As usual, I was doing one post and thinking along the way and I realized it was getting a bit long winded. I need a new post on the land history of the Intracoastal from Jupiter to North Palm Beach.
In THIS POST I go through how to tell if a waterfront property has riparian rights. And then I took a tangent onto the fact that the intracoastal waterway is an easement and in looking at the Florida Board of Trustees Land Document System (BTLDS) Map I noted that the deed for this 500′ wide easement was FROM the state of Florida to the Federal Government on 06/08/1942. This got me thinking. Most of this land was land owned by the state as it was navigable when the state was created but some of it was not. And since you can’t give away what you don’t own, no matter who your are, then how did this happen?
OK, in making any waterway from here to there one will first survey a route to determine the path of least resistance. The cheapest way to get from here to there. Thus, most of what is now the ICW is over land that was historically “navigable” or at least low and/or wet, even if not “navigable.” Makes sense right? In some places they needed to connect two bodies of water through land that was NOT historically “navigable” (FS 253.141) or it meandered like a river or a creek and needed to be straighten out. But who owned this land before it was below the water we now know as the perfectly straight ICW?
I found the answer in my search at this University of Florida web page. The answer lies in something called the Florida Coast Line Canal & Transportation Company.
In 1881, a group of St. Augustine residents led by a Dr. John D. Westcott incorporated the Florida Coast Line Canal and Transportation Company and the Florida legislature authorized that firm to dredge a series of canals to create an inland waterway along the length of the Florida Atlantic coast. As an incentive, the state granted 3,840 acres of land for every mile of canal constructed (WOW!) and gave the company the right to collect tolls on the waterways. Yes, they would literally pull a chain across the canal. The State had millions of acres of public lands (be it dry or over flowed lands and swamp), which they frequently deeded to rail, navigation and other companies to spur the development of the state. GO SOUTH YOUNG MAN! By about 1891-1892, the company had reached Jupiter and began to work southward to connect the Loxahatchee River tributaries and Lake Worth. In 1892, Henry Flagler invested in the firm and a year later became president for a brief time. In total, over a 30-year period between 1882 and 1912, the company constructed 268 miles of canals linking Jacksonville to Miami and earning more than a million acres of state land in the process. The dredged canals and connected waterways ultimately became known as the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in Florida.
Looking at the map noted below, the way I read it by looking at the quadrants, the state owned the land where the intracoastal is now located between Indiantown road south all the way down to Old Port Cove in North Palm Beach whether it was navigable or not. The state gave all this land (everything in rust color on the map) to the company as the payment for the dredging of the canal that now runs through this area. True to form for Florida though, this company had financial troubles and in 1923 their interests were foreclosed upon and sold to a new entity, the Florida Canal & Transportation Company to satisfy the debt holders. (Interesting, the officers of this new Corp included local names like Harry Kelsey (Lake Park and North Palm Beach) and Bert Winters (as in Bert Winters Park). A few years later a section of the Rivers & Harbors Act basically told the states that hey if you, the state, acquire a route from New England to Key West that we can make 75′ wide and 8′ deep and then give it to us, the Federal Government, then we will maintain it in perpetuity and not charge any tolls. Good deal! The State of Florida was all aboard on this idea and in 1927 the Florida Inland Navigation District was created and was authorized to BUY the Florida Canal & Transportation Company for a price not to exceed 800k which they did for 776k. FIND then went about 10 years of planning for things like dredge spoils areas, buying those tracts if necessary. And, in 1942 the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund deeded the US Federal Government an EASEMENT, 500′ wide (it varies in some places), “to enter upon, excavate and remove soil” where the ICW now is. The US Government agreed to construct and maintain the Intracoastal Waterway and FIND agreed to furnish to it, free of cost, the necessary rights-of-way (done) and areas for the deposit of dredged material in connection with the subsequent maintenance of the canal. CLICK HERE to see the actual deed conveying this easement to the federal government. And there we have it. The ICW is now the responsibility of the federal government, supposedly. Interesting thing here as well is in those dredge spoil areas. It seems the feds did not need all of them and so some were sold or given away by FIND. One such example is Lakeside Park in North Palm Beach where 90% of the park was once a dredge spoil area for the ICW. Another such area became Bert Winters Park here in Juno.
