The building of that road meant that crows lived, ate, and
slept in water, as the soldiers of the Seminole War had done before
them. Men worked in water up to their armpits, clearing the way
with axes and machetes, tormented by mosquitoes, and always on
the alert for snakes.

Everything had to be dynamited down to solid rock for a
firm foundation. Men were blown up; others were drowned. The
drilling machines and heavy road equipment often sank completely in
the muck, requiring days of labor with hand jacks to set them up
again.

Few of the travelers today knew of the 413,000,000
investment they are riding over, of the 13 years of striving, or of the
3,000,000 pounds of dynamite which blew nine and a half days into
the mists-bridging a 10-day journey in 1926 to five or six hours in
1939.

The roadway of yesterday is gone. The great holes with their
jagged rocks, a menace to the stoutest tire, are no more. Gone too, is
the trail that was for the most part, a little two-laned path, lined
down the middle with sawgrass and hard growth, and with even the
shrubbery on each side frequently contesting the right of way.


The Seminole Today

The estimated 100 followers of Sam Jones, who remained secreted
in the 'Glades at the time of the emigration of Billy Bowlegs, had