Chekika: Forgotten spot of Everglades National Park

During our last visit to Chekika (map), we found closed roads and dilapidated buildings. This was our fourth time here. Little by little, nature is coming back. Wilderness taking over what was always its property. 

         The closed entrance to the Grossman Hammock - License our images here. 

Everglades National Park closed indefinitely the Chekika Day Use Area in 2013. They claimed budget constraints. One year later, Chekika was on the news when a juvenile Nile crocodile was removed from the area - the animal was captured in a canal north from the Grossman Hammock. Two others were caught in 2009 and 2012 further to the east. You know the script with invasive species: they escaped or someone released them. 

The Everglades already have the mighty Pythons running wild. I don’t want to imagine the River of Grass ruled by “man-eaters” crocodiles that can reach up to 17 feet. That would be madness. 

         The vegetation engulfed the park office.

Seen from the human angle, looks like the Chekika area is under a curse. Nothing last for long here. Nor the farming, neither the oil explorations, less yet the natural parks. Maybe a Native American curse. 

We were lucky to visit when Chekika was maintained. There was water in the well, people bathing in the lake, others enjoying picnics, and campers by the campground. This was the Chekika of 1995. We even hiked the short trail that went through the Grossman Hammock. A short loop with a lot of humidity. A hell for allergic people. 

You can see the map in the next picture. 

At the trailhead of the Grossmans Hammock Trail.

Today, you can ride your bike or take a hike on the old roads around the Chekika area, but the access to the hammock that holds the old well and the decaying park facilities is forbidden. With a Florida license, you can also go fishing to the canal that follows the street. 

This undisturbed Chekika is a wildlife paradise. Fewer humans, more animals. If you go, keep your camera ready at all times. Nature may surprise you there. 

Old bike map of the Chekika area.

Where is the Chekika Day Use Area?

Chekika is 36 miles west from downtown Miami. This is the other side of the bustling city, the one that most tourists never see. A place of farms, dirt roads, wildlife, and a lot of mud. Welcome to swampy land! 

A ranger must open the barrier on the road to Chekika to let vehicles in, but I’m not sure this happens every day. Probably they have scheduled days and hours. Better to call Everglades National Park for information, except if you plan to bike or hike from the entrance. In this case, you can park by the Everglades trailhead (map) and cross the barrier. There is a circular widening of the road there that can accommodate some vehicles.  

Our truck in the parking lot of the Grossman Hammock (now closed).

Keep in mind that you need to cover almost 3 miles to the entrance of the Grossman Hammock. And don’t plan on trespassing there. Rangers patrol the area, and you’ll get in a big trouble. But you can take a peek of the hammock from the distance. 

If you ride all the roads from the entrance, the trip will be around 15 miles (round trip). This is what we did once. Also, remember that there are no facilities here. Neither food nor potable water. Carry all you need and, of course, don't litter.   

This is the official address to the Chekika Day Use Area (it points to the closed Grossman Hammock): 24200 SW 160th Street. Miami, FL 33187.  

The entrance to the Grossman Hammock in better times.        

What does Chekika mean?

Chekika is the name of a Native American Chief of the 19th century Florida. According to anthropologist and ethnologist William Curtis Sturtevant - an authority on Seminole culture and editor of the praised 20-volume Handbook of North American Indians -, we can also find the name as “Chakaika” (Seminole: cakAyki). There are various variants of the spelling. In Muskogee, Chekika has been translated as “follow after” or “chopper”. He was considered one of the Spanish Indians of Florida, sometimes called “Spanish Seminole”. 

During the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), Chekika was known for the attacks to the camp of Colonel William Selby Harney (later famous in the First Sioux War) on the bank of the Caloosahatchie River and the raid on Indian Key in which Dr. Perrine lost his life. 

One year after the attack of Indian Key, Colonel Harney commanded a troop that killed Chekika on his home island in the Everglades. They scalped him, like was the custom practiced by both bands during those times. 

Some said that Chekika was a Calusa Indian, but the Seminole insist he was Seminole and Mikasuki-speaking.

Alligator by the Chekika road.

The beginning of the history

The Grossman Hammock has been inhabited since ancient times. At 10-12 feet over sea level, this island offers dry land even when the surrounding area gets flooded during the South Florida rainy season. Archeologists found shell middens in this spot of the Everglades. These features relate to old dwellings or villages. They result from domestic waste and contain cultural and animal remains.  

Hawk in the Chekika area.

Estimates for the Grossman Hammock findings run in the 5,000 years range. The researchers recovered undecorated and a few decorated pieces of ceramic. Some were from the Belle Glade Period - 600–1700 AD - and others from the St. Johns - 1000 BC-1565 AD.

For photos of the recovered ceramic from the Grossman Hammock, check the link to the article “Excavations at Grossman Hammock” from Marvin J. Brooks, Jr at the end of the post.  

         The "shooting gallery" by the northern end of the road.        

Chekika in the early 20th century

It’s said that the family of William McKinley Osceola lived in this hammock by the year 1900. Here you can see a picture of the Seminole Chief giving a present to President Truman at the dedication of Everglades National Park on December 6, 1947.

Samuel F. Grossman bought tracks of land here in 1917. According to reports, he paid $4 per acre. Grossman was born in Hungary in 1861. His family moved to the United States when he was 2 and they lived in Cleveland, Ohio. Later, he got involved in paper box manufacturing. 

An article written by Jeff Blakley published by the Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum, refers that Mr. Grossman found plenty of wildlife in the Chekika area, remains of a prehistoric animal, and leftovers from Indian camps plus fruit trees from old human settlements.    

           Ibises in the Chekika area.

Some have confused the old camps found in the Grossman Hammock as the ones used by Chief Chekika during the Second Seminole War, but it’s well known from old sources that he lived and was killed in Chekika Island in the Shark River Slough (map). This is a large hammock one-mile south of the Tamiami Trail by the canal L-67.

The Grossman family went on planting tomatoes during the 1920s in the Chekika area. The plants grew well, but was costly to transport the products to the market from such a remote place. They completed a road to the hammock in 1927. The same year, it’s reported that Grossman visited some neighbors west of his property. These were Seminole Indians living in a small hammock 3-4 miles west from his land (estimating through Google maps, may be one of the islands around this point on the higher ground of the Grossman Ridge).    

           The well and the artificial cascade. 

The oil times of Chekika

The Grossman Hammock well was drilled in 1944. Looks like this was an exploratory work from an old business called Miami Shipbuilding Company (probably the data refers to this corporation). The drill reached a depth of over a thousand feet and after hitting water created an artesian well. This means that it was water confined under pressure - an artesian aquifer - and it flew up through the new aperture. Get the idea through this diagram.

The word “artesian” comes from the old city of Artesium in France. During the Middle Ages, this place was famous for its convenient artesian wells.

The water of the new well in the Grossman Hammock smelled of sulfur. Also was too salty to be potable.

           Baby gator in Lake Chekika.          

The drilling company encased the well with iron pipes to a depth of over four hundred feet. The water, flowing nonstop, created a pond. 

In December 1944 the Geological Survey office did an investigation after a report filled by some guy named “Mr. Starr”. Looks like this man worked in the drilling of the Grossman Hammock. They found that the work stopped and the equipment was taken away. 

The drilling crew tried to cap the well leaving inserted a drill bit, but the pressurized water kept coming up 6 to 10 feet over the ground. The Grossman Hammock well was pouring 2,350 gallons per minute. They did some mitigation work building soil dikes and the lake was completed in 1947.

There are reports of another drill done in the Grossman Hammock in 1949. This time, Coastal Petroleum Corporation drilled an 11,519-foot test hole nearby the 1944 drill. They found no significant oil and the prospective work ceased.

           The dry well of Chekika. 

The parks come to the Grossman Hammock

After agriculture and oil explorations didn’t go well, Mark L. Grossman tried a commercial park around the waters of the artesian well. He improved the landscape by planting trees, added ornamental rocks to the well, and built an elevated waterfall.

Boardwalk to Grossman Hammock.

The idea was to attract visitors to bathe in the sulfur rich waters because everybody believed then that this was good for health. The “Mineral Springs and Lake Chekika” park opened in 1954. 

By the 1960s the Chekika well flow diminished to 1,170 gallons per minute, almost half the readings from the 1940s.    

Chekika State Recreation Area (circa 1970) - State Archives of Florida

Chekika State Park

The State of Florida bought the park in 1970. It became Grossman Hammock State Park, but four years later was renamed to Chekika State Recreation Area. 

In March 1982 the US Geological Survey published a contamination report involving the Grossman Hammock well. The study revealed that the artesian well contaminated the South Florida aquifer with saline water since 1944. They found a plume one or two miles wide extending around seven miles southeast of the well. The contaminants were chloride, sodium, and sulfate ion (salts of sulfuric acid). 

The state drilled new wells 45 feet deep to the Biscayne aquifer to supply water for a fountain at the north end of the lake. They plugged the old well with cement in March 1985. 

Map with the location of the wells - Image from old document.           

Looks like the well we saw in the nineties was not the original. The previous map shows the probable location of the old drill. Also, you can see the road to the other lake northwest from the camping area. We can still see the vanishing traces of the road in satellite images. 
   

         C biking the Chekika road.        

Chekika becomes Everglades National Park

Florida donated Chekika State Recreation Area to the federal government in 1991. This was part of the enlargement of Everglades National Park under the Expansion Act of 1989. This act intended to protect the water flow and ecology of the park. It added lands of the Northeast Shark River Slough and East Everglades. The State of Florida voluntarily agreed to transfer 35,000 acres and help with future land acquisitions. 

One year later, in 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit the recreation area and it remained closed for two years.

Since 2013, again, the Chekika Day Use Area is closed. This time with no end in mind.    

           A wildlife photographer's paradise.          

The access is open to the surrounding roads - now part of the national park -, but the Grossman Hammock and its dilapidated buildings are out of reach. 

We rode the bikes through all these roads and saw just a few people fishing along the banks of the canal. Plenty of birds and alligators everywhere. Also crossed path with a couple of snakes.    

           Bikes are not allowed after the northern curve of the road.          

We stopped by the former entrance of the Kendall Gliderport. It’s overgrown. The same for the airfield according to the satellite, but the hangar stills survive down there. 

This airfield, built on lands once owned by the Grossman Tropical Farms Company, was a property of Mary Gaffaney. The facility closed in 1998 after being bought to enlarge Everglades National Park.

All these lands belong now to the federal government. The good thing is that they won’t add more residential buildings to the crowded South Florida. We also need space to enjoy the outdoors. 

           The pillars of the old Chekika sign.          

Enjoy our video montage with photos from the Chekika Day Use Area.

Sources:

Chekika Day Use Area Closed Indefinitely, News Release, National Park Service

Nile Crocodile Removed from Everglades National Park, News Release, National Park Service

Areal Extend of a Plume of Mineralized Water from a Flowing Artesian Well in Dade County, Florida, Bradley G. Waller, US Geological Survey 1982

Kendall Gliderport, Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields 

Notes on the Grossman Well and the “Chekika Plume”, Michael L. Merritt, Miami Geological Society, 1995

Documentary Sources Compared with Seminole Tradition, William C. Sturtevant

Grossman Hammock, Jeff Blakley, Historic Homestead Town Hall Museum

Excavations at Grossman Hammock, Marvin J. Brooks, Jr, The Florida Anthropologist, 1956