LIVING HISTORY
18
THOMAS WINTER
Martin Highway is a favorite Sunday drive for many.
there fishing, and Grandma would fry them for us right there
on the road, and we’d have the best time,” Wall said.
They hunted alligators there, too. “When you could get
$1.35 a foot for a gator hide, you know darn well Crackers
would gator hunt,” Wall said. “Gators were just all over
the place.” Selling those prized hides that were turned into
purses and boots produced a good source of income.
Life in western Martin County was like a scene from
Patrick Smith’s A Land Remembered. Cattle ranching was
king here. Herds of cows — lots of them — freely mixed and
mingled in the swamps, scrub forests, and palmetto thickets
until the fence law of 1949.
Bud Adams, one of Florida’s top ranchers, remembers
those days well. Griscom Bettle, a Philadelphia industrialist,
purchased what is now Allapattah Flats from Southern States
for $22 an acre. Bettle wanted to fence in his large tract of
land, so he hired Adams to inform neighboring ranchers of
his intentions.
CHECK IT OUT
>>
The 12-mile Martin Grade, a half hour west of Stuart,
runs on County Road 714 (Martin Highway) between State
Road 609 (Allapattah Road) and State Road 710 (Warfield
Boulevard). The Martin Grade takes you to the 22,000-acre
Allapattah Flats Wildlife Management Area, which is open
year-round to the public.
For more information about the Martin Grade Scenic
Project, visit www.martingrade.org
/www.tchospice.org
/www.martingrade.org
/www.martingrade.org