WATERWAYS AND THE RIDGE

     The Scenic Highlands, better known as the Ridge, have many lakes, some large, some small, but none of them swampy.  The peculiarity of the Ridge is that beginning at about Davenport and running to a short distance below Lake Annie, Nature in the past ages threw up a bank or dune a little over eighty miles long and from one to four miles wide.
     Because of the very prevalent sandy soil and the high general level, we do not think of the Ridge as having much interest in water transportation.  Yet, water transportation is surely going to affect the future of the Ridge, and for this reason:  The Kissimmee river and all its many large tributary lakes promise waters transportation.
     At comparatively slight expense for deepening, this river system will feed commerce to Lake Okeechobee and through Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico, and receive commerce by the same means, without affecting the prosperity of the railroads that now serve the Ridge; because every form of advance that takes place on the ridge produces more traffic.
     At the meeting of the Associated Boards of Trade in Lake Placid on August 7, Captain Clay Johnson was present, a pioneer in water transportation on the Kissimmee river.  Before the days of the railroads, Captain Clay Johnson handled many thousands of tons of freight in and out by means of the Kissimmee river.  Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee.  What has been done can be done again, and the reason for doing increases as we move forward into greater development.
     The people of the Ridge can very properly become water-minded, and the appointment of a committee on waterways by the Associated Boards of Trade at its Lake Placid meeting, is a matter of importance.  President O.F. Gardner advises that the committee as so far appointed consists of Hon. Pat Johnston, of Kissimmee; E.W. Harshman, of Sebring; and Col. J.M. Lee, of Avon Park.
     While commenting on waterways, it is right to mention an artificial waterway suggested by Pat Johnston on August 7.  This he suggested, being entirely unaware that Fort Pierce already had a plan on the way.  The idea as proposed is to relieve Lake Okeechobee of flood water in times of heavy rainfall by constructing a canal 200 feet wide and eight feet deep from Lake Istokpoga and the Kissimmee river to Fort Pierce and using the spoil bank as the foundation of the highway; the highway and the canal would be complementary.  It is proposed that the Kissimmee valley will be controlled by gates and, thus, prevent the canal lowering Lake Okeechobee to any damaging degree.
     Such a plan for the future would mean that ocean-going yachts and the modern form of self-propelled and self-refrigerated barges could come near to the Ridge and affect its future tremendously, both as to commerce and as to pleasure cruising.  We are living in days when big dreams can be made to come true.