[twangy country guitar]
[Peter] The man, the myth, the legend.
-Harrison.
-Here we are. Welcome to Everglade City.
[Peter] Is that a 21st century canoe?
What do we got going here?
-This is a Gheenoe.
It’s a custom-made boat.
Bigger than a canoe,
probably double as wide.
It’s really good for
getting into skinny water
-Harrison’s saying safe and dry.
[Harrison chuckles]
We’re getting out
in the Gulf of Mexico too, right?
-We will eventually be
popping out to the gulf
but we’re gonna run through
the Wilderness Waterway.
There’s a lot of bays,
and rivers, and stuff,
and they eventually lead to the gulf.
-Is anyone out there?
-Today… [scoffs] I doubt it.
-Awesome.
-We have it to ourselves today.
[engine idling]
[Harrison] Everybody knows the Wild West.
The frontier closed in 1890-something.
1896, I don’t know, fact check me on that
but this was the last frontier
well into the 1920s.
The Everglades, where people
could come, settle the land,
and if they could improve the land
then they could keep it
and the families of the settlers
still live here today.
So very unique place.
-These are old homesteading properties?
-Old homesteading properties.
But from only a hundred years ago.
No one wanted to come here specifically
because if you see,
the land’s not very solid.
The bugs can get out of control,
and I mean out of control
but they found a way
to live on the land and make it their own.
[upbeat twangy guitar]
-[Harrison] Whoa.
-[engine dies down abruptly]
I saw it too late. It’s all good.
-Sandbar?
-Yeah.
How do you know cruising through these?
It’s tough, you have to notice
the shades of brown in the water.
I saw it like ten seconds too late.
[Harrison grunts]
Yeah, that’s like what, two feet deep?
-No it’s like a foot. I can run in a foot.
-So is it because the tide is out?
-It’s ’cause the tide’s super low
and we’re on a full moon.
So the tide’s swinging
even more than usual.
It’s like a foot lower
than even the lowest low.
Man, you had to get me on film running
into a sandbar, that’s embarrassing.
Well, that’s it.
[Harrison grunting] Ain’t no thing.
[Peter] Was someone living on this island?
[Harrison] I think it was
2,000, 3,000 years ago.
Calusa Indians…
or the Calusa Native Americans,
they would pile shells up
until they made land.
You can still see it today.
It’s absolutely incredible, the
manpower required to do that.
-You mean for this whole island?
-For this specific little area.
This little are is dry
land they could get up on
regardless of how high
the tide would come.
They could be there safe.
Look at that. Thousands of years later.
There’s a rumor. I think
archaeologists found artifacts or whatever
that the Calusa Indians
grew to be seven feet tall.
Because of the genetics
of being in the swamp for so long
they would be tall to be above the water
kind of like a stork or something.
Seriously. [laughs]
[boat engine revving]
Now on the Lopez River.
-Lopez River?
-Lopez River.
He was an old settler back in the 1800s.
This is his river.
[Peter] In living here,
I mean it’s a maze.
-Turn after turn, this all looks the same.
-Yeah.
So you were saying a lot of outlaws
came out here. Outlaw houses.
-Outlaw houses, people living
with shacks in the mangroves.
-Imagine trying to find somebody here.
-Right.
If you know your way around
and the person chasing you doesn’t
how you gonna find them?
Never will.
[Harrison] This is Watson’s Place,
named after Bloody Ed Watson.
He was an outlaw.
-[Peter] Nice.
-[Harrison] Soft landing.
[Harrison] This is the
place that probably has
the most historical rubble
or whatever still.
There was a couple Wild West people.
Supposedly he did away
with them in a gun fight
and then came out
here to hide from the law
in the late 1890s into the 1900s.
And supposedly the rumor is
he would hire people to help him
maintain the land, grow crops,
and then the people would disappear.
So his workers would disappear
and eventually the town of Chokoloskee
had enough of his antics.
-Uh-huh.
-And the last time he went into town,
the whole town was there,
up in arms ready,
and they had at him, and you know,
swift trial, let’s put it that way.
And that was the end of Bloody Ed Watson
but this is where he lived.
We’re like 15, 20 miles south
into the Everglades
from where we started, right?
-Yeah.
-So you were saying
he had a plantation out here?
He had a plantation,
he was trying to grow crops.
I think this is the last place in America
where he thought
anybody would look for him.
-He was right about that for a good bit.
-Oh, yeah.
[Peter] Do you know how many people
Ed Watson killed?
[Harrison] They say it’s in the upwards
of 20s and 30s, maybe more than that.
He would hire people, have them
work here, and then refuse to pay them.
[Peter sighs]
Okay, this is interesting
in the Everglades.
I wouldn’t expect trees like this here.
-That’s interesting you found it,
that’s a gumbo-limbo tree.
-Gumbo-limbo?
-Yeah, people make a big deal about it.
When you find the gumbo-limbo trees,
it’s really cool that we found one.
Goes to show you that anything can grow.
-Okay, so we’re up
a few feet from the swamp.
-Yep.
-And it’s just basically forest, huh?
-It turns into a forest. It’s… Oh, man.
-Is this an animal trail?
-I was gonna say what did you step in?
I thought it was eggs here
you stepped in, that woulda been cool.
Some old eggs.
-Is there anything poisonous
as far as plants?
-No, there’s no poison ivy here.
You don’t really see ticks.
You just have to watch out
for water moccasins.
Which the water we’re in
is too salty to support ’em.
So we’re good on the poisonous snakes.
Bugs wise, nothing really poisonous.
-Bugs are hardcore,
look at all these guys.
-Yeah, and this is the middle of the day.
This is not bad.
-Geez.
-They don’t have many
mammals coming through here do they?
-One of the pro tips is don’t stay still
or you’ll just get mowed alive, right?
-Yeah, by the bugs.
-The bugs are no joke.
-Woo.
And again, right now,
like I told you, Peter,
even these bugs that are on you,
this is like a two out of ten.
[both laugh]
I’ve never experienced
anything like this.
-This is nothing
compared to how it can get.
Middle of the day shouldn’t really
be that bad but you’re seeing it.
[bugs buzzing]
[Harrison] This is all saltwater here.
One of the main things
they had to worry about back then
was having fresh water to drink
and they would make these things
called cisterns, this and this.
Where they would collect
fresh water from the rainy months
and leave it here,
protect it as much as they could,
not let the bugs get into it obviously
and that’s how they would have
their drinking supply.
But if you could even…
I mean look at this.
This is 2024, look at these bugs on us.
Imagine back then before there was
people flying over fumigating the bugs.
-Oh, they’re fumigating this now?
-In the ’60s and ’70s they would fly over
with planes and drop DEET
on all this stuff to sort of
mosquito population control.
So one could only imagine
that it was worse back then.
-Okay, so this was the fresh water.
-Cistern, yeah.
Which they would just get from the sky?
-They would get from the sky.
-Rain water, what was this?
-I’m pretty sure this was related to this.
-Okay.
Might want to check me on that
but this was the large holding pool
and I think this was
the filtration system.
And this machine,
something for the plantation?
-Something for the plantation.
Obviously it still remains.
I’m no plantation man myself
so I can’t say I’ve used one of these.
[laughs]
It’s solid. It’s solid rust.
[Peter exhales]
Not an easy life out here I can imagine.
-Probably one of
the hardest lives you can imagine.
-Right, like put this in comparison with
Inuit people way up north in Alaska.
-Would you be willing to live in
the bitter negative 20 degree cold
or would you be wanting to deal with…
Look at this amount…
It’s really the bugs, it’s the bug thing.
-It is the bugs.
Like how do you do this?
You just get used to being bit up?
-It’s a mental thing.
-Oh.
I know that sounds easier said than done.
You can put bug spray
all over you, they’ll laugh at it.
-They’ll drink the bug spray.
-They don’t care out here.
They could care less.
All right Harrison, I say we go.
Good idea?
-Yeah, yeah.
-[both laugh]
When the sun comes down here,
man, oh my God.
-Yeah, any romantic idea
of I’m gonna remove myself from society
and live out here is I think
squashed pretty quickly for people
once they see that reality.
-It really is the bugs.
If it wasn’t for them
maybe this would all be populated.
So I guess they’re
a blessing in disguise in that way.
[boat engine]
[Peter] I’m surprised
there’s so much space out here.
-I was thinking Everglades, more airboats.
-Airboats.
You’d be surprised.
People think the Everglades,
they think gators and crocodiles
but there’s dolphins too.
Hopefully we get into some today.
-So this is the one house we’ve seen
since the mainland an hour ago.
-Pretty much, yeah.
This gives you an idea
of how some people used to live
out here before
they made it all a national park.
Some stuff like this house
was probably grandfathered in.
That’s why they’re allowed
to remain on national park property.
-Okay.
-Again, your guess is as good as mine
as to who it belongs to.
[Peter] It’s a national park
but nobody is out here.
The camera is not capturing it
but we’re out there.
Oh, we’re way out there.
This feels very remote.
One of the most remote places I’ve been
to be honest.
In all the traveling I’ve done as far as
how many humans are in a square mile, two.
-You and me.
-Right now that’s it.
-Pretty cool, right?
-Yeah, amazing.
[Harrison] Definitely makes you feel free.
[Harrison] There he is.
[Peter] Oh, beautiful.
[Harrison] He’s having lunch.
[Peter] So these are fresh water dolphins?
-Here he goes, right.
-Oh.
-They’re regular dolphins,
saltwater bottlenose dolphins.
-But they go into the fresh no problem.
-Oh, they’re fast.
-Look at how fast he is.
-Yeah, he’s fast as hell.
[Peter] Oh, it’s massive.
[Harrison] They’re huge, like eight feet,
he’s got battle scars too.
-From what?
-Shark attacks, fighting with…
mostly shark attacks.
People definitely do not swim
anywhere in the everglades.
There are so many bull sharks in here
and the water’s so murky
those bull sharks
take a little investigational bite.
-I wouldn’t want to be–
-Bull sharks?
-The worst kind of sharks.
[Harrison] You wouldn’t expect dolphins
to be in the swamp but here they are.
-Not at all.
-He’s doing circles.
Oh, that is so awesome.
[Harrison] I hope we’re not
interrupting his feeding frenzy
but I think he’s in a school
of mullet enjoying that.
Often times they’re pretty friendly,
they’ll come up to the boat.
They know when an engine’s on
and they’ll come up to the boat.
-They like the engine?
-They like the wake coming off the boat.
[Harrison] There he goes, staying left.
-He’s pulling the fish off the mangroves?
-He’s having a great time.
[Peter] This part of the Everglades
it’s about dolphins and sharks
and not about alligators, is that correct?
-You will not see alligators
in this part of the Everglades that much
because we’re so close to the salt.
Gators are more lazy.
They like to sit in the fresh water.
-This moves too much for ’em.
-The current is pretty strong.
The current always rips here
especially on the full moon.
-So the Gulf of Mexico is out that way?
-Correct.
-Okay.
-We’re heading west.
We’re gonna get there soon.
[mellow twangy guitar]
[music continues]
[Peter] And then it just opens up,
Gulf of Mexico.
[Harrison] Mexico’s over there.
Texas is over there.
-Key West is down there.
-Exactly, down there.
[Peter] You can smell the air
is different, salty air.
-Salty air, it opens up.
This is where the Glades meets the ocean.
It’s a beautiful thing.
-That’s wild,
it’s a maze forever in there.
A million different pathways.
-You can get lost in there, as you know,
forever and ever.
-And then boom, out to sea.
-Out to sea.
[Harrison] I’ve seen
the earliest maps of Florida
and when Ponce de Leon came here
looking for the fountain of youth
he was running up and down
the East and West coast of Florida
but on every map since the beginning
of that time in the 1500s there’s…
-Look at that.
-What was that? A stingray or something?
-That those eagle rays
jump out of the water, it’s crazy.
They’re like 50, 60 pounds,
that’s what they do.
Ponce de Leon came out here looking for it
and every map that every cartographer
has done since the 1500s
there’s been a Chatham Bend.
So it’s obviously a place of significance
that has existed since then.
[Peter] And there were Natives
living here at one time?
-The Calusas and the Tequestas.
There were Natives that lived out here.
-What were they eating?
Obviously seafood but on land, anything?
On land what you have is
a lot of racoons and also a lot of deers.
Deer swim very well.
-[Harrison] Paradise to me.
-[Peter] Look at this, beautiful.
[Harrison] Look at that sandbar.
You ever want a sandbar to yourself?
[Peter] This is the place.
[Harrison] I’m not gonna tell you
where it is. Just joking.
-[Peter] This is so cool.
-[Harrison] Look at this
[Harrison] Personal island.
-So is this considered Everglades here?
-This is still Everglades.
[Harrison] For the next three miles
out to the gulf this is still everglades.
-Okay.
-Here’s a horseshoe crab… or a dead one.
One of the most prehistoric species
there are out here.
I think they’re older
than dinosaurs, right? Yeah.
500 million years old.
They wash up unfortunately
they die sometimes but…
[Peter] Know what I love
about doing this work?
I meet cool people from all over
but one of the coolest things is
I always have something I think
a place is gonna be like, right?
Like I think most of us do.
We think of what something
or a type of person will be.
and then you never know until you go.
That’s not the vision I had.
So even something as
supposedly as simple as the Everglades…
-[Harrison laughs] Very complex.
-[Peter] Is more complicated…
…than one might think.
-That’s why I was so excited
to show you, man.
-That’s some petrified wood. Yep.
-Petrified wood.
[Peter] So I’m gonna make this claim
and someone’s gonna correct me I’m sure.
I’m sure there are wider
swaths of land in Alaska.
-Yes.
-But I’m gonna say,
and I never thought this,
you might be able to get as
remote as you can in Florida
over the rest of the
Continental United States.
-I would agree with you.
-I’m trying to think of another place
that you can get away from people
for that long as far as…
What are we seeing, 15 miles there?
-The round trip we just did was 30 miles.
If we go in that direction, Peter,
there is not civilization for another
70 miles, till the Florida Keys.
-Wow.
-Yeah.
Maybe 80 miles to the Florida Keys
from where we are.
I was thinking Everglades, it’s a park,
there’s a highway going
through up north of here obviously.
Like you’re not that far
away from civilization
but this is like survivor stuff.
Yeah, no one’s coming to get you out here.
-Yeah, okay if the boat breaks down,
we have engine issues,
let’s check out
the cell phone coverage, okay?
-Zero.
-Engine issues, can you see that?
-Yep.
-Okay, I got the SOS thing up there.
-Oh wait,
here’s another one, SOS. [laughs]
[Peter] Right,
so something happens out here,
you’re on your own?
-Yeah, the Everglades teaches you
how to, you know, be one for yourself
because honestly if we were to break down,
see that pole there?
that would be me
poling us back for 30 miles.
-We got your trolling motor.
-Yeah, you’re right, we
do have the trolling motor
but that might last a couple miles
and then we’re poling the whole way back.
We might get there tomorrow. [chuckles]
[Peter] Look at these little crabs
going through the forest
Forest to them.
Small plants to us.
They just all go in their holes.
-The crabs?
-Yep.
[Peter] It’s cool,
it’s like this miniature world
like they’re going through a forest.
-You wanna know why they’re called
fiddler crabs? Check out this guy’s claw.
See, he only has one like this.
He’s not pinching me now.
But they’re called fiddler crabs
because only one of
their claws gets giant.
So they’re supposed to fiddle.
There they are.
Nice little guys,
we’ll let them go back to fiddlin’.
-You’re super passionate
about the Everglades obviously.
Is that a normal thing
for your age demographic
and where you live in Miami
or what’s the story there?
No, I would say it’s
less than 3% to 5% of people
that even know what
the major points of the Everglades are.
It’s something that I kind of just
discovered organically, you know?
-Okay.
-But I’m so glad I did.
I actually feel bad for whoever
doesn’t know about the Everglades.
[waves gently splashing]
[Harrison] So Everglade’s finest
right here.
-Stone crabs, in season, fresh, cracked.
-Oh, nice.
-They all come from here? Awesome.
-They all come from here.
-Do you just eat ’em raw?
-Yeah, you eat ’em raw, they’re delicious.
[Peter] Look at that crab meat, oh my God.
-That’s amazing.
-That’s as good as it gets right here.
You can’t beat that.
[both laughing]
Here, this is you.
Oh, there we go. Can you hold this?
Do you mind holding that?
Oh, perfectly cracked.
-There’s no work on these things.
-Nope.
-So you just bite it out?
-Yeah, just like that.
-Delicious.
-Mmm.
Pretty good, right?
So good, sweet.
Little salty.
-Mm-hmm.
Might have been swimming three
or four days ago. That’s what you want.
-What is this, just the fat on top?
-Exactly correct.
Yeah, that’s just the fat on top.
-There’s great nutrients in here, huh?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you had a stone crab pure diet
I think you’d be a pretty healthy man.
-Watson was probably.
-Watson was. Watson probably had
all the stone crabs he wanted.
[Peter] Where are we off to next?
-We’re gonna to Chokoloskee Island, yep.
-To meet some of the people
that call this zone home?
-Yeah, they’ve been calling this home
for the last hundred years.
Beautiful thing.
[Harrison] We’ll be there
in 20 minutes, maybe 30.
[boat engine revving]
[upbeat twangy guitar]
[Peter] What’s the Smallwood Store?
The Smallwood Store is the original
founding place of Chokoloskee.
It’s been there I think since 1906.
It’s where everybody came from
all around to sell what they hunted,
buy whatever munitions
they needed for the week
and this has been there since then.
So it’s the oldest store around.
[Harrison] Boom. [chuckles]
[Peter] Do I need to grab my bag or no?
-No, no chance,
no one’s gonna take your bag.
-No one steals around here?
-[scoffs] no chance.
[Harrison] How ya doing?
Lynn.
How are you?
[Peter] How you doing, man?
Wow, what a cool place.
[Lynn] Over 95%
of what’s here is original.
It was brought by boat.
-You’re from the original family?
-My mother was the youngest daughter
of Mr. Smallwood.
-Okay.
-The man that built the store here.
My grandfather came here
in the late 1800s.
He bought this island for $900
from Santini.
Who’s Santini?
He was the man who was here
before my grandfather.
He owned the island.
And then my grandfather
bought it from him.
He made $900
above his living cost I guess in 1900
off the tomatoes he farmed here
and he would go to Key West a lot with
the produce they grew here in the area.
And it took a day
to get there to Key West
and then it would go
by Mallory Line to New York.
And that took three days.
So the tomatoes they
grew here on this island
were being delivered
to New York back in 1900.
[Peter] And these are old checks here?
[Lynn] Yeah, you wouldn’t write one
for 90 cents anymore.
You probably wouldn’t even write one,
so… [chuckling]
[Harrison] This is that guy, Watson.
That’s him.
[Lynn] He’s one of
our more famous characters.
We had a lot of characters though.
When’s the last time
you know of someone
living out there in the Everglades?
Was it Watson?
-When the park came in 1947 they didn’t
burn everything down right away
but they burnt
all the old homesteads down.
I think around 1960
is whenever they did Watson’s home.
It’s a different way of life
because we are so isolated
because of the parks
and preserves, you know?
They say, “Well how do you do that?”
and it’s like my 25 minutes drive
to the grocery store is
a lot nicer than yours is
when in traffic. [laughs]
[Harrison] This is a sawfish rostrum.
So it’s the nose of a sawfish.
It’s a prehistoric fish.
[Lynn] And that would have went
to the end of the table.
The counter there
and it woulda weighed over 1,100 pounds.
-Are they still out there?
I caught one not even a month ago
but they’re having a big problem now.
-In the Keys it’s crazy.
-They’re spinning around and dying.
-They can’t figure out what’s going on
but back in the day
when our fishermen had these nets
can you imagine trying to get that thing…
-They thrash them around too.
-Can I touch it?
Oh, so sharp.
[Lynn] They just tear your net up.
Well there’s a nerve
that goes down the middle of it
and if you take a hammer
and hit on the end of it
that’ll kill it.
[Harrison] These shells
have holes in them.
Because the Calusa
Native Americans that lived here,
they would burrow holes in the shells
and use them as instruments
like a hammer or something for war.
So all the ones that you found
with holes in them are ancient artifacts.
[Peter] There were no humans forever?
No, they say there’s a skunk ape.
[Harrison] Never seen that skunk ape.
Gotta keep looking.
[Peter] There are two hermits?
You were talking about
the red house out there.
-Yeah.
-Someone lives in that.
There’s another one.
I think he passed away.
But at least for the last two decades
he was staying in there, real old man
and apparently the only way he got
there and back here was through kayak.
Which was insane.
I didn’t know that. Whenever I was
growing up there were hermits here
and there was one…
My second grade teacher,
her husband was a hermit
that lived out here on Comer’s Island
and whenever there was
a hurricane or something
my dad would go out there
and get him and bring him in
because it was right there on the edge
and I really think what it was
because it was an oyster shell mound kinda
it was like a post where the Calusas
would have someone out there
to warn them of approaching ships.
But anyways he lived out there and
before he came here was a very smart man.
He sold the patent for a glue to Elmer’s.
-For a hundred dollars, yeah.
-Oh, wow.
So he was a very smart man
but he did not like people.
Whenever he came for Hurricane Donna
in 1960 I was four.
And so when you get
the barometric pressure
things go into labor and they deliver.
My dog was pregnant
so she was having puppies.
I had a hamster, it had babies.
She was eating them,
I was devastated with that,
and Mr. Rosmer, he was staying
in the garage behind the motel
with the animals
because he didn’t want to be around people
and then of course there was me
with the dog and the hamster.
So I’m sure I was being a pain
but anyways he stayed there
and I almost got bit by a water moccasin
because they’re not native to here
but they obviously got
displaced during the hurricane
and I almost got bit by it.
He yanked me up, and put me
over his head, and scared me to death,
and he was just trying to save my life
and he scared me to death.
Anyways I’m sure he was glad
to get back to his island. [laughs]
-Thank you guys so much.
-Have a great afternoon.
-Thanks, man.
-See ya, Brandon.
That is cool.
-[Harrison] Cool place, right?
-[Peter] What a place.
-Walk back in time.
-Yeah.
It’s a historical, historical place.
[Peter] They even have boat tours.
If any of you guys watching
ever come down here
definitely check this place out.
[Peter] So this is how it works
here on the island?
You pull up,
get your bait, your ice, tackle.
These people are living out here
just in the colder months?
Yeah, these people are here full time
if you can see.
-Yeah, okay.
[Peter] “Live shrimp”, this is awesome.
-How you guys doing?
-[man] Good, you?
Good.
-You got it.
-Thanks, man.
[Peter] Okay.
Exactly, you’re doing it right.
Once you get it, I’m good.
-All right.
We have the gas station
and then this is the town.
I say we just walk this town a little bit.
-Let’s walk Chokoloskee.
-I always love islands.
Okay, I’m getting it. If you’re
a big fisher you come stay here.
-You come stay here.
-Get a boat, go out in
the Everglades every day.
-Yeah, you get lost out there
and you can catch anything
you want pretty much.
I like the lifestyle,
I can definitely appreciate
why the people live the lifestyle.
-It’s just very, very still here.
-Mm-hmm.
And nobody is outside.
-How much is this one?
-125.
[Peter] 125,000.
Rented land though.
[Harrison] Rented land, yeah.
[Peter] How you doing?
-[Peter] Oyster shells?
-[man] Yeah.
The whole island?
-Do you guys live here?
-Yep.
What do we gotta see?
What should we see?
-Ain’t nothing to see here.
-[laughing]
-I think that’s the point.
-Right?
-[Harrison laughs]
He’s like, “Nobody comes here to
see anything, what are you talking about?”
-That’s pretty funny.
[waves gently splashing]
[Peter] That is a cool store.
-Yeah, definitely.
-I just purchased a new shirt.
You didn’t get a Chokoloskee bag.
-Thanks, Chris.
-You scored, man.
All right Chris, I just bought this shirt
from you ’cause I love the design.
I’ll give this to you, Harrison,
if you can explain what’s going on here.
On the top there is the Calusa Indians,
the first settlers on the island
back in 15… BC.
Way years, and years, and years ago.
And when they came here
they built this island out of shells.
Used to be a lot of just
a big shell island and that’s all it was.
And you have the gators,
you have red fish, snook and trout,
on the other side
shows Chokoloskee Island.
All the little islands involved,
another red fish and snook,
and then you got the Smallwood store.
That’s where Ed Watson
was killed on the island.
-We went there today.
-We checked it.
Anytime his guys would wanna get paid
he’d f*ckin’ kill ’em.
[all giggling]
It’s payday, hey, you’re a dead man.
When he got over here
at the Smallwood store all the locals
gathered up and wanted answers.
Well they killed him
and dragged him out of here on a skiff
and that’s the story
about Mr. Watson, you know?
-You’re living out here full-time?
-Full-time, I moved here in 2019.
From Fort Lauderdale,
lived Lauderdale forever.
How is it being out here?
-Just pristine.
-You love it?
No traffic, you get to meet
nice people every day
with the RVs,
and the rentals, and the boaters.
-Yeah.
-I mean you can’t beat
my walk to work, it’s only 70 feet away.
[chuckling]
-Zero crime?
Zero, nothing here.
They got rid of a lot of the crime
when I moved over here, 2019.
You know, you had the local
druggies, you know?
They did… you know,
they didn’t do the normal stuff
like smoke weed or drink beer.
They wanted to do the… all that sh*t.
Those guys are gone,
and everybody looks out for each other,
and it’s just a great place.
[Peter] Would you say
this is old Florida out here?
-This is old Florida,
what the keys used to be.
Now the keys are built up and…
With that causeway that’s over here,
was just built, finished in 1956.
[Harrison] Mm-hmm.
The only way on and off the island
was the long dock there and the ferry.
-Yeah.
-I mean that’s not that long ago.
We went out on Friday.
We caught some amberjack.
-Six African pompanos.
-Nice.
You’re only allowed to keep two
so we kept two.
Yellowtails, and I was just using
a dimajig, you know the flutterjigs?
-Yeah.
-Caught all those fish right there.
We were out there
for two and a half hours.
-Those fish aren’t used to
seeing much, that’s the thing.
[Peter] Bring ’em home,
put some in the freezer, and eat the rest?
I don’t usually freeze nothing.
We’ll eat ’em for two or three days.
I’ll give some to the residents
that can’t make it out there.
Some people here now,
like this guy’s from California,
he’s from Jersey, they don’t know
what late snapper tastes like.
[Harrison] I know, I know.
So give ’em some fish, man, you know?
[Peter] All right, so where you gonna
drop us off, a graveyard?
We’re gonna take you
to the Chokoloskee graveyard.
[Harrison] Let’s go to
the Chokoloskee graveyard.
You got gravestones there
from the early 1900s.
[golf cart beeping]
[Peter] So some of these people
living here full time?
[Chris] That’s my place
with the little bastard dog.
-Okay.
-[woman] Hi.
-[Peter] How you doing?
-Is that your wife?
-Debbie, known her since she was 17.
Oh, wow.
[Chris kisses]
[Peter] What’s up, Debbie?
-Not much, how you guys doing?
-Good, Chris is giving
us a tour to the cemetery.
-The cemetery, meaning this place?
-Yeah.
[all laughing]
[Chris] Going behind Lopez over there.
[Peter] “Beware, my dog is an a**hole.”
-[Chris] That’s Kramer.
-[Debbie] That’s Kramer.
[Debbie to dog] Are you an a**hole?
[all laughing]
-Have fun on your tour.
-See ya.
[Peter] Okay, so some of these other guys
are living here full-time?
Some do, some go home for the summer
to Michigan or wherever they live at.
-Okay.
[man] Some avocados and limes.
[Chris] Okay, yes.
Excellent.
Thank you.
[Peter] That’s cool.
So that’s how it works,
you give some fish away?
-Yep.
-Someone gets you with
the avocados and it’s a lot of trading?
A lot of trading, no money involved.
Just you help them out,
they’ll get you a beer, or avocados, or…
-That’s great.
A tight-knit community
and we watch out for each other.
This place here, JT’s.
-What’s going on here?
-It’s been here forever.
Have a little sign there.
-Built in the ’20s?
-Yep.
“Moved from Everglades City”,
what, six miles away?
Yep.
Post office…
So did the Chokoloskees,
did they get shot off the island
or were they gone for a long time
and then people found it?
-Yeah, there were trappers would come by.
You’d be surprised
how many people on boats.
I mean, you know, boats that had
no motors or nothing, found this island.
If you come from outside
how the hell do you find this place
with just a compass and they drew
an old f*cking map on a napkin.
[Harrison] Yeah, I know. With the amount
of mangrove islands it looks the same.
[Peter] The woman at the store was
telling us about the trade with Cuba too.
I found that to be interesting.
-90 miles away.
-Yeah.
[Peter] New Church?
The church has been here,
they’re adding on.
Going to have more of a bigger hall
because they have a lot more people.
Inside of that back there
is another small graveyard
but to get in there
you’d be a lot of scorpions,
a lot of bullsh*t in there, you know?
[Harrison] I didn’t know this was here.
That’s pretty cool.
-[Peter] So from the first settlers?
-[Chris] Yeah, first people on the island.
[Chris] Probably right there. There ya go.
[Peter] “Lopez”.
[Chris] Yep.
-[Harrison] Lopez from the Lopez River?
-[Chris] Yeah.
-[Peter] “Louis Lopes”.
-[Chris] 1901.
Interesting they changed
the spelling of the name.
Lopes with an S, Lopez with a Z.
-Born in Spain.
-Yeah.
[Harrison] He lived a long life,
look at that.
Harrison, like your relatives, right?
You have Spanish blood?
I do, before Cuba they were from Spain.
It’s your relative.
Must be, distantly related, but yeah.
[Chris] Could have been a temple
for the Indians on the island.
[Harrison] Uh-huh.
Like the Egyptians would make pyramids,
they would make pyramids out of shells
and I think the one guy was telling me
this used to be a huge, huge…
[Harrison] It’s a lot higher
than everything else around here.
-Right, it is sloping.
If you look at pictures
when you Google Calusa Indians
some of the temples they made from here
all the way up to North Fort Meyers
and Bonita Springs.
-Huge… just…
-Huge.
[Peter] Out of seashells.
[Chris] They did everything
out of shells and mud.
The Calusa Indians are actually Colombian.
They’re from Columbia.
-No way.
-Yep.
[Harrison] I didn’t know that,
that’s cool.
That’s what inspired you
to make this shirt?
-Yeah.
-‘Cause you designed all of this, right?
-Yeah.
Oh, wow.
-I was talking to some of the locals
about what to do for this island.
I said how about a flag?
People said,
“Yeah, we never really had a flag.”
-So I just started sketching stuff up.
-So it’s…
-And you used the Florida flag
as the base of it
and you put the designs,
the icons that are…
-Four things in each one. I was gonna put,
even though he’s a nasty son of a b*tch,
Watson, you know?
I was trying to put him in there somewhere
but I could always tell that that man
in the skiff could be Watson, you know?
[Peter] “Cafe Cubano”?
[Harrison] Yeah, Havana cafe,
look at that.
[Peter] Say this is a family, probably is,
where do their kids go to school?
-Everglade City.
Graduating class this year,
probably 13, 14.
-Okay.
And most of the kids get out or some stay?
-Some stay.
A lot of them I think when they graduate
if they don’t take off
in their father’s footsteps
either being a crabber, or a fisherman,
or a boat mechanic, or AC guy,
they’ll venture out of here.
There’s not a lot of opportunities
for kids here, you know what I mean?
-Yeah.
-This is downtown?
-Downtown Chokoloskee.
-We’re coming up on main street.
-Here it is.
That was Grand Boulevard
we just turned off of.
[chuckling]
[Chris] Yeah.
[Peter] Where do you get your water from?
It’s piped in from Everglade City.
Water on the island is very expensive.
I think they charge you by the gallon.
-So to water a lawn’s not a cheap here?
-No, not at all.
If you want to water your lawn
you’re allowed 3,000 gallons for $50.
After 3,000 gallons
that price goes really up.
-So what they’re doing here, they’re
paying way more than for 3,000 gallons?
-Oh, yeah.
-[dog barking]
-[Chris] Chokoloskee pitbull.
[all chuckling]
This house here,
look at the land this guy owns.
-Oh, wow.
-It’s awesome.
-Beautiful.
He’s only here a couple of weeks a year.
[rooster crows]
[Peter] So this is
the other end of the island?
This is the southeast corner
of the island.
Part of Chokoloskee Bay.
Couple people fishing over there.
[Peter] Roosters in the background.
Couple peacocks over there.
[Harrison] You see ’em?
-Yeah.
-They’re everywhere in Miami.
This looks like
an old Pizza Hut, doesn’t it?
That roof, it’s got that Pizza Hut roof.
[Harrison] See if we find my shoes
on the side of the road.
-Did you lose ’em?
-I took ’em off at some point here.
Before the bait shop.
-[Chris] Nice place they’re building here.
-[Peter] What’s the story here?
Just the guy had the land
for a couple years
and now he’s getting ready to retire
and finishing his home up.
That is the true highest part
of the island right here.
So when storms come
a lot of people that live here
put their golf carts up here.
-Interesting,
everyone moves their stuff on that hill?
-Boats, RVs, fifth wheels.
Whatever they can put up there, yep.
[Harrison] There’s my shoes.
[Chris] Excellent.
[Peter] Chris, thanks for the tour.
-Yeah, man.
And the great shirt.
-The guy that gave me the avocados,
that’s the house he’s building there.
-Oh, nice.
-Hope I see you guys again, man. Stop by.
-Nice to meet you, man. Harrison.
-Harrison.
-Peter.
-All right, Peter.
-Nice to meet you, Chris.
-You guys have a good night.
-That was nice.
-What a cool guy.
That was the full island tour.
We did the full roundabout,
Chokoloskee Island.
Couldn’t have been better than that.
Chokoloskee Island is another world,
that’s for sure.
It’s cool, it would take a certain type
of person that could live out here.
At this stage in my life I couldn’t.
I wouldn’t want to
But I totally get it.
-Yeah.
No horns, no traffic lights.
-Less nonsense it seems like.
-Yep.
But much less stimulation.
But if fishing is your thing you’re
connected to the Everglades over there.
-Yep.
-Then you’re in your paradise.
Even if sitting on your porch
and watching the sunset’s your thing.
-You’ve got that too.
-Yeah.
-All right, we’re going to the mainland.
-Let’s go to the mainland.
It’s cool to be able to leave your boat
at the dock here and I have a pull start
so no key or anything.
Somebody could have just
gotten up on it and taken it away
but you never worry in Chokoloskee,
it’s just good people.
[twangy upbeat guitar]
[Harrison] I saw that guy running
I’m like, “Sh*t, did I run over his line?”
It’s the last thing I wanna do.
[Harrison yelling] Are you good?
All right.
Damn what do you got there? Oh, a catfish.
[Peter] So there’s no shortage
of seafood here?
-Never ending,
it used to be a lot better too.
Now you gotta work for it
a little bit, but yeah,
all the fish you want.
-You’re saying there’s a couple things
to see here in Everglade City?
-Let’s go check out Everglade City.
Still got a few hours of daylight.
[engine revs]
[Peter] Phew, what a tour, man.
-We’re back.
[gravel crunches]
-Cool, you good?
-Yeah.
[Peter] That’s a nice looking old church.
-Everglades Community Church.
-Here’s the bank.
-City hall?
The old bank.
-Okay, what’s the story with this?
Do you know?
-I know they’re trying to bring it back.
This is the original city hall.
They’re trying to
bring it back to functionality.
-What was this place before?
-It was a company town the first time
they tried to make it into the city.
That’s in the ’20s and ’30s
by Barron Collier.
That’s the guy who developed
Naples and all South Florida.
It is still called Collier County
because of him.
The company town
was working for Barron Collier
to help with the land boom
of South Florida.
So these were all the workers
that would help with the land development,
the construction, all that.
-That’s a beautiful building.
-Yep, Bank of Everglade.
I didn’t think there’d be
nice architecture here to be honest.
-Seek and you shall find. [laughs]
-Day of surprises, Harrison.
-Surprises are a good thing aren’t they?
-They are.
-Makes life interesting.
-Indeed.
[Harrison] Here’s the historic
Rod & Gun club.
This is a hotel that’s been here
since the beginning of Everglade City.
I know a bunch of presidents,
Roosevelt, Truman, all that…
-Oh, cool.
-They loved to vacation
in this specific place
and I think you’ll see a little bit why
now when we go inside.
-“We do not accept any credit cards”.
We go cash only?
-Oh, this is cool.
-Yeah.
“Blaze guts rod and gun club”.
It’s burned, it’s flooded.
-And it’s still here.
-I’m sure multiple times.
-Oh, this is awesome.
-Yeah.
So you can still stay here then?
-You can still stay here, you need to
reserve in advance substantially
’cause there’s not a ton of rooms.
-Old phone room.
-Yep.
Old phone booth.
There’s an old bar in there.
-Hi, how you doing?
-[woman] Hi.
[Peter] Beautiful fireplace here.
Dining room.
Old cash registers.
-Mm-hmm.
-Alligator, there we go.
-And a restaurant out here, huh?
-Yep.
Everyone just sort of chillin’.
So people are just coming down here
to go in the Everglades?
-They’re coming down here
to go in the Everglades
or to get away from it all
and enjoy some time by the water
where people aren’t gonna bother them.
-Right.
-Thanks, man.
-No, thank you for coming out here.
-Appreciate it, yeah.
-Thank you for coming out here.
I’m glad you saw the vision, man.
-I didn’t see it beforehand
when you told me about the Everglades
-I did not imagine that at all, like zero.
-Okay.
-I thought grassland, airboats–
-Monotony.
Monotony, alligators.
Not the island, not dolphins obviously,
or Gulf of Mexico so much.
So thanks for that, bro, ‘preciate it.
-It was awesome.
-I also want to let people know
you do it very sparingly.
-Yes.
-You do guides, you have a day job
but sometimes you bring people out
if they’re interested.
-Yeah, I have friends and they ask me,
“How do you get to
the places you want to go to?”
So like I showed you today
my favorite thing is showing people
something they’ve never seen before.
So that’s what it’s all about.
-Okay, I’ll leave your link down below
in the description.
-[hands clap]
-All right, brother.
Thanks guys,
for coming along on that journey.
-Until the next one.
-Until the next one.
[twangy upbeat guitar]