Ditch of Dreams: The Cross-Florida Barge Canal in Historical Perspective

The Cross Florida Barge Canal remains central to an understanding of not just modern-day Florida but also the origins of twentieth-century environmentalism. Well before the Sunshine State became associated with citrus production, retirement communities, and Disney World, many Floridians dreamed of digging a ditch across the peninsula to connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Started twice, once in the 1930s and again in the 1960s, the canal was never completed.  Yet the abortive project reveals much about the changing political landscape of a sunbelt state in transition amid competing visions of progress and preservation.  Different political constituencies, the rise of environmental consciousness, and an increasing awareness of the costs of progress played an important role in the project's demise.  Though only a third completed upon its termination in 1971, the project's remnants have become the focus of a new debate about restoration and preservation in a state synonymous with urban sprawl. The primary sources surrounding this project are ideally suited for a poster session.  Visual images provide a comprehensive representation of more than a hundred years of the waterway's history.  Drawn from maps, photographs, political cartoons, and promotional literature and film, this session offers numerous starting points for discussion on a variety of topics.  Scholars interested in the history of environmentalism and United States local and national politics can find much to work with for both their research and teaching interests.