- Ritta Hotel in 1918 - State of Florida Archives
The land is still there but the assures of a perfect utopia homestead are long gone. All of Florida was once considered the ‘promised land’ and especially the area of South Florida in the early years of the 20th century. The hopes and dreams of many individuals came crashing down after the actions of disreputable land developers and Mother Nature herself came into play.
The Selling of Swamp Land by Richard J. Bolles
A land speculator, Richard J. Bolles, was encouraged by the Governor of Florida in 1908 to purchase vast tracts of the Florida Everglades and sell them off to homesteaders. Bolles did just that, purchasing half-a-million acres for $2 an acre. He then turned around and offered the 10-acre tracts of swamp property for $24 an acre. Besides a good deal on the property, people were promised this property was the richest, finest soil in all of Florida and would be completed drained of any excess water.
The small, 400 acre, one and a half mile long island known as Ritta Island at the southern end of the huge Lake Okeechobee was developed by Bolles to be his showplace for investors. Some of the first settlers to the island in 1909 included John Windham, Richard Mays Thomas and Captain Edward E. Forbes. It was Forbes who set up a mail boat to the Ritta Island for its Post Office.
The Bolles / Ritta Hotel
Richard Bolles constructed the Bolles Hotel, also known as the Ritta Hotel, on the island by 1911 to provide comfort for possible investors. There was a tall tower built to allow future land clients to glaze over the land. At the hotel, lodging and meals were provided. The island and the area south of the lake were all promoted as the future utopia community, an ideal region to live.
On Ritta Island there were custard apple trees which were cleared away. Next crops plowed by use of mules were used to plant corn, onions and green beans. Even the U. S. Government inspection the Okeechobee islands and reassured residents the land was good for homesteading. The numbers increased of new settlers. Bolles had done a massive sale campaign across the country to sell Everglades land.
Bolles Charged with Fraud
By 1912 and into 1913, things were not going well because the investors saw no drainage of the Everglades as they had hoped. Lawsuits were being filed against Bolles for fraud. During the year 1913, he spent time in the courtroom trying to defend his actions. He eventually was exonerated on all charges because he stated the state of Florida had made no promises to drain the land. With disgruntle homesteaders not making any payments on the land, most of it went back to the state of Florida.
Those who elected to remain in the region especially on Ritta Island worked their small plot of land on what was known as the Ritta Island Settlement. This included Richard May Thomas as a farmer and his wife Bertha and Edward Forbes, now a farmer and his wife, May with their five children, along with about 90 people in 1920. On the mainland were the Ritta Settlement and other smaller communities.
Flooding and a Hurricane
Things began to seriously change during 1922 when the area was inundated with continual heavy rains. The lake water level rose 5 feet, completely flooding Ritta Island and most of the mainland around the Lake Okeechobee. The entire island was under more than a foot of water, with the crops ruined and the area crawling with all types of snakes and animals who were also escaping the water. With such a disaster many of the residents moved away.
Other individuals rebuilt and replanted, determined to survive on the land and especially on Ritta Island. Mother Nature struck heavily again with the September 1928 killer hurricane which came onshore in Palm Beach County from the Atlantic Ocean and headed right for the Lake Okeechobee area.
The residents had no warning and most were literally washed away by the storm. Few if any structures of any form remained standing on Ritta Island or the communities along the shore of the lake. What little was left of the grand Bolles Hotel on Ritta Island burned to the ground the next year.
Ritta Island in the 21st Century
The island still exists today, about 2 miles off the rim of the lake, just west of the towns of Belle Glade and South Bay and east of the town of Clewiston. Those communities did slowly rebuild after 1928 and the region has become a major agricultural district for Florida, especially in the production of sugar.
Ritta Island is now uninhabited and best known today for its outstanding bass fishing off the edge of the island. Its history is rich in the tales of the struggles, aspirations and promises of those who hoped to tame this small island and truly make it a paradise on earth.
Sources:
Lake Okeechobee: Wellspring of the Everglades By Alfred Jackson Hanna & Kathryn Abbey Hanna, Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1948.
Black Cloud: the Great Florida Hurricane of 1928 By Eliot Kleinberg, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003.
Alice Luckhardt - As a social science teacher in Florida for 18 years, office manager for the family business, historical and genealogical researcher and ...
