The end of the canal that would have cleaved Florida in two | Column
50 years ago, environmentalists persuaded Nixon to halt construction of the Cross Florida Barge Canal.
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Published Jan. 15
In January 1971, a forward artillery observer serving with American forces in Cambodia exulted in good news from back home in Florida. âI was excited for my mom,â he remembered in an interview years later. âBut nobody in my unit had any idea why I was so happy. I had to explain to them about the Cross Florida Barge Canal.â That observer was Stephen Carr, whose enthusiastic response was fueled by the reports that President Richard Nixon issued an executive order 50 years ago â on Jan. 19, 1971 â mandating that construction on the canal be halted.
The group fighting a dam on the Ocklawaha River for more than 50 years is honoring former Florida Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham for his many years of efforts to restore the river flowing from near Orlando to the St. Johns River near Palatka. The dam was built as part of an ill-fated attempt to build a barge canal across the state. The Florida Defenders of the Environment, founded by legendary environmentalist Marjorie Carr, will present to Graham the Marjorie Harris Carr Award for Environmental Advocacy 50 years after canal construction was halted.
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Inspecting a boat ramp at the Ocklawaha River’s Rodman Reservoir are Jennifer Carr, president of the Florida Defenders of the Environment, and her daughter, Carmen, and the group’s executive director Jim Gross. Rodman Reservoir is plagued by a chronic growth of muck and floating weeds, as seen here at the boat ramp. Weeds have engulfed the ramp and dock.
A legacy of the hasty construction of the dam and reservoir in the 1960s is that it left many trees in the reservoir s boundary.
Part 3 of Special Series
Cannon Springs has spent a half-century entombed by a government blunder of a dam and reservoir on the Ocklawaha River. Every several years, authorities must dump the artificial lake to flush out a nonstop growth of muck and weeds.