August 15, 1993

Docks Made Charlotte Harbor Marine Commerce Feasible

With thanks to U.S. Cleveland

Much has been made of the pivotal role in early days of Charlotte Harbor and the ships that sailed upon it. Yet, without docks these would have been useless.

The first dock was built in 1862 on the north shore of the bay by Joel and Jesse Knight, Jacob Summerlin and Capt. James McKay to load cattle for the U.S. Confederacy and Cuba. A store to sell necessities --- brought back through the Union blockade at Boca Grande Pass --- was built at the dock by the Knight's brother, Henry. This was the beginning of Charlotte Harbor Town, then called Hickory Bluff, oldest community in Charlotte County. Knight's Pier today is a county dock dedicated to public fishing.

Less well known are the many other large docks once here.

Two docks built simultaneously in the fall of 1886 were instrumental in the birth of Punta Gorda.

Col. Isaac Trabue, of Kentucky, had purchased 30 acres on the harbor's Peace River roadstead and platted a town in 1885 named for himself. Hearing that Florida Southern Railway was going to extend its line to Charlotte Harbor, Trabue went to Boston and persuaded the directors to build their terminal at his uninhabited town.

Florida Southern wanted half of Trabue's land for a waterfront resort hotel, and right-of-way to Punta Gorda the Spanish name for the "fat point" used by Cuban fisherman as a landmark.

Hotel Punta Gorda had to have a modest wharf for the yachts of visiting dignitaries. The railroad had to have a 4,200-foot dock for its tracks to 12 feet, mean low, of water where Morgan Line steamships could transfer passengers and freight to and from Havana.

The dock at the end of the line was listed on the Florida Southern time table as Punta Gorda. However, local folks called it simply the Long Dock. It was located near today's Punta Gorda Isles Yacht Club. At the sea end there was a general store with a post office whose official cancellation was Long Dock. There also was a telegraph office and a bank of sorts where passengers could cash checks.

A sweet-water well was drilled there to supply the boilers of locomotives and paddle-wheel ships. The well casing rusted away long ago, but sailors today who know where to look can spot the artesian well still flowing from the salt-water sea bed.

Several packing houses were built there to ship fish on returning trains. Ice for the fish was supplied by the Ice Factory, on Berry St., built by local entrepreneurs including Col. Trabue. When Trabue's town was incorporated in 1887 as Punta Gorda, the city seal adopted at that time featured the two docks.

Trabue and Henry B. Plant, president of the Plant System railroads and a principal stockholder of Florida Southern, had an argument of some sort in 1897. Whereupon, Plant stormed aboard his private car and shouted as it pulled away, "I'll make a whistle stop of your blankety-blank town."

Plant then was building a larger resort hotel at Tampa and undoubtedly wanted to eliminate competition. At any rate, he took up the tracks to the Long Dock and Ice Factory. He built a shorter railroad dock to five feet of water at the foot of King Street. It served hotel guests and the fish houses but shut out Morgan steamships.

The Long Dock was abandoned. Trabue's ice factory, denied railroad access, ceased operation. A new Punta Gorda Ice and Power Company started up along the King St. track. The new ice company eventually became Florida Power and Light. Its original building, on the National Register of Historic Places, now is a bridal shop.

Another prominent Punta Gorda dock was that of by Gus Hart about 1890. He built it and a large ship chandlery at the foot of Cross Street (Tamiami Trail south.) It burned in 1895, taking also the Punta Gorda Herald next door. Disheartened, the Hart's returned to their original home at Philadelphia. An oyster fisherman and packer named R.B. Smith constructed a large dock and packing house nearby at the foot of Taylor St. prior to 1895. It was commonly known as the Oyster Dock.

The old cattle dock at Charlotte Harbor town had fallen into disrepair by 1902. A group of cattlemen then built a new dock at Punta Gorda at the foot of Maud St. The wharf was just wide enough for cattle to walk single file. Cowboys drove their herds through town to the dock, then returned to whoop it up in the saloons and bawdy houses.

Reported the Punta Gorda Herald:

"The big cattle dock was finished last week and is now ready for business. It is 3,100 feet long and very substantial. Contractor C. L. Fries made a fine job of it. Messers King, Langford, Crawford, Hooker, Parker and Whidden --- cattle owners and stockholders in the DeSoto Cattle Wharf Assn. --- were here Monday to inspect and receive the dock built for them. They found it entirely satisfactory and promptly paid for it.

"Regular shipments began when Capt. James McKay's schooner took on 327 head for Cardenas (Cuba) bought from Senator J. W. Whidden, R. C. Hendry, W. W. Langford, Jerry Carlton, and T. S. and Frank Knight."

The water depth at the end of the cattle dock was not quite adequate after all, so two years later it was extended 90 feet to deeper water.

Another shipping facility was the wharf at Cattle Dock Point on the Myakka River. In February 1902, the Herald published this unusual story:

"A STEER STORY --- The steamship Fanita recently took on a cargo of cattle from the West India Dock, in the mouth of the Myakka. Amongst them was a steer belonging to Mr. T. S. Knight of Charlotte Harbor. This particular steer proved so unruly, and cut up such outrageous capers, he was turned back into the pen at the land end of the dock; and the steamer sailed off without him.

"Suddenly realizing his abandonment, and the loneliness of his position, the steer bolted out of the pen, rushed headlong to the outer end of the dock, plunged into the briny deep, and swam after the steamer. He continued to pursue the vessel until he was lost to sight.

"Some days afterward, as Capt. K.B. Harvey in his mail launch Lorraine was cruising about half a mile from the West India Dock, he met this identical steer coming back on the billowy surface. He had failed to catch the steamer and was very much exhausted. Veracity of the Herald is still in prime condition and must never be doubted. Reference: Capt. K.B. Harvey and other eminent citizens."

The King Street dock by 1906 was crowded with fish houses. The constant traffic of freight trains and commercial fishing boats became a hazard for general wharf uses. Therefore, Punta Gorda council in April conducted a public referendum on a proposal to build a "city dock." The vote was 77 in favor, six against.

It was three years before folks got around to building a long, city dock at the foot of Sullivan St. where a 60-foot tower had been constructed in 1903 to display storm signals. The job finally was accomplished by volunteer labor and donated materials. The pilings were cabbage palm trunks brought from the Myakka River area.

First tenant of the new City Dock was John Smith, an oyster fisherman, perhaps a son of R. B. Smith mentioned above. John applied for a permit to build a shucking shed. Council decided that "all houses on the new dock are to be built by the town and rented to occupants at an amount according to size and structure of building." The city built a 14x20 "house for oyster business" and rented it to Smith for $60 per year.

A few months later, Council found it necessary to adopt an ordinance making it "unlawful to drive any vehicle or automobile on the public dock except for carrying goods or freight, and to drive faster than a walk, on penalty of $10 fine."

It was the practice of oyster shuckers to dump shells on Retta Esplanade and other streets. These discards made strong roads, but the slivers of rotting oysters remaining on the shells created a stench and attracted flies in such quantity as to "obstruct vision."

Consequently Council in January 1911 adopted an ordinance to control oyster shells: "Committee appointed to find a dumping ground, also to see about disposing of the oyster shells of E. D. Willis' oyster house, and Willis instructed not to put more in same places." The committee then directed that oyster shells could be dumped only "in the bay in front of the street between Blocks 17 and 18.

Today, a condo on West Marion Ave. in Punta Gorda Isles sits securely on a firm foundation of historic oyster shells.

City Dock was damaged by a hurricane in 1926 and rebuilt to about half its original length. It collapsed entirely in 1930.

Largest dock in the area, though not the longest, was the phosphate loading facility on Gasparilla Island at Boca Grande Pass.

It was built in 1910 by the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railroad to load ocean-going schooners and steam ships. CH&N, known locally as the Cold Hungry and Naked because of its inability to make a profit, acquired the uninhabited plat of Boca Grande Town from Albert Gilchrist. The railroad built the exclusive Gasparilla Inn, and sold lots to northern socialites. The Inn still flourishes, but phosphate loading was discontinued in 1972. The loading chutes were removed a few years later when the Seaboard Coast Line, successor to CH&N, ceased operation.

An important dock was built in 1916 at Lemon Bay by Peter E. Buchan, owner-operator of a large general store at Buchan Landing, Englewood. He came in 1902 to work for the Nichols Brothers store. Buchan's dock was a popular "pleasure pier" with a Royal Casino at the far end for dining and moonlight dancing. After collapse of the Florida Land Boom in 1929, the casino became a fish-packing house.

At Punta Gorda in 1913, the ice company built a dock at the foot of Zapata St., an alley behind the east side of King St. Before this, the company had carried ice to the railroad dock fish houses on the Atlantic Coast Line rails. ACL was successor to Florida Southern. Joint use of the rails became difficult when the dock was crowded with box cars. In October of that year, the Herald reported:

"Capt. C. E. Bearce has the contract for erecting a wharf, just above the railroad pier, for the Punta Gorda Ice Co. A railroad track has been constructed from the factory to the new wharf. It is a neat piece of railroading under the direction of H. L. Blakely who has years of experience while connected with the Atlantic Coast Line"

The "ice transfer siding" was narrow gauge. Truck cars of ice were pulled by a small "donkey" steam engine. The tracks are said to be still there under modern, asphalt paving. King Street Dock caught fire and was badly damaged in June 1915.

Reported the Herald:

"Fire originating in the Arthur & Lewis fish house on the ACL wharf at 4 a.m. Tuesday morning destroyed five buildings, a portion of the wharf and five railroad cars. Aggregate loss has been estimated at $75,000. Cause of the fire is unknown."

"Those who share the direct loss are Chadwick Brothers, Everglade Fish Co., Arthur & Lewis, West Coast Fish Co., Punta Gorda Fish Co., ACL, Terry Packing Co., S.E. Johnson, and H. L. Blakley.

"It is considered remarkable that Standard Oil company's tanks near the wharf did not blow up. Dean's boat house, wharf of Punta Gorda Ice Co., J.C. Lewis fish house and one house of the Punta Gorda Fish Co. were saved."

The dock was rebuilt, but several uninsured fish houses did not reopen.

The King Street and hotel docks were removed in 1928 to allow construction of the Barron Collier Bridge. A new Municipal Dock was built at the foot of Maud St. It, too, suffered a major fire in 1939 in which one young woman trapped on a second floor perished.

The pier was leased in 1977 by Radio Commentator Earl Nightingale for today's Fishermen's Village --- last reminder of the days when ships ruled the harbor.

cutline 1 --- MUST -- wide as possible to emphasize length

Photo from " Florida's Vanishing Era" (1887-1910) by Eleanor Dean Pearce

The Punta Gorda Long Dock about 1893 where Morgan Line side-wheel steamships and Florida Southern Railway trains transferred passengers and freight to and from Havana.

cutline 2

Photo courtesy of Charlotte Harbor Area Historical Society

The King Street Railroad Dock served hotel guests and wholesale fish- packing houses.

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Drawing courtesy of deeds record office, Arcadia

Original seal of Punta Gorda 1887 featuring first two docks.

By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist