Genuine Florida

This is as new as we’ll probably get. This is Swampy visiting the not even a month old ‘Muscle Car City in Punta Gorda. What makes this a bit more historic is that it’s in a  building that’s 25 years old, an old Wal-Mart. The volumes of these dinosaurs that dot the state is hefty. Here someone makes an excellent use of one of the very early Wal-Marts that came into the state. The design of the older Wal-Marts really works better for this usage than the newer ones.

The older ones had a small restaurant at the entrance. This one makes use of the space for a nifty 50s diner.

The place is stocked with vehicles, over 150 of them. Including, below, not a stranger to Florida is Miss Budwiser, a staple of Cypress Gardens. Further below are images of parts of the showroom.

An ad in the back of a Sarasota High School football program from 1960.

Here is the cover from the visitors guide from 30 years ago. Below is a page from inside the publication.

Here Swampy visits the Deerfield Beach train station built just as the Florida land boom was about to make it’s bust in 1926. Originally part of the Flagler plan it now sees cargo, AmTrak and the commuter Tri-Rail system go by.

If you saw the film, ‘In Her Shoes’, this image might look familiar. It is taken from the same spot that a scene with Cameron Diaz was shot. In the film she has made her way from Pennsylvania to Deerfield Beach and she is seen exiting a train at with the Deerfield Beach station in full view.

To cut a path across Florida to get ships through has been kicked around for centuries. The Cross Florida Barge Canal was as close as it got. You can read more here and in an article Sandra wrote about the Cross Florida Greenway’s history. It was eventually halted due to the hard work of many. Most specifically by Florida resident and environmental activist, Bill Partington. Bill’s efforts got President Richard Nixon to cancel the project despite efforts by Florida politicans and businessmen.

Above is from the 1960 publication ‘Florida, Today and Tomorrow’ by C.M. Gay. Obviously the reason this project ended is that it would have split the state in two (Though, those in North Florida might welcome that now). The dream was to get ships to have faster and cheaper access to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The problem was having what would had to have become Panama Canal type structures cutting through the limestone rock of our foundation across the state and the likely damage to our underground water supply.