HomeMy WebLinkAboutPitts' Island The Gem of Lake WorthPITTS' ISLAND t, THE GEM
OF LAKE WORTH."
Realizing the responsibility I aiu
under in attempting to give a history
;In(1 description of perhaps the most
conspicli()us natural feature of Lake
Worth, I will quote largely from
the able writers who have visited
it, for in the testimony of travelers
of world wide observation, Lake
Worth may rest its • claim that it
Holds a little island that for beauty
of outline and interest of semi -trop-
ical growth, and for vantage of po-
sition, outrivals airy bit of land
upon the American coast,
I'he late Rev. Jno. 'W. Harding
'\ rote as follows: "In further illus-
tration of Lake Worth, Pitts' Island
•Hiist be mentioned. Its owner, Na-
!lean W. Pitts, came several vear,s
go from Ormond and bought it
'rain an old hermit 1)y the name of
1ogers, who had lived a Robinson
1 .rusoe existence on a little clearing
if its almost impervious thicket
under the dense shade of a huge
Itanvan tree. Ile lived upon the ha-
•1.'inas and other fruits, \cllicll grew
1 prolific abull(1aI1Ce out of the soil,
111C11 had been enriched by the
-lroppings of multitudes of pelicans
'hat had made the island for cen-
t dries, perhaps, their roost. This
- tId plan made what little money he
tsceded by selling green turtles
aught out of the lake. His only
eolmpanlon was ;l wildcat, which he
pegged might be allowed to stay un-
molested \\Hen he left. The island
ontains about seventeen acres, beau-
tifully situated with gently sloping
,pores, and looks directly out
11 rough Lake Worth inlet upon the
white caps of the Atlantic.
His description of the sea grape,
that grows so luxuriantly upon the
'stand, almost ascribes animal life to
t liat strange tree : -It is worth the
gurney from the North to see the
reat, sprawling sea grape tree, with
',road round lily pact mottled leaf of
-.reen and red, tumbling- and pram: -
mg around in the queerest jerks and
ontortions, now running its liu ge
l►ranches along the ground, then
springing • up and forward \with a
leap, and then suddenly making a
t)ackward turn, cavorting and solmcr-
aulting in all imaginable •arid un -
thought of twistings. But queerer
till and more utterly wayward is the
t-1ibber banyan with its smooth, ele-
phant -gray bark and long glossy
leaves. It just capers and leaps in
'ts luxuriant capacities for rapid and
rant growth. When it has shot
Forth a branch to an amazing length
,t1iirost horizontally from the parent
•milk, it drops a string -like pendant,
raveled out at the end, which sways
awhile in the air, but give it time
and it will reach the ground and its
raveled fiber` will take root ;11,1
soon become a smooth. roull(l trunk.
'This will often unite itself with other
pendants and. the fissures by and by
disappearing, they together become
a wide. smooth, narrow mass like a
great elongated screen. I saw one
of these huge banyans engaged in
deadly Contest with a large mastic
tree, the wood of \which is solid and
tough like ebony. It was so far a
drawn game. The banyan had
clashed the mastic and wound and
twisted about it like the serpents
about Laocoon, till it seemed as if it
must be stifled, when lo! the mastic
finds its chance and shoots out and
up its towering strength 3o feet into -
the air. Space fails one to tell of the
foliage plants of brilliant reel, yel-
low anti pimple, tell feet high of the
flaming- broad-leaved hibiscus: the
royal and TIIag111ficeIlt poinciana,
a gorgeous flowering tree; of the
niooI1 flowers and the morning-
glories creeping- everywhere at their
own sweet will; of the white zind red
oleanders. twenty feet Vigil and
spreading to an equal width. Here
indeed, is Florida, in its o\wil un-
questioned right —the land of flow-
ers..'
h,. L. Briggs, correspondent of the
(grand Rapids Morning Pros, • in
\writing of the island, vividly de-
scribes our lake as well as the island
and Illany of the plants al1(1 t -ces that
in appearance and in habit of growth
are so interesting to our visitors that
I am tempted to quote at length.
He \writes:• "Having spent some
time about Lake Worth enjoying
some of its I11any attractions, t am
iIllpelled to write out some of my i111-
pressions, - for here as we come from
the North the bright skies, the soft,
balmy air, the sheen on the waters,
and the opulence of vegetable life,
show that we have reached the true
tropical Florida. I shall confine Imy-
seif to sketching a brief description
of the Dart of the lake where I had
the good fortune to be located, that
is, Pitts or Pelican Island. To this
island the Indians attached the name
Nuctsachoo—their \word for pelican.
The island stretches out boldly int•a
the lake along the channel, leading
from Juno to .the more southerly
points of interest. It is about a mile
in length, quite narrow, and as its
longest axis is nearly a north and
south course. both shores are at
times in the day bathed in the sun-
ligl.it. The island has a fine natural
forest growth, which fortunately has
been mostly spared. The Florida
rubber, or banyan tree —of which
there are many fine specimens here—
/2C .6.c t t, _
is a novelty and a slimly to Northern
people, ,1� its great trunks, limbs and
interlacing branches stretch out over-
head ill an almost 1101-i/Ont;il direc-
tion, making a sort of huge fan -
shaped canopy, supported by the
auxiliary trunks that arc foamed by
the tree throwing out long pend-
ant rope -like limbs that reach the
ground, take root, a11(1 help to siip-
port; and ;anchor trrc huge mass of
wool and foliage. .\t the ilortll end
of the island a lone cabbage -palm
rears its lofty umbrella -shaped heal
full sixty feet above the inferior fur-
est growth and makes an easily
known landmark for this part of
the lake. The shores of the island
are formed into most graceful,
curved lines, by .little indenting coves
and finclw rounded points. 1A pro-
tecting sea wall has been built along
a imrtlOn Of the shore and is to be.
extended. Ill making improvement,
'Ir. Pitts has had the go(_)cl judgment
not to fall into the common mistake
of making all indiscriminate on-
slaught on the under -growth, and has
made winding paths through the
thickets or jungle, so one can walk
ill places entirely protected from the
lake winds, and see nature in her
fascinating abandon of tree, shrub,
vine •and rock. There are ilso
shaded walks cut throi.lgh the tll,ick
cabbage=palm groves, where one is
renlin(lccl to keep in the middle of
the path by the projecting stubs .on
the trunks of the palm trees. Great
broad, flat cones of green are formed
along the beach, 1)y the sea -grape
with its large round leaves covering -
the branches, supported by the •
crooked, gnarled and twisted trunks
and limbs. "I\ fine growth of cocoa-
nut palms of large size stands near
the center of the island and hundreds
of _young trees of the kind are plant-
ed in the open spaces where the
ground is used for raising Carly veg-
etables. :Mr. Pitts is cultivating on
the island the orange, 1C111()11, lime.
guava pa\wpa\v, avocado -pear, fig,
pomegranate, sour -sop. Chinese
guava, sugar apple, star apple, rose
apple, banana, mallnlce-apple, sapo-
dilla, mango, 111;111111)i-sapota, tama-
rind, pineapple, Cocoanut palm, cher-
inloyer, Otaheite .gooseberry, wild-
goose plum, Spanish- lisle, scupper-
nong grape. elate palm. sago palm,
a`nd some other kinds of fruit.
Growing \wild are the custard -apple,
mulberry, castor -bean, Cherokee -
bean. and calabash tree. Of orna-
mental trees. shrubs and plants.
there are the royal poinciana, whist-
ling tree, oleander, gravilla-robusta,
coffee -tree, acacia, lantana, clerodet1-
dron, alanlan(lcr. coral plant, sev-
eral hinds of holly. night blooming
jasmine, prick of India. yucca, aloes,
poinsetta, hibiscus, bignonia, eupho-
bia, mock aloes, night -blooming cc-
reus, begonia, pampas . grass and
agave, a fiber plant now being tested
by the United States government,
and many other \wild and unculti-
vated plants.
"In places the island shores are
fringed with that strangest of all ar-
boresccllt growth, the mangrove,
which May fitly be called the islarid-
builder, the forerunner of civiliza-
tion. Little cigar -shaped capsules or
seed pods are dropped into the wa-
/6%/// /// yam• 16 // / JL' ' f
tcr n1►(111 o\ criniirgiitg branches and
floatnlp, ;Hong by tiles and winds,
;I1 ( -t, ►ppecl and held 1)y a tuft of sea -
grass or string of kelp, \wirei, imme-
diately rootlets sire 1)11s11C(1 through
the shallow water and take hohl (0
the sand or coralinc-rock bottom,
and as growth begins, limb -roots are
thrown out and reach the bottom,
making anchors and guys for the
young- trees, theta millions of little
lances or sprouts spring rr1, from the
bottom roots and grow a few niches
high and soon there is a (lens,;.:
tangled mass of roots and limbs,
branches, and foliage prepared to
catch and hold the floatage, which
in these waters is so plentiful —then
Heavy storms arid .high tides set in,
an(1 the strong clrrrents stir the bot-
tom and carry it along and deposit
it where this little pioneer clump of
mangroves has ]made ail eddy or
dumping ground. and you have the
beginning of a key or island. to be
added to and raised higher and high-
er as time goes on until finally the
place is prepared to receive and sus-
tain other vegetation:- and the seeds
of trees and plants arc borne 1)) wind
and tide on to the little islet and"
there planted b\- .Mature.
"The he house stalids at the extreme
solidi of Ntietsaclloo Island, and is
flanked and protected o11 the west
by a fine grove of cabbage -palms
that have just reached that stage of
growth at which they are most beau-
tiful zinc! interesting. From the
front_ yotl look out on the broad ex-
panse' ' of Lake 'Worth —with Haley's
little island a Mere speck in the fore-
ground —and here day after day a
scene of moving life, as the sloops
;•i11(1 sharpies with all sail set course
up and down, back and forth, with
their parties of tourists totally ab-
sorbed i11 the favorite sport of troll-
ing for bluefish; or von may extend
your vision further and gaze o11 the
wooded shores of the lake to the
south where the expanse of water
narrows up and at last is lost to sight
in hazy distance. You can sit on the
broad veranda and look straight out
Lake «'orth 1 nlct and rest your eyes
on the long line of white crested
surf, . where the breakers ceaselessly
roll in and with a sullen roar dash
over the bai-: -or you can look be-
yond out on the broad Atlantic and
see the steamers —with the great
black clouds of smoke rolling up
from their stacks —as they pass on
their southward voyage, hugging the •
Florida shore to avoid the strong
current of the gulf stream. The
view from the upper part of the
house is also very fine looking to the
cast and taking in the long narrow
wooded peninsula between lake and
ocean —tile tall cabbage -palms over -
capping the lower scrub growth —
and more to the north taking in the
1O\w islands and narrow projecting
points rolled in green which beeonle
light -or dark according as the light
changes.'.
Our lake having been visited by
such a writer as Julian Ralph, \"O
(01.11(1 ill afford to omit the mention
he makes of the sentinel island at
the inlet in his article entitled "Oiir
Owii Riviera." in Ilarper's Maga-
zine, March, 1893: " It is on Pitts'
Island, at the head of the lake, that
a 43
` - PioM BEACH PUBLIC LIBRARY
cL
one may sec the possibilities of that
climate, not only because Mrs. ;Pitt,
cane to Florida expecting too •lie,
and yet rc•nlains a comely and ig-
orotls factor in the world, but Ir.:-
cause she and her husband cultivat
almost every semi -tropical fruit that
will grow there. Nir. and iIrs. Pitt
unlike the average agriculturist, who
'despoils nature ruthlessly wherever
he calls upon it to support hills, have
religiously left the most beautiful
nooks and bowers that they found
for the pleasure not only of thci
boarders, but of the excursioniFts
who freely and frequently visit the
island. This island was once a peli-
can roost, and owes its wondrous
fertility to that fact. I have heard
it spoken of by travelers as the
most picturesque spot in Florida:
though one must have seen all the
others to say that fairly. • There is
excellent fishing for very many kinds
of fish at the inlets and in the lake,
and the country around offers good
sport."
I can make no better ending to
my article than by giving a few
verses of the poem on the island
written by "Lyndall." the poet of
Lake Worth.
NUC-TSA-CHOO.
Isle of beauty, thou art lying,
Smiling in the dying sun —
Smiling, glowing —time is flying —
Night is now begun.
All along thy wave -washed borders
Ripple dimpling, singing seas;
While the palms, •in stately orders, -
Rustle in the breeze.
Birds and flowers of brilliant colors:
Shells in clusters lie.
While old ocean's breakers tumble
On the beach near by.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Thou, 0, isle. I call my "Eden,"
"Alabama" sweet —
"Here we rest" —the sorrow -laden --
In thy cool retreat.
Ripple, ripple soft, oh, seasong,
Sigh, oh, gentle breeze;
Swift bird, on thy snowy pillion,
Bring me round of these.
Carrie Pitts.
e