Cross-State Canal Route Surveyed in 1820’s Passed

Thru Kingsley and Alligator Creek

BRADFORD COUNTY TELEGRAPH

100TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

July 26, 1979

Page Nine – Section Five

The idea of an Atlantic-to-Gulf waterway across the Florida peninsula has persisted since the white man first came to live in the land of the Indians and one of the first routes considered, in the 1820’s, would have brought the canal plowing through what is not the City of Starke.      Although the project was later abandoned because of the expense of building locks to lift ships over the heights of Trail Ridge between Starke and Kingsley Lake, it is interesting to speculate what effect the construction of such a canal would have had on this area. Would Starke have become a thriving canal port back by the 1840’s rather than having to wait for the railroad to give it a transportation boost in the late 1850’s? Who knows? But after almost 160 years, the dream of a cross-state canal has never been realized.      Talk about a canal began with the Spanish explorers in the 16th century, but it was not until Dec. 19, 1825 that Rep. Daniel Webster submitted a resolution to Congress asking for “the examination and survey of the peninsula of Florida for the purpose of ascertaining whether it would be practicable to unite the Atlantic and the Gulf by way of a ship canal to run from the neighborhood of St. Augustine, or from the mouth of the St. Johns River on the Atlantic Coast, to the mouth of the Suwannee River on the Gulf of Mexico.”  The resolution was approved, with $20,000 allotted for expenses.  There followed numerous acts of the legislative council regarding a canal across the promontory of Florida.      Maj. Paul Perrault, of the Board of Internal Improvement in Washington, was ordered to employ topographical engineers to survey a route for a canal between the Atlantic and the Gulf.      The final report, submitted in February 1829 was a great disappointment to canal enthusiasts.  It said that “a ship canal across the isthmus of Florida was impracticable and that the most that could be effected was a canal six feet deep for steamboats.”      But the matter was not yet not dead, and in 1837, John Lee William wrote confidently in his book, “The Territory of Florida.”      “A canal across the peninsula of Florida has been located by the engineers of the U. S., under an act of Congress, a report of which was made in the spring of 1820.  The first project …. Proposed a chip canal, but …the table land of the peninsula was found to be higher than anticipated… A steamboat canal was recommended by the engineers.”      The “table land” referred to was presumably Trail Ridge, west of Kingsley Lake.      According to his report, “The location of the canal would commence at the south branch of Black Creek, 12 miles west of the St. Johns River and proceed by way of Kingsley’s Pond (the early name of Kingsley Lake) down Alligator Creek to Sampson’s Pond (Sampson Lake) on to the Santaffe (Santa Fe) River and along its channel to the natural bridge, thence westward to the Suwannee River to St. Marks and the Gulf of Mexico.”      M. G. McMillan, longtime Starke surveyor, says that this proposed route would have drained all the water out of Kingsley Lake and into the St. Johns River and eventually the Atlantic Ocean, unless dams and locks were used in Black Creek, as well as to cross Trail Ridge.  The water level in Kingsley Lake averages about 176 above sea level.      The canal fever began to die down with the depression of 1837 and also because of the expense of installing locks to lift steamboats over the 250 foot elevation of Trail Ridge.  Interest in this route of the canal, which would have brought it within the present city limits of Starke, was eventually abandoned.      Previous to the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Army engineers made 38 surveys of possible canal routes across Florida and arrived at the conclusion that the best one would be by way of the St. Johns River to the Oklawaha River, thence by canal across the ridge of Central Florida, passing near Ocala, and then into the Withlacoochee River, and on to the gulf at Port Inglis.  Work was actually started as a new Deal project by the Roosevelt administration during the depression of the 1930’s, but finally died out and was forgotten during World War II.      In 1956 the project reappeared, with proponents arguing that it would reduce freight costs sufficiently to warrant its construction.  Under the Johnson administration, work was actually started and continued on a limited scale until 1971 when, largely due to the pressure of environmentalists, President Nixon issued a stop order for all further construction.  The Florida Legislature and Cabinet have since withdrawn their support, although congress has not yet actually deauthorized the project.      But what would have happened to this area if that report in the 1820s had been accepted and carried out?  The report that said;”The best passage across the summit of the ridge for a boat canal is offered by the head waters of the Santa Fe River and Black Creek.  On this route it is supposed that the natural reservoirs of water would supply a sufficient quantity to feed a canal of this description.      A canal of about 85 miles in length from the fork of Black Creek to the mouth of the Santa Fe would connect the St. Johns, entering the Atlantic with the Suwannee, discharging itself into the Gulf of Mexico.”      A tidewater canal was impossible as shown by the committee, and a canal with locks was too expensive. So the project was dropped, and with it went Starke’s only chance of becoming a “seaport” city. Courtesy of Harriett Fuqua