Broward surveying assembly of New River dredge (UF Digital Collections)

This blog is taking a different turn because the University Press of Florida accepted my proposal to write a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte Broward. Governor of Florida from 1905-1909, he is best known today for his effort to create an “Empire of the Everglades.” That meant canals and drainage projects. South Florida today is still shaped by the consequences.

Before becoming governor, Broward was a sailor, lumberyard owner, phosphate miner, steamboat captain, sheriff, city councilman, tugboat owner, state representative, and gunrunner. Trying to understand his career will allow a look into the turbulent era of late 19th and early 20th-century Florida.

There will be fewer posts and some of them will be related to research for the book. I will still try to make things interesting.