Swampy's Florida

This postcard, on the mail side is labelled: ‘Home of the “Gator.” Ocklawaha River, Fla.’

The description continues,
‘The tourists on the Hart Line steamers [steamboat] watch for the “gator” in his native home, every now and then the cry is heard “There’s one” and in haste we are at the side of the boat gazing at the native who lays peacefully sleeping in the warm sun unmindful of the tourist’s curiosity and remarks, on hand bags, pocketbooks, etc.”

Quite a run-on sentence!
The Hart Line of steamboats ran the Silver and Ocklawaha Rivers from 1860 into the 1920s. The line was started by Hubbard Hart. Hart saw potential of the Silver Springs area as a tourist spot and initially ran his boats from Palatka to the Ocklawaha River and on to Silver Springs. This effort eventually brought a hotel to the spring area and then a train. The train greatly hurt the steamboat business, tough it limped into the 20^th century.

The car is copyright 1911, R.W. Thompson.

This postcard is part of the Swampy’s Florida collection.
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