 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.

Steven Noll, senior lecturer in history at the University of Florida, is the author of Mental Retardation in America: A Historical Reader. David Tegeder is associate professor of history at Santa Fe College.

Foreword	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Surveys and Steamboats	p. 11
Boom or Boondoggle?	p. 53
The Dream Deferred	p. 100
Groundbreaking, Breaking Ground	p. 142
New Visions, New Strategies	p. 178
Floating Logs, Dying Trees, and Clogging Weeds	p. 210
Death of a Dream	p. 268
Epilogue: From Canal to Greenway	p. 315
Appendix: Guide to Manuscript Collections by Location	p. 331
Acknowledgments	p. 337
Notes	p. 343
Bibliography	p. 373
Index	p. 387
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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