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Come hell or high water:

Happy 96 Anniversary
th

by Lois Bolin, Ph.D., Old Naples Historian

pril is a special month. It hosts such The Day of Celebration
days as April Fool’s Day, National I can only imagine the reminiscing of these stories and more on
AHug Your Dog Day, World Autism the motorcade during that celebratory drive 96 years ago.
Awareness Day, National Arbor Day (last Leading the parade were the two men most responsible for the
Friday), and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Trail: Mr. Collier and the chairman of the state road department,
semifinals. For Naples, Collier County, April Dr. Fons A. Hathaway. They were followed by some of the original
is a special month indeed. Tamiami Trailblazers, who must have been mighty happy to have
On April 25, 1928, Gov. John W. Martin launched a their meals served in a hotel instead of air dropped in the swamp.
motorcade on a one-day journey from Tampa to Everglades When they reached Everglades City around noon, the motorcade
City in celebration of the opening of the Tamiami Trail. The had grown to almost 500 automobiles. After a lunch, a parade, and
Everglades’ greatest day was also a fulfillment of the governor’s a visit to the County Fair complete with its Tamiami Exposition,
1925 campaign promise to have the highway completed during the journey commenced again at 2 p.m. and headed for Miami, thus
completing its 232 miles journey and Mr. Collier’s gift to the county
his administration — "come hell or high water."
Trailblazers Never Quit. that bears his name.
What if…?
There was barely a mile of the Tamiami Trail in existence
Col. Frank F. Tenney, Jr., U.S.A.F. retired, and director of
when Collier County was formed in 1923 and the State of
photography for the then Collier County Historical Society,
Florida had some rather unrealistic ideas on how roads were to
reflected on what if the Tamiami Trail had not been completed
be built. Each town was to sell bonds to finance their section of
when it had.
the road’s construction, which was fine — if you lived in Dade
The recession of 1926 intensified into a full depression that lasted
County and had the population to support such bonds. But in
well into the 1930s, followed by World War II. It was Mr. Tenny’s
spots like Collier County, that wasn’t likely to happen.
belief that if the Trail had been put off until after the war, a boom
In 1923, to ‘unstall’ the talks again, a group of 23 men
like that on the east coast would have never occurred and made
dubbed the "Tamiami Trailblazers", along with two Seminole
Collier into what it never wanted to be — a Dade-like County.
guides took on a public relations campaign to draw attention
At the End of the Road
to the need for a road. They decided to cross the Everglades in
At a cost of $8 million, or about $25,000 a mile, the Tamiami
cars to prove it was possible to build through the swamp. Their
Trail formally opened to traffic on April 26, 1928, marking the first
journey was to take four days. Instead, it took 23.
time in history that motor vehicles could move over land across the
To say their Model Ts got struck is a blind flash of the
southern tip of Florida.
obvious, but these men did not know the word "quit." It took
The entire Trail was once listed on the National Scenic Byways
17 hand-built bridges, and eight miles of paths through dense Program, which recognizes highways that are outstanding examples
cypress forest with their food and gas dropped to them by of our nation’s beauty, history, culture, and recreational experience.
bomber aircraft. (Uber Eats’ first delivery.) In September 2008, a 50-mile portion of this magnificent highway
The building of one of the greatest feats in Florida hit a snag was undesignated by the Collier County Metropolitan Planning
again in August 1926. That’s when Gov. Martin stepped in to Organization (and for good reason, but that’s another story.)
lend a hand with his "come hell or high water" battle cry. With Regardless, this achievement, which has been likened to the
31 miles to go and one million dollars of Barron Collier’s money building of a scaled down Panama Canal, celebrates its 96th
spent, crews discovered the next section of the planned road was birthday on April 26. And come hell or high water, the whole route
solid rock, unlike the sand they’d been working on until then. is deserving of a tribute.
18 Life in Naples | April 2024