RECREATION
16 Port St. Lucie Magazine
MCCARTY RANCH PRESERVE
Purposes: Water storage and treatment; passive recreation
and nature preserve
Size: 3,107 acres — about 5 square miles.
Location: 12525 Range Line Road, Port St. Lucie. It is west
of I-95 and south of the intersection of Glades Cut Off
Road and Range Line Road, 21 miles from City Hall.
Phone: 772.873.6400
Hours: 7 a.m. to sunset, daily
Parking: Limited paved parking
Restrooms: Only during special events. Permanent facility
under discussion.
More information, map, brochure, and directions:
www.cityofpsl.com/parks-recreation/parks/mccarty_ranch.html
AMENITIES
Trails: trail around lake — 3 miles, multipurpose, for
horseback riding, walking.
Hiking trail — 1 mile through Florida pine woods.
Bicycle trail — for off-road bicycling, not paved or packed,
rough and irregular in places, narrow and winding. Connects
to multipurpose trail on lake. Bike trail not recommended
for horses because they and bikes may collide
around a narrow curve.
Lake: 237 acres, 1 mile by 1/2 mile lake dug by a coquina
(shell rock) mining company. Fishing and non-motorized
boating allowed. No swimming because there are alligators
in the lake. Parents must use caution in the vicinity of
the lake.
Sand beach: Small sand beach only for the purpose of
launching canoes and kayaks.
“There’s great fishing in the lake,” he says. “We didn’t
stock it, but there are bass, bluegill, catfish and more kinds of
fish in that lake.” There are also alligators, he says, which is
one reason swimming isn’t allowed.
Decades ago a coquina mining company began to dig on
the ranch for the rock made of shells, calcium carbonate and
sand that is used for a variety of purposes, including road
surfaces. When the company finished its work, it left behind
three lakes. The largest is the one kayakers, canoers and fishermen
were using on the day of the grand opening.
Yet, the ranch serves another purpose — a very serious one.
In 25 years the city’s residents will be drinking water that
comes from the ranch. The land was purchased not for recreation,
but for the purpose of storing water during the rainy
season, treating it to drinking water quality standards during
the dry season and connecting it to the city’s water supply
pipes. The recreational benefits are, in a sense, a byproduct
with the added bonus of keeping 5 square miles of natural
green space in the city’s borders.
And that brings the ranch full circle, back to the time when
it was run by the McCarty family.
“Water is going to be an issue. Water is the most important
thing,” rancher John McCarty told his young daughter,
Peggy, years ago. Peggy McCarty Monahan recalls her father
telling her that someday the city’s boundaries would be right
next to the ranch. He told her that the lakes left after the
coquina mining would be important to the city. >>
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/mccarty_ranch.html