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chickee talk

Good Ol’ Days in Ochopee

My dad’s memories include working the tomato and vegetable
by Tina Marie Osceola fields around Ochopee in the 1940’s and 1950’s. My grandfather,
n the first of every month, my alarm Cory Osceola, was a foreman who had crews of Seminoles working
is set to 4:00 a.m., allowing me several in the fields. My dad talks about how hard it was picking tomatoes,
Oopportunities to swipe the snooze peppers, and other vegetables that grew in the fields that are now
button before I lumber out of bed at 4:30 a.m. covered in sawgrass. If you didn’t know the history of this area, you
I know that at 5:30 a.m. sharp, my dad is going would never know these areas existed. His first job after the fields
to pull up in front of my house and blow the was pumping gas for the Standard Oil Company, a gas station
horn letting me know it’s time to get in the that is one door down from what is now known as Joanie’s Crab
truck and head to Miccosukee for a craft sale at one of Tamiami Shack, which still stands today. He likes to point out where the
Trail’s oldest villages. I must have my 30 ounce travel cup loaded with old icehouse used to stand and how The Trail was once lined with
hot tea, English Breakfast of course, and my bag of random snacks packing houses, metal buildings, small farmworker communities
and water to last me throughout the day. The morning drive east and Seminole camps. The little post office seems like it was
along Tamiami Trail, which us locals call, “The Trail,” is usually dark purposefully built there because the area seems so desolate and
and hazy, so the conversation is at a minimum. My favorite part of isolated. However, that building was once a pump house and was
the drive is usually when we are westbound for home. We are usually turned into a post office after a fire burned most of Ochopee to
wide awake, and our minds are sharper. This is the best time to ask the ground in 1953. On a recent drive home from one of our craft
my dad to reminisce about his life growing up at our family camps sales, my dad was reminiscing about all the buildings that used to
along The Trail. surround that little pump house. He said there were garages where
Most of his younger years were spent in the Ochopee area, which mechanics worked on farm equipment, trucks and cars, a grocery
is best known for having the smallest post office in the United store, a diner, and a housing community for black farm workers
States. Personally, when I hear of Ochopee, I think of the early to because segregation was the way of the world. He doesn’t like to
th
mid-20 century when it was a major hub of what became Florida’s talk about the bad memories but once in awhile they seep into the
agricultural industry. Most of the area known as the Big Cypress conversation reminding me of how important the fight for justice
National Preserve was the epicenter of eager pioneers who cashed in remains.
on Southwest Florida’s natural resources. Driving through Ochopee, as the sun starts to set is quite
The area known as Deep Lake, which is on SR29 between I-75 a beautiful scene. However, these conversations with my dad
and Tamiami Trail, had a very large, substantial grapefruit operation, who will be 89 this month, is even more beautiful. Ochopee was
including a canning operation. Copeland and Jerome, areas to the center of my dad’s childhood. The work that he and other
the south of Deep Lake were central to Florida’s Cypress logging Seminoles put into that community with the pioneering families of
industry. Old growth Cypress was cut down and placed on train cars the area is all but erased from the history and memory of most who
headed north to Perry, Florida where the Lee Tidewater Cypress live in Collier County. However, it’s still imbedded in the memories
company had its base of operations. Descendants are still operating of those who come from there and for those few who remain. I like
this sawmill in Perry today. Although the logging operations to think that these remnant towns keep folks humble. I know, for
were shut down in the mid 1900’s and the land was placed into me, they reinforce a keen understanding of where I come from and
conservation, that area still shows the scars. how hard those fought to live so that I could live in the reality that
The only evidence of the old logging operations can be found I do today. I stand in the parking lot of that little post office,
in local place names. For example, the “Tram Road” which many of and I imagine what life was like back then…
used to go from Copeland into the south blocks of Golden Gate, and What were the sounds of that farming community like?
then over I-75 using Everglades Blvd, is a holdover from the days What did it smell like?
that trams were used to carry logs out of the Cypress hammocks and All I have is my imagination, but my dad is rich with memories.
onto train cars.

16 Life in Naples | March 2023