Gladesmen: Gator Hunters, Moonshiners, and Skiffers (Florida History and Culture) 1st edition by Simmons, Glen, Ogden, Laura (1998) Hardcover

The Florida History and Culture Series

by Glen Simmons, Laura Ogden

Few people today can claim a living memory of Florida's frontier Everglades. Glen Simmons, who has hunted alligators, camped on hammock-covered islands, and poled his skiff through the mangrove swamps of the glades since the 1920s, is one who can. Together with Laura Ogden, he tells the story of backcountry life in the southern Everglades from his youth until the establishment of the Everglades National Park in 1947. During the economic bust of the late ‘20s, when many natives turned to the land to survive, Simmons began accompanying older local men into Everglades backcountry, the inhospitable prairie of soft muck and mosquitoes, of outlaws and moonshiners, that rings the southern part of the state. As Simmons recalls life in this community with humor and nostalgia, he also documents the forgotten lifestyles of south Florida gladesmen. By necessity, they understood the natural features of the Everglades ecosystem. They observed the seasonal fluctuations of wildlife, fire, and water levels. Their knowledge of the mostly unmapped labyrinth of grassy water enabled them to serve as guides for visiting naturalists and scientists. Simmons reconstructs this world, providing not only fascinating stories of individual personalities, places, and events, but an account that is accurate, both scientifically and historically, of one of the least known and longest surviving portions of the American frontier.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Nature, Biography

Hardcover

First published May 5, 1998

Reviews

[Jeimy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took me forever to finish because, like the Everglades, this book moves at a slow pace. It spends a lot of time describing the setting itself an, in my opinion, not enough on the adventures of the titular gator hunters, moonshiners, and skiffers.

[Jenna Schauer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Official Rating: 2.75

Unlike the last nonfiction book I read, this is not one that I would recommend unless you love history and have been to the Everglades. It s really fun to read the histories and first hand account of people who lived in the Florida Everglades pre NPS. However, a lot of it is stream of consciousness, which can be hard to follow and read.

[Craig Pittman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book, particularly so for anyone currently living in Florida, that looks back on what life was like for those who eked out a living in and around the Everglades back in the 1920s through 1940s.

Glen Simmons was a Gladesman, a man who could move quietly through the River of Grass, stalk and kill an alligator and then skin it on the spot. He built his own skiffs for maneuvering through the mangroves and sawgrass, and knew both how to camp out on the tree islands amid clouds of mosquitoes and how to trap and skin otters.

He also knew how to keep his mouth shut. For at least part of the time he was plying his trade as a trapper, the law regarded Simmons as a poacher, violating the laws designed to protect the dwindling number of alligators. So he built a hidden compartment in his Ford to hide his skins, or sank them underwater to keep them away from the game wardens. He was frequently harassed by prohibition agents, aka "prohis," who were looking for moonshiners -- and from time to time he ran across suspicious moonshiners who thought he might be working with the prohis. So that taught him to keep his own counsel and not say much.

Fortunately, anthropologist Laura A. Ogden persuaded him to open up and tell some of what he knew and saw and experienced. Ogden opens each chapter with a brief introduction to set the stage for Simmons, and then he begins spinning his tales. The story he tells is episodic and jumps around a bit, but that makes it more like sitting around a campfire listening to yarns about the old days. Some of them are quite funny, such as the one about the boat that he and a hunting partner named after a woman they knew who had what he called "an extended behind" because the boat did too. Frequently Simmons makes himself the butt of the joke, and that's true in this case too.

Simmons does not sugar-coat what life was like back then. He talks about awful roads, insect pests, rotten weather and plain old bad luck. There's no nostalgic haze about how much nicer everyone was in the old days, either. He repeatedly uses the word "hellish" to describe the behavior of his colleagues and competitors, people who would drain your car's gas tank, swipe your clothes, sic the law on you or carry away your hard-earned gator skins if you weren't careful. He mentions a few good souls who would help a man or woman in need, but they were clearly in the minority. Simmons seems particularly disgusted by "sportsmen" who shot gators for fun, leaving the carcasses to rot in the sun. And in one telling anecdote he recounts with palpable dismay how some "city boys" had come out and "dynamited a sea cow that had come up one of the canals" even though, as he points out, "they didn't need the meat."

Throughout Simmons' narrative is a tone of melancholy as he recounts the ways the landscape he grew up with has changed so drastically -- first when Everglades National Park was established in 1947 and put much of his old hunting grounds off limits, and then as development pushed further and further out from South Florida's urban core even as a rising sea level turned freshwater haunts into brackish ones. At one point near the end, he says, "I had hopes years ago...that the skeeters and hurricanes would run the Yankees out of here, but it just about happened the other way around."

[Dean Glover · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed traveling into the Everglades with this knowledgeable experienced native of the southern Florida interior. The methods of travel, the difficulty surviving in the glades, and the people the author knew growing up present an interesting look into his world. Cudos to those who decided to interview and preserve the life experiences of this wonderful character. Recommended.

[E Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was ready to give this book 5 stars when I started it. My husband was an avid fan of The
Everglades. He hung out there hunting, camping, and fishing while a teenager and knew
many of the Glades residents. This was sometime after the era that Mr. Simmons talks
about.

Although the hard scrabble and somewhat primitive life of the authors family was
interesting, I just couldn't abide his lengthy and detailed account of alligator hunting.
Just as men annihilated the bison out West, men in the Southeast almost killed off
the gator population. They were needlessly killed without being used for food or hides.
Then there were those that were slaughtered by the thousands for the pittance that
the hides sold for. It was especially disturbing to read about Mr. Simmons out-foxing
the wardens so he was definitely hunting when it was illegal.

Simmons and his fellow residents of the Glades were tough and surely were living off
the land, but I can't admire them.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glenn Simmons lived in the Everglades and pieced together a livelihood: fishing, hunting, gathering, and guiding and selling products such as alligator hides. He did some plume hunting, some whiskey running, raccoon skinning, and some boat (skiff) building. So interesting, a look into a way of life now mostly gone.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed it guide a lot. Thor men were much tougher than I am

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A peek at how it really was.

[Susan Risk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal memoir and history of Floridians in the early 1900s while living a very rough life at the southernmost tips of Florida. Amazing!

[Louis Brouillard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Narrator was a little slow, droning

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gladesmen: Gator Hunters, Moonshiners, and Skiffers by Glen Simmons and Laura Ogden (University Press of Florida 1998)(975.939) is the memoir of Glen Simmons who lived in the Everglades in the early twentieth century until the formation of Everglades National Park forced the gladespeople out of the park and off their land. This is a story of true subsistence living; these folks were true hunters and gatherers. The stories are fascinating, and this way of life is gone for good from North America. My rating: 6.5/10, finished 2/6/2014.

[Trish Remley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book belonged to Chad's neighbor, Mr. Bickel, who was such a knowledgeable outdoors men. It's about Glen Simmon's life in the Florida Everglades in the 30's & 40's before there was a National Park. Glenn tells it like it was - a rustic, very few possession life. Learned about gator holes, skiffers, the everglades and life experience in general before all the highways, airboats, and regulations.

[Nomad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am currently working for the Park Service at Flamingo, in Everglades National Park. This is such a beautiful place and one of the best canoe and kayak areas in the USA.
This book gives a great insight about the area before the Park was established. A good read for anyone visiting the area. anomad

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up on a recent trip to Everglades National Park. Until the establishment of the park, people earned their livelihood in the Everglades much as did their pioneer forefathers. Filled with entertaining stories, reading Gladesmen is like sitting by a campfire hearing about "the way things used to be".

[Djorth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Not only depicts the life of a Florida gator hunter in the 1940's, but also gives his thoughts and feelings.

[Richard S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important Florida history.