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On Location: Oddities of the Everglades
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Strangeness, both fact and fiction, lurks in this quirky region
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BY BOB PAYNE
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Swamp guide David Shealy, on the lookout for the elusive Skunk Ape; Ochopee's diminuitive post office.
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Just east of the turnoff for Everglades City, the Tamiami Trail, aka Florida’s U.S. Route 41, is mostly empty. Few drivers keep to the speed limit here, but even if you do, it’ll take a mere blink of an eye to miss the town of Ochopee. I’ve driven that stretch dozens of times, and the only evidence I have that Ochopee exists is that two of the Everglades region’s odder tourist attractions claim to be located there.
IT’S A GOOD THING GOOD THINGS COME IN SMALL PACKAGES
Otherwise, there might not be room for them in the Ochopee Post Office, which is probably the nation’s smallest. The seven-by-eight-foot building is a former irrigation-pipe shed that was pressed into service in 1953 when the original post office burned down. Nanette Watson, who has been postmaster since 2003, says that despite the office’s diminutive size, it delivers mail to 960 customers, most of them on the Miccosukee Indian reservation, 42 miles to the east. She also sells up to 500 postcards a day to passing tourists, she says, “although not so many on days when the mosquitoes are biting.” 38000 Tamiami Trail E., Ochopee; 239-695-2099
NO DOUBT THE RAREST OF ALL FLORIDA WILDLIFE
That would be the Florida Skunk Ape, a seven-foot-tall man-like creature said to be America’s southernmost Bigfoot. Many dismiss it as a figment of the imaginations of people like Dave Shealy, “lead investigator” at Ochopee’s Skunk Ape Research Headquarters. Among the T-shirts and shot glasses there, I was delighted to find Shealy’s Everglades Skunk Ape Research Field Guide. The guide is sealed in shrink-wrap, presumably so you can’t read all 17 pages before shelling out $4.95 to buy it.
Shealy, a 48-year-old southwest Florida native, told me about his three “confirmed sightings” of the creature. It gets its name, he says, from its practice of hiding out in the foul-smelling caves that alligators use as dens. Shealy’s field guide, meant to help those planning their own expeditions in search of Skunk Apes, advises that lima beans make the best bait for attracting them (but without added salt pork or bacon, as these can draw buzzards), and that you should never enter an alligator’s cave in search of Skunk Apes. 4909 Tamiami Trail E., Ochopee; 239-695-2275; skunkape.info
NOTE: Information may have changed since publication. Please confirm key details before planning your trip.
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Published: October 14, 2011
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Photos: Chris Rogers(2)
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