LIVING HISTORY
OLD FISHING CAMP HAD
COLORFUL AND VIOLENT PAST
BY MARY DODGE
Developers who came in the late 1950s to what is
now Port St. Lucie met Burt Pruitt, a colorful and
crusty guide who owned a fishing camp on the
shores of the North Fork of the St. Lucie River.
They probably were unaware of the violence in his, and the
location’s, past.
Old newspaper articles about this local pioneer reveal more
than tales of his pet alligators, visiting millionaire fishermen
and a river alive with rolling tarpon. They tell of three fatal
shootings and other troubling family problems.
In later years, Burt would reminisce to outdoors columnists
about the early days of fishing on the North Fork in the late
1920s. “I was taking Palm Beach millionaires fishing for $15 a
day. After a while they all wanted to go up the St. Lucie River
because it was so beautiful and the fishing was so good.”
‘A REAL ASSET’
In 1958, after a weekend at the fishing camp, members of
the Outdoor Writers Guild of Florida declared him “a real asset
to the county.” He was one of their favorite news sources,
though they often misspelled his name as “Bert.”
While the names of most the roads in Port St. Lucie were
taken from a big book of suggested street names used by
developers, Pruitt Road in Sandpiper Bay is what is left of
the road that led to Burt’s fish camp. It runs for several blocks
between Morningside Boulevard and the river. Burt Pruitt’s
family is not related to Ken Pruitt, the county property appraiser
and former president of the state Senate.
The actual campsite is gone, swallowed up by the Tesoro,
now Ravello, development. It could be reached as late as
the early 2000s from the former Wilderness Golf Course of >>
32 Port St. Lucie Magazine
MARY DODGE
Now surrounded by development, the North Fork of the St. Lucie River looks much like the days when Burt Pruitt guided the rich and famous on fishing trips.