2020 Florida family trip - part 1: weekend with Brian, a boat ride to Trapper Nelson's - Travel With Us

While we love being with our whole Florida family, with Jana and the boys going to the Tampa area for the weekend to see her sister and a friend from Prince Edward Island (Canada) with their children, we got to spend a whole weekend with Brian! Nothing better than getting to spend a block of time with a son.

Since all of the sons lived on the North Carolina coast when Barney was in the Marine Corps, they love being on the water. All of them now have boats: Matt has a speed boat for water skiing, Jason has a canoe for lakes and rivers, and Brian has a boat that will serve him and his family well on the waters around southeastern Florida.

Before we could go out on the river, he wanted help with cleaning it and fixing some minor issues. Saturday’s chores.

While washing the boat inside and out, Pops got a little nap in.

But then they got down to business to fix a few issues. After 4 trips to the hardware store on Sunday, the boat is ready to go!

After church and brunch, we took the boat out to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, south of Stuart, and put in at the marina. This park is where we stayed on our first ever RV trip 3 years ago when we rented a trailer and camped here. Such good memories!

We’re going to be on the northwest fork of the Loxahatchee River, which is one of the last wild and natural rivers in southeast Florida. Basically unchanged from when it was first discovered, the river winds from a completely freshwater environment, through a blend of temperate and tropical vegetation, to the saltwater mangrove community. This river is one of the few in the U.S. that can boast such a diversity of plant and animal life.

We were on the lookout primarily for manatees and alligators. Quietly, we floated in to see this manatee up close before having to start the motor to give it some room. Boy did it move away from us quickly.

No alligators were basking in the sun, but we did get to see some turtles and jumping mullets (fish).

As we were traveling to our destination, we were blocked by this pile of rocks:

Thank goodness for Google maps that Barney had downloaded on his cell phone (no coverage available) so we could find a work-around.

The park is trying to get the waterway back to the way it was before civilization tried to get a short-cut so blocked off the way Brian was used to traveling.

Trapper Nelson

Our destination was Trapper Nelson’s home where he lived on the river for 38 years starting in the early 1930s. He was known as the “Wildman of the Loxahatchee,” and many came to see him and visit his wildlife zoo. His lifestyle of hunting and trapping was like that of a modern day Tarzan.

First we pulled into the docks. The dock on the left is for the pontoon tour boats that start their tours at the marina, and the docks on the right are for boats and is where we pulled in.

Michael and Anne greeted us as we came ashore and told us that a tour was going to be coming in about 10 minutes that we could join. Sounded good to Barney and me, but Brian decided to take a nap in the boat since he’s been here numerous times.

Michael and Anne volunteer as hosts at parks all over the United States. They work in one park as docents for a few months and then take off with their trailer to a new location. Today was their last day at Trapper Nelson’s before taking off to Utah.

Here’s the sign that greeted us and gave us an overview of the site.

When Vincent Natulkiewicz, know as Vince “Trapper” Nelson, came here in the early 1930s from New Jersey, the area was still teeming with wildlife. For decades he was able to live off the land by eating racoon, gopher tortoise, and opossum supplemented with fruit from his citrus grove.

Here he is with an alligator and his dog Bozo (every dog he had he named Bozo).

As a strapping man at 6′ 4″ and 240 pounds, he made his living by trapping, but when laws were made that limited when he could hunt and sell pelts, he developed a business he called “Trapper’s Zoo and Jungle Garden.” He built all of the buildings and cages by hand out of pine trees and introduced hundreds of tourists and local visitors to the river’s life and beauty. Not bad for a man with limited education.

his history

his buildings

This building was already on the land when Trapper Nelson came here and is where he stayed at first. Much of it is the same, including the brick flooring where he did his early cooking.

One of the first buildings he built when people started visiting was a restroom facility for his visitors. Here are some other buildings.

Chickee shelter is still used by groups who come out to the site. Boy Scouts spend the night in the loft above the picnic tables.

his home – outside

Next to his home (the second he built for himself; the first he made into guest quarters) was his homemade water cistern.

his home – inside

His bed is good-sized, but with his height, he probably slept sideways.

When he died, rumors circulated that he had cash on the premises since he had charged people to visit and sold handmade trinkets and a souvenir orchid. For a while people would sneak onto the land to look for the cash, but finally a state park ranger found at least one of the stashes in the kitchen’s fireplace.

his first home that because a guest house

What’s amazing about all of these buildings is that they have survived all of the hurricanes that have hit southeastern Florida since the 1930s. He did a great job of building.

wood stacks

All over the property are the remains of woodpiles he added to over the years. The story goes that he wanted to cut a cord of wood a day so he could stay in shape.

In the middle of the buildings is this open area

zoo area

Over the years he was able to buy up hundreds of acres as people had to sell during the Depression years. The only road into the camp was owned by a man who seriously disliked people on his property, so all of Trapper Nelson’s visitors had to come by water. Some of his famous visitors were Gary Cooper and the Kennedy family who came north along the intercoastal to get to the Loxahatchee River from Palm Beach.

business, marriage, and the Army

When war broke out, someone told him that he could avoid the draft by being married, so he got married.

Trapper Nelson selling pineapples (top picture) and standing with his wife during the 4 months they were married (like Tarzan and Jane in the bottom picture)

At first he was hired to remove snakes and spiders from nearby Camp Murphy, a radar training school. However, he soon was drafted, and his bride found a new husband from the nearby army camp who was an officer. In the service he kept cutting off his long pants so he could move around easier. Can’t you just imagine the conflict with his chain of command over his appearance?

While an MP in Camp Murphy’s Security Company, he would often use one of his favorite Jeeps from his time as an MP in the Army. He would take some extra time while on duty to make sure his property was okay.

Trapper John lived here until his mysterious death by a gunshot wound in 1968. While the death certificate declared his death as a suicide, perhaps because of declining health (maybe cancer), many think that his wild youth caught up to him. Perhaps even his brother killed him because Vince testified against him in a murder trial when they were in their 20s. The shotgun had been wiped of finger prints, and the sand around him in the Chickee area was clear of foot prints.