Life Deep in the Florida Swamps

Well guys, we're far out there. It's cold. You're like in the jungle. These people have been here for generations. Man, I watch you all the time on YouTube. Are you serious? Stop it, bro. Stop it. You stop it. So if I came here on my own, I might have had a different response. There's a whole soft-shell crab in the sandwich. Nice and crunchy. You talk about good. That's a genuine big cypress swamp boogie. This tree represents Christmas. Yeah, it's so much money, man. It was hundreds of thousands of dollars. A month? Oh, a week. Steve's giving us a little ride here. The smallest post office in America. Can I poke the camera to show what this office is like? Oh, a big alligator right there. You want to go look? Gallery out in the middle of campgrounds. Legendary photographer known all over the world. People would think, why live in the middle of a hot swamp? When you figure that one out. Here we are in the big cypress. The Everglades most people don't go to, right? Yes, yes. What I really want to tap into today, Harrison, is we have this beautiful nature. It's way bigger of a scale than most people know. Yes. And there are a few people that have sort of made a life out here. Made the cypress their life. And actually, you know, the designation of the cypress as a preserve is a big part of the history and why the people are here. Because when the park, when Everglades National Park became a national park in 1947, hunting and any commercial use of the land was outlawed. And obviously, you know, with all the good that came of that, there was also the bad and the people that couldn't live off the land anymore. Whereas the big cypress, it's still preserved that way. People can still hunt and use the land. The natives who live here and we're going to meet today still use it that way. And when you go Google Earth here, put the blue line street view on. None. South Florida, in this area, you see nothing. Nothing. It looks like the West. Yes. Like Montana, Arizona or something. Something like that. And if you told a bunch of people in Dade County, oh, you know, you can drive dirt roads. They're like, dirt roads? I've never been on a dirt road in my life. The reason that these trails are like this, this is actually from when they tried to sabotage the place before it was designated as a preserve. The lumber companies came in here and were cutting. All these old trails are just remnants of that. Let's see if we can get into this. Look, remnants of a coral reef when Florida and this part was all underwater before the last ice age. And you're like in the jungle and that's, you can start to see here why they call this the Amazon of the Americas. Look at that. There's some people out here that have lived their whole lives. Whole lives. In a different subculture. Yes. These people have been here for generations. Don't know much about Copeland, but let's explore. We're literally inside of the cypress. So all these people who live here might expect to see a panther in their yard. A Florida panther. A Florida panther, one of the very… Oh, can you stop here? I'm going to ask this guy. Morning, sir. You see any Florida panthers out here? No panthers lately. A lot of bears. We're making a video on the whole area. Just wanted to talk to locals. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been down here ever since 1965. How many people live out here in this community? I'd say about 250. 250. Everybody knows everyone. And it's pretty nice. Pretty nice. That's cool. What's your name? Billy. Billy. Peter. Pleased to meet you, sir. Yeah, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Pleased to meet you. Yeah. This town here was a work camp. This was a logging camp. Logging camp? Yeah. Back in the 20s. 27, 19, 1800-something. They cut all the cypress out of this camp. Cut all the cypress out of here. Okay. You know, white lightning and all that. The drug smuggling and all that. They made a movie out here. Do you remember that back in the day here? The drug smuggling? Yeah. Big time? Big time. What was it? It was everything they could get across from Columbia. Stop off shore about 35 miles off shore and unload the mother ship and the boat, the seagull boat bringing in. When was that happening? That happened a long time. I was catching mullets. I was mullet fishing. Oh, cool. Yeah, we made plenty of money off of mullet. I didn't know what they were doing. It didn't really matter to me because it was none of my business. So a lot of people were making a lot of money out here with the smuggling. Yeah, a lot of people. It wasn't the locals. It was people out of town. Oh, okay. It was people out of town making all that money. The locals didn't make no money. The locals just sat back and looked. That's interesting. So this was a lumber town. It's peaceful, I got to say. You want to rip off and be away from it all. It's just the camera is not going to capture it, you guys, unfortunately. But the buffer zone around here is absolutely massive. So this is in a way preserved because it's surrounded by these parks. Yes, yeah. There's no development that's going to happen out here. I would have liked to ask Billy if he thinks as a resident if they're ever going to overtake this. What's up? Real live video. We're making a video looking for panthers. You're not going to see one right now, bro. No? Man, I watch you all the time on YouTube. Are you serious? Stop it, bro. Stop it. You stop it. That's what's up. I do, bro. You cool with me rolling the camera? That's what's up, bro. I see you all the time. What are you doing out here? Out here, bro. In the tent? Yes, sir. What's your name? I'm Brian. Brian. Yes, sir. How'd you end up out here? My whole life, bro. Seriously? Seriously. I got another guy you'd probably be interested in talking to. He's my uncle. He's a whiz man. He knows all about this stuff, man. Can we talk to whiz man? Yeah, let's go talk to whiz man. Cool, man. We're just sitting there talking and stuff, and a panther just come right out on his little dock, you know, probably from here to the car away from us. A young one. I was like, what's up with that, man? He's like, he's been coming out pretty recent, man, you know, and pretty regular. I'm like, no ----, you know, so we're really not allowed to feed him and stuff, so. How are the dogs doing with the panthers? You know, we look at them. Oh, they get at each other. The panther don't really bother them, you know. He likes the little things, the cats and the chickens, but. They're pretty cool, man. That's crazy, bro. I appreciate it. Yeah, man, that's pretty cool, man. So if I came here on my own, I might have had a different response? Oh, yeah, nah. That's a joke. Hey, old Scott. You never know what you're going to get into. All right, sorry about that. I'll see you at the wall. We just talked to Billy. You want a black guy? Yeah, he's awesome, man. Good guy. So, living out here, just separated from the world feeling. Basically, it is a little different. I mean, you got, seems a little more freedom, maybe, I should say. You know, you don't really get bothered by many people unless you act a fool. I mean, it's freedom, bro. What you see is what it is. Everybody knows everybody. It reminds me of the old days, you know, where you can go to your neighbor and borrow an egg. Nowadays, you go to the city, they'll shut the door on you or won't answer, you know. A little different, but. Yeah, man, it's pretty cool. I'd like to take you guys somewhere and show you more. I'm going to close this gate here, my uncle's gate, and then I'm going to go find my brother and we're going to show you some good videos. Where's your brother? He's right across the way. We're going to follow you to see your brother. Let's go. Okay, okay. How you doing, sir? He's good with other people, man. I like to see people all the time. How you doing? I'd like to show you some of his vlogs. What's your name? Vince. Vince, yeah, Peter. Good people. So, Vince, you grew up out here. Yeah, small town, you know. Small town. What about the animals, the bears? The bears, well, we had a bear attack a little while back. An attack? Yeah, a bear went in a guy's house and took him out of it, an old man. The 89-year-old? Yeah. You remember that? I don't know if the old man was feeding the bear or not or what was going on, you know what I mean? That's the worst thing in the world you can do is feed one, you know what I mean? Feed anything, anything. If you don't want it around, don't feed it. I'm going to have him bring one. What? A python. He's bringing a python? Yeah. I want to see a python. Did you know about this place? I knew about Copeland. I didn't know that we would be able to meet so many friends here. You told me Tosh was your uncle. Yeah. I had been, you know, Tosh's book is my favorite book I've ever read, hands down. I know that sounds crazy. Who's Tosh? Tosh was a Chokoloskee legend. He was born in 1920. He died in 1996. He was a fisherman. He was a Medal of Honor recipient. Yeah. Smuggler. He lived off the land. I mean, a true polymath of this corner of the world. Gator hunter. That's probably the biggest thing he did. I love the way his book was written in black and white. Like, this happened, this happened, this happened. So, you know, there was nothing but just facts. And the way he approached life with this fearlessness and then this love for the openness just deeply resonates with me. Tosh was one of the true pioneers of the modern day out here. Definitely a pioneer of everybody. Yeah, and his family too. So he got into the smuggling big time? Yeah, he's got us. He's the way he got my dad into it. That was huge out here? Yeah, in the 80s. In the late 70s and 80s. 83 was the blockade, right? Yeah, smuggling marijuana on shrimp boats. Where was the marijuana coming from? Mostly Columbia, but Jamaica. And then coming right off the shore here? Yeah, it come right off shore here and then we'd call them the go fast boats. With two engines on them and they'd go out there and get them and bring them up creeks and put them on vans and put it on vans and take it down the highway. I was like 14, 15 years old when all this was going on. You know, I was just a kid. I started smuggling. It was just fun. We had all the money we wanted. You know what I mean? We just had anything we wanted. If we wanted a new motorcycle or something, just went and got it. It was just. And then we run out of money. We're all sitting there like, oh, God. Like what's the replacement? What's the replacement economy out here? There's nothing really. Nothing. You go back fishing. Okay, so they said come from the backside of this house. Yeah, it looks like a compound in here. Well, guys, we're far out there. We're going to get back to the nature, though. Yes. But look, this is an interesting part of the state, the country, the world. Oh, my God. They didn't want to come out. It's cold. I left the female in there. Okay, so what do you do with the snakes, Wayne? I've had these guys since they were babies. Okay, you just like their pets for you. Oh, yeah. Come here. This one I named Stripe because of the long stripe. This one here is a dwarf. I got him from the neighbor over there. He wasn't taking care of it. Ten bucks. I finally talked him out of it for $10. Pythons? Yeah, these are ball pythons. Ball pythons. How big do they get? They only get up to six foot. This one's full grown. I got them in a big 150-gallon aquarium with logs and everything else and a waterfall and all that in there. It's not easy. Have you lived out here your whole life? I've been here 37 years, but I grew up out there. You love it? I love it. I've been here all my life. I'm 69 years old right now. Why do you love it? Because it's away from all those crazy people in town. I hate town. Let's have a shot with me and you. There you go. There we go. Here. Come here, look. Let's get him over here. I'll get him closer. How close are you going to go? How close am I going to go? I started all in there. We're on Tamiami Trail now, which connects Miami to Tampa. This was built in 1927. It was the first road that came throughout here. It's like the Savannah a little bit, right? Right. No, for sure. I always tell people, I think if you took a picture of that in the right light and you told somebody you were in Africa, they might just believe you. Yeah. Just missing the lines. Oh, a big alligator right there. You want to go look or not? Oh, yeah. Let's do it. There's one sunbathing. It was a cold night last night. I think lower 40s here. It's warming up. This guy getting some sun. I guess they're all along these banks. It's pretty cool. I just noticed, actually, from here, look. He's missing the back part of his tail there. Oh, yeah, right? I don't know if the camera's going to catch it, but, yeah, he lost it. The smallest post office in America in Ochopee. Okay, yeah, it is for sure. Here we go, guys. I've seen a lot of small ones out in the desert west. Utah, Arizona, but this wins. Look at this place. It's like an owl house. Ochopee Post Office. Considered to be the smallest post office in the United States. This building was formerly an irrigation pipe shed belonging to the J.T. Gott Company tomato farm. Okay, so they did tomatoes down here. Hey, how you doing, sir? That's cool. You're a U.S. postal worker. Really? Oh, that's cool, Donald. Can I poke the camera to show what this office is like? Check it out, check it out. It's a cool little spot to check out. Heck, yeah. Got a little knick-knacks in here. Oh, that's cool. People give me over the ears because it's such a tiny little place. How many people have a P.O. Box here? Nobody. Nobody, okay. Nobody has P.O. Boxes here. It's all street delivery. We have a carrier out of here. It's a big area, too. It's not just, like, right around here where you see a couple buildings. I mean, we go, like, 50-something miles that way. Okay. We go down to the light and then out, like, 20 miles. So it's like a 140-mile round trip every day for the carrier. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, yeah. It's a long game, but it's pretty nice out here. You can't beat it. Hey, how are you? How are you? Remind me your name? My name is Lisa. Lisa, it's great to see you. Look at this beautiful day we're having. Lisa, what's the fun fact of the day? Fun fact is I don't care. There it is, people. I like your customer service. Yeah, you got to write the rules. Oh, this is cool. Look at this. So, what a place. Look, you have all the different fresh water. Lisa, you want to show them how you do a backflip? I'm going to tell you what, I can do it. No, seriously. Seriously? I don't want to get in trouble, though. Customer made a complaint. He did it on Saturday. You did the backflip. Sorry. The biker that asked me to do it, he brings groups of people. So one day they're all sitting out on the patio. It must be 25, 30 of them. And I did it, and they all loved it. So now every time he comes in here. I have a little over a month. So we're around March 10th. I'm going to be a great-grandmother. Wow. I turned 60 on Veterans Day, 11-11. And I wanted to be a great-grandmother by the time I was 60, and I got my wish. I'll be a great-grandmother. Somewhere around March 10th. What's the math on that? What do you mean on what? When did you have your first kid? I had my first child the day I turned 15 1⁄2. Wow. I have two kids. I had the second one when I was 31. We're just rambling now, waiting for you. My hands are freezing. He's going to get me in trouble. Terry, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Thank you, Lisa. This is your restaurant? Yes, it was my mom's. It was your mom's? Yes, she started it. Oh, very cool. I can't take that credit. This is Gator Joe. He passed away, but he used to sit out on the porch and tell stories of the Everglades, and he would have his panther out there. He'd jump right back in the canal and fight an alligator. Out of the back side of the restaurant? Yes, it didn't matter. Look at him. Look at him right there. He's got a cigarette between his hands and a stick, and he's in the woods. Ochopee used to be the dream town to be back in the day. It was going to be bigger than Naples. Really? There was a time out here where there were more people living back in the early 1900s than Naples. So, Terry, from my understanding, you can't really develop out in these parts too easily, so there are only a few places? Only what's existing. You can't buy property and build anything. This is the Big Cypress National Park. Big Cypress, and then we have Everglades National Park. Nobody's building there. No. So you're like in this oasis. I am. Of nature in a crowded state. Absolutely. My great-grandfather and grandfather on my mother's side came out here and bought property out in Everglades City, and we have been coming out since we were babies. Eventually, my mom said, okay, this is enough. I'm done with Miami, Carl. We're going to the Glades. And they bought this in the early 70s. My dad was a mechanic, so he had a gas station, and he was the mechanic out here. So other than your business there, Joni's, things are sort of going downhill as far as businesses, that sort of thing? Or what's the story out here right now? Well, there are no businesses really out here. Yeah, okay. This closed up many years ago when my mom had to pull up all the tanks. She couldn't afford it. She had to get a loan to pull out six huge tanks. You know, when they were doing that all back about 30 years ago. Oh, when they had to change the tanks. Yes, yes. So it never reopened. And we are now in the process of trying to take care of it and restore it. Okay. So we don't lose it. Because if you lose the building, you can't rebuild it. Those are the rules out here? Yeah, you can't rebuild anything. So this is original. We want to take care of it. Just like that. That's a work in progress. Always. It's 100 years old. You've got your own world out here in a way. We do. So when you think Miami, St. Peter's? You can keep Miami. Okay. Where were you born? I was born in Hialeah. But Hialeah had cows then. Right, right. I mean, it's not like that now. Okay, you're Cuban descent? Si. I am good old American. Gringo. Yeah, but you heard that. But I moved to Europe when I was a young girl. In Spain, in the Basque Country. Oh, okay. And I learned Spanish there. And my Spanish is, I don't know. You have a list? A little more eloquent? No. It's Castilian. Yeah, sure. Okay, so you've seen a lot of the world. Yes, well. How is, like, why come back to this? People would think, why live in the middle of a hot swamp? That's the question. Oh. Yeah, that's the question. When you figure that one out. Because there is no place like this on earth. There really is not. How so? It's just quaint. It's beautiful. It's rough. It's raw. A lot of people, including myself until recently, didn't know that Florida was such a frontier. Everyone thinks West. Everyone thinks Western migration, right? But Florida was actually the last. It was after California. Let me tell you something. When I was reading A Land Remembered, I thought, cowboys? Tough out West? No, you are not tough until you have roughed the swamps in a hurricane, tying yourself to a tree, because you don't know a hurricane is coming. But they didn't know when the bad weather was coming. They'd be moving cattle through the swamps with mosquitos and all that, all those clothes, women included, eh? What do we got here, Harrison? So, this is a whole soft-shell crab, the whole with shell on, fried and in the sandwich. Super fresh. What do you think, guys? I'm starting right now. You're going to love it. Tell me about that soft-shell crab. I'm going to tell you something. That ain't nothing but good. Nice and crunchy, good. We batter it real good. The batter's not thick. Okay. You can't pull it off. But you talk about good. Mm-mm. I always suggest to people that you get one soft-shell sandwich and one crab cake sandwich, then you cut them in half and holler, switch. Switcheroo. Next time. Harrison. What do you think, first bite analysis? Afternoon. Would you like a couple minutes to fix this over? Let's take care of it. See what you got. You look fantastic. This is really good. Actually, the bun is good, very soft. It's the real deal. Yeah, look at that. Grouper, right? Grouper, yeah. Blackened. Blackened right out of the Gulf. Delicious. About as good, as tasty, as the fish is, you can get. Clive Butcher's Gallery. Legendary photographer known all over the world. It's a gallery out in the middle of the Everglades. Yes, totally. And not just some photos, but the best. Hey, look, there's Clyde as a mailbox. The best kind. So we'll get in there now and we'll delve. John, you work here at the gallery. That is correct. I'm an environmentalist. I've been doing a lot of backpacking and hiking here for 35 years. Out here, it's a deciduous coniferous. So the trees are not dead, they've lost their needles. We're going to get out there too, right? You are going to go out there and I'm going to show you a vision. If you had a time machine and brought it back 12,000 to 13,000 years ago, the ocean would be over here. It would be 100 miles wider. Okay. So we have been like this for about 8,000 years with the vegetation types that we have. South Florida, Miami is over here. Correct. And this is what we looked like before people, as far as Caucasians, got involved. Up here is Orlando. And this is Kissimmee River. Filling the lake from here to here is 100 miles. The water was so slow, from 14 feet of sea level to nothing, it took a year to make the journey. And these islands right here are mountains, which are called hammocks, about a meter tall. And then you've got bay heads with their kinds of plants, and then the prairies. And then what you have are pinelands where Miami is now, and you've got cypress trees. Miami? Miami is what the old-timers, if you were to read Land Remembered, and you talked to an old-timer, and you said Miami, they'd be pissed off. But if you said, I would edit that. But if you presented this to somebody and you said Miami, they'll smile and be happy. Isn't it the Miami Indians? No. Well, Miami is in Ohio. Miami is what the old-timers called it here. Okay, gotcha. Okay, so this is the old version. This is current. Okay, here we go. And they couldn't grow any crops. This is all cropland. 1926, a hurricane came up here, blue water, killed 300. 1928, another unknown hurricane, it came up here, Cat 5, and it killed about 2,500 people. So they built a deck around this, and instead of the water coming here, it comes through here, the Caloosahatchee and the St. Lucie Canal. So this area here was proposed as a national park by Ernest Coe, the father of the Everblades. And when he proposed it, they thought he was insane. So he brought them down, put them in the Goodyear blimp, flew them over the proposed area, and they were so enamored by it in the 20s. But there was no money in the 1930s. We had the Depression. Congress okayed it in 1934, but it wasn't until 1947 we became a park because of plants and animals. And no one had ever done that before. Brand new. This out here are mines. They couldn't grow crops there. The crops would not grow. There were absent nutrients, and this is one of the hints. And those are phosphate mines. And the other problem is we're shy on nitrogen. So when they added phosphate and nitrogen, they could grow their plants, but it impacted the rest of us. The rain system that used to be is now different. We're canal-driven primarily. And Highway 41 and I-75 are dams. And we're right around here. We are here, correct. Okay. And this is the jet port. Now, when Ernest Coe didn't want to come to Everglades City for the dedication in 1947 in December because they had cut chunks of what the proposed park was. This is just a mirror. This is what we get the leftovers of whatever is above us. But if we got the water here that's been enriched because of phosphate and nitrate, it would kill us. So there are areas out here that they've been trying to have settling dams, pretty much areas, and you can have plants that can extract the phosphate and nitrate. What I want to show you here is the reason this happened, got cut back is because of greed. And then Coe wasn't going to come to this dedication, but later on we did this. This is what happened. This is why we have the Everglades Big Cypress Preserve is this. This area here is the jet port. It was a training jet port between Miami-Dade or Miami-Dade and Collier County. And this is going to have a city of 10,000 to 100,000 people, and that's why Leon's here because he was buying land in Swampland. Who's Leon? Leon Witten originally owned this. Okay, this property here. Yeah, the buildings are all on land that he had a footprint on. Okay. So Clyde Butcher. Clyde Butcher. He came out here when? Just before Hurricane Andrew. When was that? Well, you're 92. 92, correct. They bought it from Leon who had bought land because he was speculating that he would make a mint with all the people that were going to live in this area because of the jet port. When Clyde and Nicky came out here, they said, Man, you're nuts. You think you can build a gallery out here? They said, You must have a loose screw somewhere. And there's Loose Screw Sanctuary. So he was being investigated because a lot of drugs ran through the area, and they assumed he was doing something illegal. Oh. And they found out over the years that, no, he was perfectly legal. He was perfectly sane. And he's won many awards from Ansel Adams to national recognition for the work he has done in showing this environment that is so foreign that most people will stand on the outside looking in, but I have the privilege of taking people into it to show them what it offers. And what it offers is quiet where you can just take a breath and listen to nothing. You put away all your cell phones. But with me and others, Scott and Connie and Trish, we do walks. You have to live in the moment. Each step determines whether you're successful or not. And some of the people I've worked with are very good at tactile walking. They can feel things. Others, not so much. If you get distracted, you end up falling in, and I grade you by your splash. If you make a big splash, you get less points. I want a clean entry. We have alligators here that tolerate us. They've known us for years, and we don't harass them, and we respect them. So when we get by them, we speak quietly. Mama's got baby gators over here, and everything eats baby alligators. And if the baby alligator's in trouble, they call Mom. And she'll come, and she'll protect them. Usually male alligators eat them, but she has a relationship with the male alligator here where she actually would guide him away from the babies over the years, and then finally last year she was letting them lay on his back. So alligators have different personalities, just to let you know that. We're going to go see this one. I'm going to respect her. If I see her, I'll show you. I'll talk quietly. And if we see the babies, it'll be special. A lot of times, this is where it's rented up here. This is where Clyde and Nikki used to live, and now they rent it out. And when you do, you get a visual of the morning. I call this mental floss. You get your brain cleared because of all the garbage you put up with two-legged animals. The snakes and the gators are cool, as long as you're away from the ones that have been fed by people by the road. They're dangerous. And you can't move a fed gator to a dead gator, so you never feed them because it becomes a problem. So what's going to happen? I'm going to go over here quietly, and we're going to see if Mom is there and her babies. She's pointed this direction in the water. Her babies may be by. I'm not going to get in her space, but that's where she is. And this is where she had her nest. Last year she had a nest up in trees, but it got raided by a bear. This is where her nest is this year. And this is an alligator egg. And I would never approach this if she was nearby here. That's an alligator egg. And when the eggs are laid, the sex hasn't been determined. What determines the sex of the alligator is the temperature of the nest. It's the opposite of what happens with turtles. So sea turtles are now being hatched that are mostly female, which the question comes in 30, 40 years, are there going to be males to fertilize them? So you'd assume that's this way. But in this reptile, for alligators, the warm eggs become males, not females. Tell me about this water. You said it's actually very clean. The water here is, we're in the dry season. It is brown because of tannic acid when the leaves decay. But it's very clean? Incredibly clean. We're going to have the different senses, and you're going to find out just how clean it is. This has been trod upon to the point that it's... Ooh, it's cold. Oh, well, it's brisk. Yeah. If you feel warm, it's either you're hypothermic or somebody urinated by you. I think the water's nice. Yeah. I didn't think it would be so clean. Of course not. See, because you came with baggage. You came with the ideas of what this would represent. Swamp baggage? This actually turns out, it is called Ladies of the Night. It's a leon orchid. It has smell only at night, and that's to attract the pollinators, which are moths. This is another orchid right here. If you touch it, it's called Epidendrum rigidum. It's a rigid orchid. Oh, yeah. Okay, very tactile, right? Yeah. All this is food that's on the orchid. This is a pond apple tree. Around Lake Okeechobee, the pond apples were seven, eight feet diameter. They were huge. So Clyde and Nikki bought the land, but they'd been all over the world, right? Correct. Lived many places around the U.S. And why'd they decide on here? There are different ways of healing. They had lost their son to a drunk driver. Okay. And when they were searching to how to sort their life out, they came here, and they found a place that was quiet and away from the populace, and they felt the calmness and the beauty of what they were experiencing. So when they came in here and opened up their photography opportunity, and it started getting popular, then they realized that this is something to be shared. And we have a sixth grade program that we do, and I help with the fundraiser, and the people that come here pay money to go on swamp walks on a particular day when Clyde is here. And then the money this year, they made $40,000 for the environmental education program. So any sixth grader in Collier County can go on a swamp walk because of the money that they made. You are seeing this at a point in time. You know a picture captures the moment, and it may never be seen again. But what we're going to have a problem with is within 20 years, it's going to look a lot different. This particular tree will be gone, this species. How do you know? Because there's something called the ash borer that's eating the ash trees in the Midwest. And as it moves down here, it's going to consume this. This is what we find the predominance of our orchid species on, on ash trees. So you're seeing this now as it is. It's going to be different. Spongier because it hasn't been disturbed by thousands and thousands of feet. Yeah, right? Much different zone out here. What do you feel when you came here? You felt the sponge? Number two, you felt the heat? Mm-hmm. And what you also see is the trees are smaller. Then I ask people, why are these smaller trees out here? These, many of these are just as old as the big ones we saw. What makes this different? Less moisture? Less moisture, less nutrients. So this is going to be completely crunchy dry. And this material here that looks lumpy and uninteresting is the most important aspect of the health of the Everglades right here. If you smell it, it smells so clean, it's going to blow your mind. It's not stinky swamp. And that paraffin has over 300 kinds of algae in it that are green algae. They produce oxygen and they are food for a major animal out here. Crush it and smell it? Smell that. Oh yeah. What does it smell like? You know what? It's called lemon bacopa. Why is it important? You smear it on yourself. No, not this one. Smell that one. I talk to the plants that I don't want to, you know, I just use permission from them. This is something you also be, that is a mosquito repellent. Oh, cool. This one also is a mosquito eater. It's called bladderwort. And the little bladders that are in here will suck in insects and use it as nitrogen. I want to see big cypress trees. You want to see big cypress trees? Yeah. It's a beauty. Now, tactile walking is taking you fine. There's things under the water you can't see. Things under the water you can't see. I don't know if the camera is catching this. It's not fully, obviously, but it is a totally different universe in here. You know what, John? You said you lived in the desert for a little bit. I did. First impressions, the desert, a lot of people think, yeah, there's not much here, right? It's the desert. You give it time. You feel its rhythms. You see the trickles of water between the ravines. It opens up. And I feel like the swamp is the same. You might drive through and say, hey, there's not much here. And then once you go granular, it starts getting very interesting. This tree represents wisdom. It has stood the test of time for hundreds, maybe a thousand, or hundreds of years. Look at this. This just screams how beautiful this is. Again, the water level would be here. But this cypress has experienced a lot. And it's in the middle, so a dome is very stable. So when winds blow over here, they hold each other together. This is one of my trees. Others have their trees they find particularly attractive. But I just like the size, and I'd like you guys to stand next to it. Give me a cell, and I'll take a picture, or whatever you got. I'll take a picture of both you guys standing there. Peter, you get the energy first. Pretending like you... How long did you have to stand next to it to get the energy? He's good. No, you know what? The Miccosukees and Seminoles, they actually form bands around these trees. And because of the energy they have. Good. You are communing with a tree of knowledge. Don't think of it as an... You can think of it as an ant, if you want, from Lord of the Rings. Just the point that these things are incredible creatures. And when they get cut, they don't last anymore. You and I talked about redwoods earlier? Yeah. The redwoods were preserved by the Redwood League, which were evil people. They were cutting redwoods. Why? They wouldn't save them because they were using them for pipes. For waste water, and that's before they had metal pipes. And also Transcontinental Railroad. Oh, you got it. A lot of California was decimated because they were mining. Especially in Nevada, for things like silver and gold. I just love how the light plays. I know, that's the thing. See, that's what I want you to see. You are doing what I like to do with people. I come bring them out here, and they close their eyes. And it's magic. You just hear your breath, you breathe through your nose slowly. And we have the absence of the traffic. It's primeval. It's a fantasy land. It's a connection. So when people go to Disney to see the different hippopotamuses coming out of the river, I take them to reality. To try to explain it is very difficult. The way to understand it is to experience it. And all of the stereotypes that you brought with you about the stinking swamp, the quicksand. There's no quicksand out here. About the attacking alligators, which we've seen. All the things. Back in the 40s, it was the Indians that would take you out. Not as a date. It was a final trip. So the things that we bring baggage-wise, I like to remove that baggage and show you what the true connections are out here. And you can be part of that by, like we just did. And listen to nothing. Which is the best. There's everything in the nothingness, Chad. Alright, so here's the legend, Clyde Butcher. And you said this photography is amazing. Yeah, you have to see it for yourself. Hey guys. Hey, how you doing? Good. How was the walk? So cool. Clyde has been called the Ansel Adams of the Everglades by some. He's traditional large format black and white photography. Oh, that's beautiful. Wow. That's just such a huge inspiration. You're a photographer also? I work in here as well. This is his wife's work? Yep, this is Nicky Butcher, his wife. And she does some color. Yep, so it's black and white photography, and then she hand-colors it. Oh, okay. I got you. Yeah, it's got a surreal look to it. Very traditional Florida colors, turquoise and pinks and yellows. Okay, that's really interesting. That's almost 3D. It's like coming to life. It's unique. This is all your work, isn't it? Yeah. Nice. Yeah, wonderful. Wow, that's a cool one. Yeah, that was in my head for a long time, trying to hit this thought of a mangrove with the perfect reflection of the game. Wow, you're putting your time in out there, getting shots like this. Look at that road. That is so cool. Thank you. The roads, yeah, with the babies, too. I love this. Now we're deep in on the dirt roads. Deep in the cypress, Turner River Road. But a few of these places, huh? Yes, and that is, again, the key. Bad dog, he thinks he's a lion. I bet he does. That's the key difference in the designation, is that there's a lot of homestead camps out here and hunting camps, and people still living out here. That's a genuine big cypress swamp buggy. Unique vehicles made for this terrain, and if you see these old pictures of them in the 20s and 30s that have like Model A engines and Model T engines, a lot of them have the tires as tall as you and me, you know? Oh, nice. Look at that thing. For the big cypress. Yeah, let's pull over here and check it out. It's really interesting, guys. It's like Uganda. Have you been to Uganda? I have. Sort of. Some areas. Look at this thing. Do they have swamp buggies in Uganda? I don't think so. This thing is wild. Where the airboats can't go, or what's that all about? Yeah, the water's deeper and more narrow than the airboats can get through, and then it also does a good job of getting through the drier patches that the airboats can't get to, so it's specific for this environment, you know? We just saw this buggy, and we're like, it's so beautiful out here. Someone's got to come back for it. Ain't it pretty? It is. Where does one buy a buggy like this? You build it. You build these? Yeah, you build them. You found an old truck chassis? A friend of mine built this one. Hell, that's 35 years old. We've rolled it over. We got drunk. There's been more deer hanging off of this than most people seen in a lifetime. Are you from out here? I'm from Chokoloskee. Born and raised? Born and raised. How's it been? The earlier life was really better. Things have changed so much with the national parks and stuff. We used to fly free, you know? We used to eat all the game we wanted. We killed deer. We ate manatee. We ate loggerhead turtles, green turtles. We ate white ibis is what they call them. We call them Chokoloskee chickens. Curlew. We enjoyed ourselves. We didn't have no problems with the law. If anything, we'd kill a deer and give them some. You know what I mean? They never messed with us. Okay. I mean, it looks pretty empty out here, obviously. These parts especially. I don't break the law no more. I don't even drive fast. It ain't worth it. After getting in trouble and doing the things I'd done, you know, I smuggled. I was part of a family, part of our family, and we smuggled millions of pounds of weed. I did it in 10 years. No way. I did 10 years in federal prison. Got my picture in Life magazine. You did 10 years in prison for smuggling weed? 10 years. So we heard that story from this morning. In Copeland. From Copeland they were talking about. You were running drugs. Man, the money was just unbelievable. It was like something off of a TV. Like thousands and thousands a week? Hundreds of thousands of dollars. A month? Oh, a week, a day. We had so much money, man, it was giving it away. How long did that last for? About five, six years. Okay. And then you went to prison for 10 years. Yeah. How was that? I mean, you probably don't want to talk about it. It was pretty neat. It was pretty neat? Yeah. I mean, I went to Eglin Air Force Base. It's like a Boy Scout camp. Workout, gym, no fences. It was pretty neat. I did half of my time there. When I got out, I got busted. I say 10 years. I got busted for a rifle in my truck and they gave me another five years. That wasn't fun. Are you serious? Yeah, I was serious. Oh, man. Then I did five years in a state prison. That wasn't fun. That Florida state prisons. The federal prisons are way better. Oh, man, come on. That Eglin Air Force Base was like a dream. I mean, if I would have went to state prison the very first time, I'd have never broke another law. From what you did before to now this. This is peaceful now, huh? Oh, it's great. I do tours in the Big Cypress National Preserve. I love my job. Steve, what were you saying? We're screwing you up? Screwing me up. I got ---- I got to do. Come on, get on, get on, get on. All right. Steve's giving us a little ride here. I got, you know. Thank you, Steve. Appreciate it. Those people there loved it. Where were they from? I don't know. Let's see how much they loved it. Give me a 20. Someone loved it? They're paying off. That's good. That's nice of them. They gave me $5. That's nice of them. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I don't. People work hard for their money. So this is your full-time gig. This is what you do. I don't smuggle no more. That's what I do. Less money, less stress. A lot less money. What's it like when you make that much money? What does it do to your head? Makes you think you're invincible. You can buy everybody off. When you got that much money, everybody thinks you're the man. They all want to be around you because you got so much money. Right. I'm too small, all right? I treat people good. I found $10,000 in my truck one day behind the seat. It was close to Christmas. I went out and gave it all away. Somebody asked me, said, do you still got my rifle? I said, let me check and see if I got a .22 Magnum. Let me see. It might be behind the seat. When I flipped the seat up, there was a rolled-up paper sack. I said, what the hell is that? I opened it up. It was $10,000. That and an ounce of cocaine. Good cocaine from Miami right off the key. So I went and got me a bottle of Crown Roll and went out to cope with them. It used to be the black section and stuff. We'd build a big fire and threw that ounce of cocaine on the tailgate with a bottle of Crown. And I started shinning out that $10,000 to everybody. We had a good time. They had a good Christmas. You don't do that stuff anymore? Nope. I don't even drink. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I raised a... I got a 20-year-old daughter I raised from a baby. I didn't have no girlfriends or nothing because I wanted to raise my daughter. Oh, that's cool. So you've been clean 20 years? Oh, longer than that. Oh, nice. I went to work for the park clearance. Right. You know, they say... Can I sit up on this? Yeah. Are clean for 10 years and you don't have no violent crimes. The park will hire you. A lot of felons work for the park. Okay, good. I was clean over 10 years. I've got my rights restored. I can vote and everything. So this old road right here, the reason it's built up like this is because it goes into an exploration oil well. The Big Cypress has oil underneath of it. There's two or three active oil wells right now down towards Dade County. It runs all the way up. It's just south of Immokalee, the oil line does. It's called Sunnyland Oil Field. It runs all the way to Dade County. Okay. They've got it piped across the prairies down there. I don't know where the pipeline goes, but it's just crude oil making tires and roads and stuff like that. I'd take y'all for a trip tonight and ride you, but I've got to go get my rear end. It's my recovery buggy. I do all the recovery work for the Big Cypress. If somebody comes and gets stuck or something, I've got to go get them. They count on me. That's my recovery buggy. It's a Land Rover rear end, which Land Rovers are made for farming and ranching and stuff like that. Tight community out here in Everglades? Yeah, very tight. Chokoloskee's the main place. That's where it happens. We went to that shop, that beautiful shop there. You went to the Smallwoods store? A couple years ago. That's my cousin's place. I made a video. She was in it. Lynn. Lynn was in the video a couple years ago. That's my cousin. We got the same granddad. Do you worry at all about this culture going away with this? It's going away. Just worried about it going away. What do you mean? Everything's tightening it up. Can't do this. Can't do that. Can't go here. Can't go there. It's all changing. You can jump off and clock this gate for me if you would. Be careful looking down at the bottom of that gate because we've had a big moccasin down there. I'll wait on you. Be careful. I'd spend some time with you, brother, but... No, this is very cool. If he's here tomorrow or something, you can hang out in the house. I appreciate it. So Steve, culture's going away. What about... Culture's going away, brother. Are the kids moving out? Kids are moving out. Ain't nothing for them here. Everything's changing. There ain't no more old school. Ain't no more old ways. Well, Steve, thank you. Oh, you're welcome. For those that want to do this and get deep in there and get the great stories from you, the local, how do they find you? You got to go to Cap'n Steve's Swamp Buggy Adventures. Call my home number. Leave a message. If I'm not there, I'll call you back. But listen, it's the awesomest thing you've ever done. If you want to spend a few hours, hey, I do nighttime rides. I do snake hunting trips. We'll start a campfire and cook your food. Bring all the kids. Bring some hot dogs. We'll do all that. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. Thanks, brother. Thank y'all very much. Pleasure to meet you. My son's truck, he got killed four years ago. I'm sorry, man. Like it killed me, dude. You ever watch Josh Gates on Destination Unknown, Destination X? He had a room with 10 people that had died. One of them was dead for 45 minutes in ice water. Every one of them said they didn't want to come back. Wow. Every one of them said the same thing. We didn't want to come back. We died. We didn't want to come back. It was so nice and so beautiful that we did not want to come back, that somebody told us that our time wasn't up, that we had to come home. So that makes you feel good, you know, if you lost somebody like me. Jesus, God, is building an army. You know the world's going to hell in a handbasket. You can see it. I'm not a throwing Christian. I'm not. I believe. I'm a believer. But I believe that God is building an army, because I have seen so many people my son's age die. He just lost his best friend the same age. From what, if you don't mind me asking? Just from all different stuff. My son was killed on a motorcycle. The other one was killed. He had gastrointestinal problems. But I'm just saying God's building an army. He's building an army with these young strong people, you know, because it's going to come down to it one day. It's got to. This world can't keep going like it's going. I mean, you got to admit, things ain't looking good. Positive note, be good. Be a good person. Treat people right. Treat people the way you would like to be treated. I don't care if you're on drugs. I don't care if you're an alcoholic. You can get off it all. I've been on it all. I've done it all. I've been a drug addict. I've sold stuff just to buy pain pills. Listen, you can do good. You can. You can do good. And money ain't everything. It ain't about money. It's about enjoying yourself, being good to your family. And I'm being from the heart about that. That's the way I look at it, you know. And save your things. Like you walk into my living room, I got old things in there, you know. Stuff from my kids and pictures all over the walls and old posted signs and stuff, you know. It's not going to be here in hundreds of years. So, yeah. But the videos will. The videos will. Steve, good stuff. All right. Thank you. I'll be talking to you. All right, Steve. I hope you do good with that video. I really do. Well, Harrison, thank you, man. Very cool day. Awesome. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Awesome. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Loved it. Yeah, we met a lot of different people. We unpacked all the different layers. That was the coolest part about it. And so, for people wanting this experience, Harrison's your man. Harrison can get you in. We did another video a couple years ago, onto the water in his boat. Yeah. But more these days, you're on land. Yes, yes. And I'm happy to refer to any boat tours. I have a couple friends who are captains and can do that. But as far as knowing the different spots of the Everglades, the history, connecting the dots, meeting all the different personalities that are out here, and as far as getting a lay of the land and getting a true immersion into the Everglades that's not just a touristy stuff, that's what I really specialize in. You know, personalized to what you're trying to see and what you're trying to accomplish. I'm going to leave your, you have a link of some sort. I'll leave that down below. Website, Instagram, YouTube, all up to a bunch of adventures and just how to inspire wilderness and get to the different corners. Get in this. The Florida you don't know for the most part. I guarantee 99% of the people haven't been to this part of the state. All right, guys. Thanks for coming on that journey. Until the next one.