It all began in February of 1914
with a lumberman from
Pennsylvania named Edward Vose Babcock.
He saw an opportunity to make money harvesting the cypress and
yellow pine that were plentiful in the area and bought 156,000 acres and
began logging the cypress. You can step back in time for 90 minutes
for an in-your-face glimpse the
natural world of southwest Florida on the Babcock Wilderness Tour.
On Feb 14th, there is going to
be a special cattle roundup performed by the four resident cowboys. They
will ride their quarter horses, used because of their speed and
agilities. Each cowboy has his own dog and whip. They will do a meet and
greet where they explain
the methods and tools of their trade. The
Cypress Lodge, located with a fantastic view of the swamp and not part
of the regular tour, will be opened. The festivities continue into the
15th with
"Wild Things Day" and
16th with "All things Native and Natural."
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Train station in Rouxville exhibit at
museum |
Since Mr. Babcock was conservation-minded long before it became stylish,
much of the ranch is preserved in its natural state. His youngest son,
Fred, later took over the operation and in the 1940's transferred 65,000
acres of this land to the state. This land became the Fred C. Babcock /
Cecil M. Webb Wildlife Management Area. The remainder of the property is
managed now by Fred's daughter, Courtney. It's
around 90,000 acres and is the
Babcock Ranch.
The tiny town of 200 Edward Babcock set up to
provide the labor for the operation was named Rouxville. The commissary
is still standing and you will see it on your tour. This was a general
store as well as where the manger lived as well as a school teacher and
a doctor. The teacher would drive the children into Punta Gorda for
classes each day. The company offered a medical plan. The cost was 40
cents a month covering their medical expenses from birth to burial. For
2-bits extra –that's a
quarter–the doctor would cut their hair. You'll see the old barber chair
on the commissary porch. A
nearby body of water was where Rouxville women did the family laundry.
The bridge and bank were filled with alligators when we visited. Wonder
how many of the local children and pets got eaten?
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Our tour bus AKA Swamp Buggy |
Another place you visit on the tour is the10,000-acre Telegraph Cypress
Swamp. The swam gets its name for the miles of telegraph wire strung
around the swamp. Originally it was planned to run through the middle of
the swamp but the tightly packed saw palmetto with its razor sharp
fronds made that impractical. The
densely packed vegetation also created a different style of ranching
from the "old West" version. Here the "Cracker Cow Hunter" was born of
necessity. He got his name for the whip he used to snap in the air to
help his cur dog bring the cow out of the stands which were too dense
for a human to enter. Cracker
cattle are descendants of the Andalusian cattle brought over by Ponce de
Leon in 1521.With luck you might get to meet Dolly, the oldest Cracker
cow on the Babcock Ranch. Dolly
is 24 years old: very old by cow standards.
Terry, our guide was able to
coax her to our "swamp buggy" – actual a converted school bus with
windows cut out to provide a great way to photograph the surrounding
area– with a handful of corn.
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This egret perches on a log while an
alligator lurks below |
The biggest alligator I
saw at Babcock |
The tour often brings you face to face with deer, raccoon, eagles,
bobcats, coyotes, feral hogs and countless other wildlife. Florida black
bear, wood stork, eastern indigo snake, Florida burrowing owl, crested
caracara, gopher tortoise, red-cockaded woodpecker and even the Florida
Panther roam these well-preserved bit of old Florida. In the
watery places, there are many egrets, anhingas, nighthawks, herons and
many varieties of wading birds. One
native species of bird, the Osceola wild turkey, is another bird you
will probably see. Again Terry was able to lure
them to our buggy with corn. You
will come face to face with
some alligators. Probably dozens outside and one little critter, your
guide will bring aboard the buggy to explain more about alligators to
you. Sometimes visitors see more alligators than they would like.
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Terry feeds Dolly some corn |
This alligator is sunning in the road
in Telegraph Swamp |
Two visitors who preferred a few less ‘gators were Lawrence Fishburne
and Sean Connery. Their brush with the reptile came about in 1995 when they were filming "Just
Cause" at the ranch. There was one scene where they were retrieving a
gun from a culvert channeling a small stream. As the two actors reached
into the culvert, a large alligator burst forth from it. It only took
the ranch hands a few minutes to remove the reptile. It took quite a bit
longer for the director to coax the two movie heroes back to the scene.
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Terry explains the finer points of
Little Girl |
You get to stop and disembark in the swamp near an old logging engine
used to pull trees from the water. Terry explained that sometimes, the
water covered the ground and the timber would snag on the cypress knees
which were submerged. when this happened, she explained, "the rope
usually broke." You can stroll into the swamp via a boardwalk. The native
growth is varied. There are
many examples of
Florida's state tree, the sable palm, the strange looking cypress
tree with its bulging lower
trunk, the resurrection fern that lives on the branches of the trees and
dies back in dry weather but
turns green and healthy with a little rain and the many bromeliads or
air plants that live on the trees and require no soil to thrive.
You may want to sample the ‘gator dishes in
their Gator Shack Restaurant.
Be sure to see the museum, housed in part of the
former movie set of "Just Cause." It illustrates the history of the
ranch and photos of some of the animals you may see. And you will meet
an orphan calf being bottle fed in the little corral near the museum. Another thing you won't want to miss is Lulu,
the stuffed three-horned cow, with her head sticking out the barn door
and a sign telling you all about her.
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The boardwalk leading into Telegraph
Swamp |
There is a trail if you want to see more of the
ranch and a country store where you can get a souvenir of your visit.
Today, the ranch raises cattle, timber, sod and
even vegetables. The ones I saw offered for sale by the tour area were
very large and tasty looking. The Babcocks have entered into a
sale/partnership with the state to provide an opportunity for visitors
to get a glimpse of what old Florida once was like. Thanks to people
like the Babcocks, parts of that old Florida still remain almost
untouched.
For more info:
http://www.babcockwilderness.com/
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