The Ghost People Of The Everglades

The last frontier is no more. Commercial fishing has been banned in Everglades National Park, and the locals were forced to find other means of work, but no one expected drug-smuggling to become big business in a small sleepy fishing village with less than one thousand people in population called Everglades City, Florida, and an island called Chokoloskee. The intertwined and dense mangrove system of the Ten Thousand Islands that surrounded the area and with remote locations provided a perfect environment for smugglers to bring and hide their drugs until they could deliver them for big profits. The Daniels family knew the backcountry of the Everglades and the complicated waterways of the area and knew how to travel through the shallow and treacherous waters and go through other passages unknown to anybody else. The Daniels family were sought after and hired to bring in large loads of drugs from South and Central America, as well as a few other countries. This family was born in the area and knew it like the backs of their hands. The Daniels crew was dubbed the "Saltwater Cowboys" because of their daring and reckless style and the "Ghost People of the Everglades" because they could disappear at a blink of an eye. Their wild and daring stunts happened on the high seas as well as in the complicated waterways of the Ten Thousand Islands. These boys could turn into a cluster of mangroves and disappear into another waterway just behind it. This adventurous family that turned outlaw became the largest importer of drugs into the United States that ran throughout our country. This area was world-renowned to some of the largest cartels or drug-smuggling rings around today and now call Everglades National Park their home.

The Florida Keys are so coveted for its beauty, and the tourists seem to flock to its small island paradise, giving them a transit feel for the people going in and out of the area. Marathon, Florida, is a small island town located midway down the chain of islands housed a dark and dangerous secret in the hidden world of drug smuggling that dominated the waters from the Florida Keys to the Ten Thousand Islands off Everglades National Park. The setting is in the 1970s where people were carefree and daring and contributed to the recreational use of drugs and the party lifestyle. This story embarks on the glitz and glamorous lifestyle that the commercial fishermen grew accustomed to but endured during a decade of drug smuggling for the largest and most dangerous cartel housed inside of Miami's dark world.

Florida's famous swamps—from the Everglades to Mosquito Lagoon to Tate's Hell—serve as fitting backdrops for these chilling original stories. Maybe it's because they are often wet, shadowy places of wild beauty where few people dare to penetrate. They are havens for snakes, alligators, black bears, wildcats, and who knows what. People on the run have often hidden in swamps, while others have gotten lost in the watery expanses; the swamp can be a refuge or a nightmare. Mysterious things just happen in swamps. Maybe it's because they are often wet, shadowy places of wild beauty where few people dare to penetrate. They are havens for snakes, alligators, black bears, wildcats, and who knows what. People on the run have often hidden in swamps, while others have gotten lost in the watery expanses; the swamp can be a refuge or a nightmare. Where else can you find a ghost baby, or an angry specter, or a lost soul? How about a ghost who is obsessed with the ghost orchid, or an alluring snake woman? Throw in a skunk ape or two and you've got the ingredients for many entertaining hours sharing these stories around a campfire or reading them to yourself or out loud. From the Author's Notes at the end of each story, you can learn a thing or two about Florida's swamps, creatures, and history, along with storytelling tips. Florida is rich in history, natural beauty, and ecological and cultural diversity. To protect what is special about our state it is important to educate the people who live here and our visitors. In this unique book you'll find tales of mystery and intrigue interwoven with important facts and lessons of natural history. Who but a naturalist can really scare you about what lurks in the swamp? Doug Alderson has been there and knows. In writing tales for this book, Doug Alderson drew upon many years of entertaining young people as a summer camp counselor and storyteller, and also from decades as a swamp explorer. He is a former associate editor of Florida Wildlife magazine. To learn more about his writing and photography, check out his website at www.dougalderson.net.

Lostmans Heritage follows the author's journey as she searches for her ancestors from the slave country of Savannah to the wilds of the Florida Everglades. The Everglades is shrouded in mysteries, a tangle of mangroves, waterways, and sawgrass that meanders every which way and is as mutable as the wind. Nothing is ever where you left it. This is where one came to get lost, to hide among the wild things and the Seminoles. Her story begins with her ancestor, Richard Hamilton, an extraordinary and dangerous man, a man who, against all odds, untangled himself from the bonds of slavery and began a family and a life in the Florida Everglades. Author Peter Matthiessen found the Hamilton clan so fascinating that he included a fictional account of their lives in his novel, Killing Mr. Watson. Hamilton follows Richard and his sons to the ending of an era when the National Park Service evicted the residents, the pioneers, of the Everglades. Along the way she uncovers secrets and stories, polygamy, bootlegging, fist fights, murders, gangsters, killers, and tales of tomahawks and missing schoolteachers. Noted Florida historian, Charlton Tebeau, once said, "The Hamiltons, to the disappointment of the romanticists, were neither pirates nor smugglers nor fugitives, but simple fishermen." While Tebeau was fascinated by the Hamilton's, and often referred to them as one of the 'lost tribes' of the islands, the author's research proves that he was wrong about them. They were fugitives, and they were smugglers. The Everglades was not a place for the average man at that time. You did what you had to do to feed your family.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK A modern classic of personal journalism, The Orchid Thief is Susan Orlean’s wickedly funny, elegant, and captivating tale of an amazing obsession. Determined to clone an endangered flower—the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii—a deeply eccentric and oddly attractive man named John Laroche leads Orlean on an unforgettable tour of America’s strange flower-selling subculture, through Florida’s swamps and beyond, along with the Seminoles who help him and the forces of justice who fight him. In the end, Orlean—and the reader—will have more respect for underdog determination and a powerful new definition of passion. In this new edition, coming fifteen years after its initial publication and twenty years after she first met the “orchid thief,” Orlean revisits this unforgettable world, and the route by which it was brought to the screen in the film Adaptation, in a new retrospective essay. Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more. Praise for The Orchid Thief “Stylishly written, whimsical yet sophisticated, quirkily detailed and full of empathy . . . The Orchid Thief shows [Orlean’s] gifts in full bloom.”—The New York Times Book Review “Fascinating . . . an engrossing journey [full] of theft, hatred, greed, jealousy, madness, and backstabbing.”—Los Angeles Times “Orlean’s snapshot-vivid, pitch-perfect prose . . . is fast becoming one of our national treasures.”—The Washington Post Book World “Orlean’s gifts [are] her ear for the self-skewing dialogue, her eye for the incongruous, convincing detail, and her Didion-like deftness in description.”—Boston Sunday Globe “A swashbuckling piece of reporting that celebrates some virtues that made America great.”—The Wall Street Journal

Discover all the mysteries, facts, and discoveries about ghosts that are creepy—and true—in the much-anticipated companion to Mummies Exposed! Do you believe in ghosts? Whether you’re a believer in things that go bump in the night or a firmly science-minded skeptic, there is compelling evidence to suggest that the veil between the living and the dead may be thinner than we think. Ghosts Unveiled! investigates spectral appearances, unsolved mysteries, and eerie hauntings around the world: the Vanishing Hitchhiker, the child-nabbing La Llorona, demon cats and dogs, haunted schools, and even wraiths in bathrooms! Examining eyewitness accounts from both contemporary interviews and historical records as well as physical signs of paranormal activity, this meticulously researched, well-balanced, and spine-tingling book will leave you wondering what is truly beyond the veil. The Creepy and True series explores strange phenomena, fun facts, and out of the ordinary discoveries. Read them all to uncover the creepy and true histories of mummies, ghosts, skeletons, and more!

Describes over 2,000 sites of supernatural occurances in the United States, including places visited by ghosts, UFOs, and unusual creatures.

The incredibly strange, totally true story of the Power Persons Five continues! Be sure to hunker down as our world is invaded by crab people and the evil King Tiger Eating a Cheeseburger! That's right. You heard me. Hunker down!