Not a blog more like another pier banyan tree, a place to come & sit for a little while & wait for something fun to happen. A place for all the greezers, candyasses, Halloween egg throwers, former Publix bagboys & dirt bike riders to kill a little time until Halloween. Just like the good old days, wait around for a couple hours until you could find some geezer to buy you beer...
The only way in to Marco (by road) was State Road 92 which ended at Collier Boulevard (shown).
There was no Judge S.S. Jolley / Marco bridge. State Road 951 / Isles of Capri Road ended at the turn into Isles of Capri turn (Capri Boulevard / SR952).
Pilings for the Marco bridge can be seen in the background so this likely 1969.
South of this intersection there was nothin' but sand . . .
SH, don't forget that farther south on 951/Collier Blvd (sand road past San Marco & 951) at Caxambas Pass was the "Radar Tracking Station" also the Doxee Clam factory/cannery. Which is still in business today in New York.
Here's a interesting link in the Marco Eagle about the radar tracking station. http://www.marconews.com/news/2007/nov/27/rock_mystery_and_top_secrets_caxambas_pass/
This is great! It reminds me of when the family went down to the beach at Marco in the late 60's, to get away from all the "hub-bub" in town. Old islanders use to swear that Hurricane Donna's wind gusts pushed 200 mph at the radar facility. And I do remember a portion of the old tower being up on Indian Hill, along with Tommie Barfield’s old cracker house and the remnants of the Doxee plant over at Caxambas. I do have a correction, though: Collier Blvd. ran a little further south from the SR 92 intersection in the late 60’s, because the original Marco Beach Hotel & Villas, built by Deltona, was a little south of the intersection.
On the concept of Cuba, does anyone remember the old wive's tale that a part of Keywayden Island was used for training Bay of Pigs personnel?
And while we're talking about radar, does anyone remember the giant radar dishes on Krome Av., between 41 and Homestead in Dade County? That always made for a pretty eerie trip.
I too recall hearing stories about how a portion of the "ill fated brigade" that participated in the "Bay of Pigs Invasion" of Cuba in 1961, launched from the docks at the Keewayadin shore station. Seems plausible enough but I don't have a valid reference point. I don't think there was much "training" going on (I had not heard of it anyway), but I can certainly see where Naples was far enough away (rather that Key West) to use for a temporary staging area prior to launching.
I after Hurricane Donna took out the trailer park at the end of Gordon Drive,the government took over the property and fenced it off. I'm not sure which agency ran it but there was some type of military boat that was docked by the Keywayden Club gas pump which use to be at Gordon pass. This was shortly after the Bay of Pigs disaster.I rember seeing the boat with some type of gun mounted on the front. It was very loud when running. My brother told me that he thinks the CIA may have controled the property first and then possibly DEA later. It wasn't there for very long.
Tommie Barfield's old house was all but a shell in the early sixties, Indian Hill didn't have a tower there then...but Ideal Fish Camp existed...till it was torn down in the seventies.
In 1963...Deltona set-up in the area of Bald Eagle Drive and San Marco Road (SR 92), everything from that point to the beach was sand dunes.The Deltona "horn" sounded everyday at precisely 3 PM...for the workers to end their work day. Deltona built a make-shift airport in the sand dune area..to bring prospective buyers in from up north. They all were then taken to the "Yacht Club" to get drunk and buy.
Having grown up on Marco I figure I should clarify a few things here: - Doxsee Clam Factory was located in Old Marco next to where the Snook Inn is now (actually a trailer park - rare to have that on the Island!) The factory closed in the mid 1940s as the clams ran out and Mr. Doxsee rented the land to the trailer people and later sold it to them. - Tommie Barfield did not have a house on Indian Hill - the old Heights Hotel burned down in the 1920s and the house you saw would have been on the west side of the road and owned by the Hamlins and they had a water tower for drinking water. - The Clam Factory in Caxambas was Burnhams -Don't know about Keewaydin Is. used for Bay of Pigs training but Useppa Island (near Captiva) was totally rented by the CIA for that and the museum there has a lot of history on the Cubans trained there and who died on the mission -"Makeshift" airport was truly that - it was the old road to the Missile Tracking Station and when you drove down there you had to keep an eye out for planes so they did not land on top of you! Now that street is Landmark. -Good comment on the horn at 3 pm - I had forgotten about that!
The only way in to Marco (by road) was State Road 92 which ended at Collier Boulevard (shown).
ReplyDeleteThere was no Judge S.S. Jolley / Marco bridge. State Road 951 / Isles of Capri Road ended at the turn into Isles of Capri turn (Capri Boulevard / SR952).
Pilings for the Marco bridge can be seen in the background so this likely 1969.
South of this intersection there was nothin' but sand . . .
Seagate Homeboy
NHS Class of 1967
8:31 a.m. PST
SH, don't forget that farther south on 951/Collier Blvd (sand road past San Marco & 951) at Caxambas Pass was the "Radar Tracking Station" also the Doxee Clam factory/cannery. Which is still in business today in New York.
ReplyDeleteHere's a interesting link in the Marco Eagle about the radar tracking station.
http://www.marconews.com/news/2007/nov/27/rock_mystery_and_top_secrets_caxambas_pass/
Good knowledge C3R and great article at the website you suggested above.
ReplyDeleteI highly recommend that everyone take the time to read the article.
Folks forget just how close we came to a confrontation with ol' Fidel and Senor Khrushchev back in the early 60s.
SH
7:03 p.m. PDT
This is great! It reminds me of when the family went down to the beach at Marco in the late 60's, to get away from all the "hub-bub" in town. Old islanders use to swear that Hurricane Donna's wind gusts pushed 200 mph at the radar facility. And I do remember a portion of the old tower being up on Indian Hill, along with Tommie Barfield’s old cracker house and the remnants of the Doxee plant over at Caxambas. I do have a correction, though: Collier Blvd. ran a little further south from the SR 92 intersection in the late 60’s, because the original Marco Beach Hotel & Villas, built by Deltona, was a little south of the intersection.
ReplyDeleteOn the concept of Cuba, does anyone remember the old wive's tale that a part of Keywayden Island was used for training Bay of Pigs personnel?
And while we're talking about radar, does anyone remember the giant radar dishes on Krome Av., between 41 and Homestead in Dade County? That always made for a pretty eerie trip.
I too recall hearing stories about how a portion of the "ill fated brigade" that participated in the "Bay of Pigs Invasion" of Cuba in 1961, launched from the docks at the Keewayadin shore station. Seems plausible enough but I don't have a valid reference point. I don't think there was much "training" going on (I had not heard of it anyway), but I can certainly see where Naples was far enough away (rather that Key West) to use for a temporary staging area prior to launching.
ReplyDeleteSeagate Homeboy
NHS Class of 1967
1:25p.m. PDT
I after Hurricane Donna took out the trailer park at the end of Gordon Drive,the government took over the property and fenced it off. I'm not sure which agency ran it but there was some type of military boat that was docked by the Keywayden Club gas pump which use to be at Gordon pass. This was shortly after the Bay of Pigs disaster.I rember seeing the boat with some type of gun mounted on the front. It was very loud when running. My brother told me that he thinks the CIA may have controled the property first and then possibly DEA later. It wasn't there for very long.
ReplyDeleteRe: Caxambas Area...
ReplyDeleteTommie Barfield's old house was all but a shell in the early sixties, Indian Hill didn't have a tower there then...but Ideal Fish Camp existed...till it was torn down in the seventies.
In 1963...Deltona set-up in the area of Bald Eagle Drive and San Marco Road (SR 92), everything from that point to the beach was sand dunes.The Deltona "horn" sounded everyday at precisely 3 PM...for the workers to end their work day. Deltona built a make-shift airport in the sand dune area..to bring prospective buyers in from up north. They all were then taken to the "Yacht Club" to get drunk and buy.
Having grown up on Marco I figure I should clarify a few things here:
ReplyDelete- Doxsee Clam Factory was located in Old Marco next to where the Snook Inn is now (actually a trailer park - rare to have that on the Island!) The factory closed in the mid 1940s as the clams ran out and Mr. Doxsee rented the land to the trailer people and later sold it to them.
- Tommie Barfield did not have a house on Indian Hill - the old Heights Hotel burned down in the 1920s and the house you saw would have been on the west side of the road and owned by the Hamlins and they had a water tower for drinking water.
- The Clam Factory in Caxambas was Burnhams
-Don't know about Keewaydin Is. used for Bay of Pigs training but Useppa Island (near Captiva) was totally rented by the CIA for that and the museum there has a lot of history on the Cubans trained there and who died on the mission
-"Makeshift" airport was truly that - it was the old road to the Missile Tracking Station and when you drove down there you had to keep an eye out for planes so they did not land on top of you! Now that street is Landmark.
-Good comment on the horn at 3 pm - I had forgotten about that!