COVER STORY
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designated the trail.
Back in the 1800s, Cobb learned
from boat captains who tied up at his
dock that Cuba was in the market for
beef, even from cows as scrawny as
those that subsisted in Florida’s pine
and palmetto woods. The cows were
descendants of animals brought in by
17th century Spanish explorers, who
also introduced horses and pigs to
“La Florida.”
“The Cubans were desperate to have
beef and were willing to buy inferior
product,” Fredrick said. “And they paid
in Spanish gold coins.”
The cowboys assembled west of Fort
Pierce once a year and drove the cattle
west to Punta Rassa, near Sanibel,
where the herds were shipped to Havana.
Their route across the state took
them between two forbidding swampy
areas, said history buff Anne Sinnott,
who helped organize Pioneer Fest,
which will be at the Backus Museum
on Feb. 27.
“To the north of Fort Pierce the
Kissimmee River and its floodplains
blocked the way and to the south lay
Lake Okeechobee and farther south
the Everglades made passage impossible,”
she said.
>> The historic Cracker Trail between Bradenton and Fort Pierce is marked with road signs.
HISTORY OF THE CRACKER TRAIL
The following summary of the history of the Cracker Trail
was written by Kathleen Fredrick based on her own research
and several years of participating in Cracker Trail rides.
Following the Civil War a rugged brand of individual
settled along Florida’s east coast and central corridor. They
scratched out a living raising cattle, pigs and vegetables
and fishing. These early settlers became known as Florida
Crackers, a reference to the
cracking sound made by
the braided, leather whips
they used to drive their
cattle rather than a food
preference or a particular
philosophy.
The leather-tough pioneers,
known as Cracker Cowmen from up and down the
east coast and throughout Central Florida, gathered with their
scrub cattle each year, congregating west of Fort Pierce to
drive their giant herd across the state toward Bradenton and
then to Punta Rassa, where they would be shipped to Havana.
The passageway across the state beginning at Fort Pierce was
the only dry trans-Florida route. To the north of Fort Pierce
the Kissimmee River and its floodplains blocked the way, and
to the south lay the big lake and farther south the Everglades
made passage impossible.
Fort Pierce’s historic P.P. Cobb Store figured prominently in
the cattle drive. Each day, as the cattle massed west of town,
Cobb’s store ran 10 wagons, day and night, taking supplies
out to the cattlemen
and their herds as
they prepared for the
monthlong journey.
As they crossed the
state they were faced
with untold hardship.
Thieves, snakes,
swarms of mosquitoes,
swamps and
disease were just
some of the challenges
faced by the
Early photographs from the Florida Photographic
Collection show how the high
ground along the trans-Florida passage
known as the Cracker Trail (minus the road)
might have looked to early cowmen. At
left, another Florida Photographic Collection
cowmen.
Once the cowmen
survived the long
and difficult journey
to Punta Rassa, the
cattle were sold to
the Cubans, who
loaded them on
ships and sailed
south. The Cracker
Cowmen, their
pockets bulging with
money, took their
bounty back to Fort
Pierce and the P.P. Cobb Store, where they purchased supplies
photo shows cattle gathering in Punta
Rassa. A modern-day photo shows the P.P.
Cobb Building, a Fort Pierce landmark that
still stands and which served as the outpost
where early cattlemen bought their supplies.
and provisions for the coming year before returning to
their isolated homesteads and their eagerly waiting families.