Did you know the development of Myakka River State Park was park of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal?
It all started back in the 1910s – 1920s. The mayor of the City of Sarasota, Arthur Britton Edwards (1874-1964), wanted to preserve a natural area in the county. He enlisted the help of the Sarasota Fresh Water Fish and Game Protection Association. Together the team of naturalists approached the board of Florida’s Internal Improvement Fund with the idea, according to Mark Smith, in his Sarasota Alive article ”Myakka River State Park.“
By 1934, the state had acquired 6,000 acres in the lower lake region of Myakka. Edwards persuaded the IIF to expand the purchase to 17,000 acres, at the cost of 37.5 cents an acre. The additional land came from the Honore Palmer Estate. Just before the sale was complete, Honore and Potter Palmer sweetened the deal with an unexpected donation of 1,900 acres in memory of their mother, Bertha Palmer, according to Smith.
Of course, you can’t just buy a plot of land a call it a park – even natural lands need some planning and development in order to be utilized by area residents. By this time, the community was beginning to feel the effects of the Great Depression, so community leaders called upon the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps to develop the area into the park.
”The CCC was one of many federal relief agencies that were established in the 1930s Depression as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal Program,“ Smith wrote.
Millions of otherwise unemployed young men found employment on environmental projects throughout the U.S. under the CCC. Workers employed by the organization was responsible for building the roads, bridges, cabins and drainage ditches at Myakka River State Park. In addition, CCC workers removed non-native species, cut underbrush and planted trees.
South Carolinian Oscar Manigo was just 16 years old when he joined the CCC; he remembers his parents signing a consent form because he was underage. In many cases, boys like Manigo were enlisted in the CCC because their families could no longer support them.
”They would send you to different camps. It was like the military – because that’s what we were under,“ he told the Manatee County Historical Society in an interview. ”Out in the forest we were under the park rangers, but back in camp was the military, we had military officers and you dressed like a soldier.“
Manigo was one of approximately 200 workers stationed at Myakka who served under four officers. For many of the workers, life in the camps was better than the deplorable conditions from which they came, they received regular hot meals, medical attention when needed and worked standard 40-hour- week, according to Smith.
However, work wasn’t easy. The men would grub the roots of the saw palmetto by hand, with grubbing hoes, so a tractor could come through to create fire lanes, 14 feet wide, Manigo said.
The workers were separated into different divisions, Manigo said.
”There were fire line details, road details and park details, he said. ”There was even a group that kept the wire fence up all around the park.“
As compensation, they were paid $30 a month after the deduction of room and board. In most cases, they were required to send $20 – 25 home to support their families, according to the article ”CCC and the New Deal“ on the website, www.history.com.
The program was not without skepticism. Some critics believed the program served no real purpose other than paying citizens for busy work. However, Manigo saw it differently.
”I felt like I was building a park for people to enjoy and in the meantime, I was making a living,“ he said. ”I had a job and part of the money was going home to my mother and I was ten care of in the camp like a soldier. And that was what it was all about.“
Many of the facilities at Myakka River State Park were built by the CCC. The five historic log cabins were constructed with hand-hewn pine and oak, and with the trunks of cabbage palms, and then chinked with tar and sawdust. CCC workers also planted many of the trees. A crew of 51-men planted more than 100,000 seedlings in the park – 9,900 of which were planted in one day, Smith wrote.
C. H. Schaffer, the director of park services, requested that all buildings be made of materials gathered in the natural surroundings, so buildings were constructed of palm logs, shingles were cut from cypress logs and chimneys were constructed of stones found within Manatee County, according to Smith.
Temporary CCC barracks were located on the present-day site of the Myakka River State Park cabins, with a supply house situated adjacent to the current site of the picnic area. There was also a recreation hall with billiards, musical equipment and a canteen. Many of the young men came into town on Monday nights to watch or engage in boxing and wrestling matches at the American Legion. They also spent their free time swimming, fishing and hiking in the park, according to Smith.
One night, when the men were out hiking at night, a fire started. Manigo said the men narrowly escaped the flames, quickly retreating to a pond for cover but getting lost in the process. They searched for familiar territory for hours before finally making it back to camp around 2:00 a.m.
Myakka River State Park was officially dedicated February 18, 1941, and opened to the public June 1, 1942. If it wasn’t for the CCC employing workers like Manigo and forward thinkers and planers like Edwards and the IIF, it wouldn’t be there for us to enjoy today.
Next week, we will discover the history of Carlton Preserve, which joins Myakka River State Park in Sarasota.
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