Those Fish Were Dynamite

One hundred some odd years ago Alachua County, the land of my growing up years was bustling with wild ones… Especially the western part of the county. The economy was thriving from the phosphate mines that were in full force… Miners, ladies of the night, Civil War Vets, turpentine workers, and the railroad were all contributors to this rough environment… But the largest population of wild ones were the miners, at least until WWI. 13 of the 14 mining companies were German owned… Pulling out and returning home they left behind large open pit mines for us as kids to explore, swim, and fish out of 60 years later…

30 years has past since the days of walking tight winding trails down to the bottom of abandoned limestone quarries… So much fun was it to fish and burn our skin to a dark brown in the Hot Florida Sun…

One particular day as my friend and I arrived at the bottom to do some fishing… We heard what sounded like voices in the thick brush that grew on the other side of the water from us. We had always wondered what was on the other side and if it was possible to get there without having to swim… The only way down or up was the narrow trail which dropped off from top to bottom at least 500 feet… It was impossible to get to that side. So who was there and how did they get there? We wondered… Finally a voice called out to us… “You boys need to get gone! We’re fixin’ to fish!” the man yelled… “We ain’t done nothin’ wrong… We fish here all the time!” I yelled back with a little fire to my voice… I wasn’t going to be run out that easily… Then I heard the two men start to laugh… “You boys don’t understand… We’s about to do some Dynamite Fishin’ so you two need to get gone…” My friend and I understood the man clearly at this point… But as all kids do, we couldn’t miss any of the action… I called out again in a voice dripping with excitement, “You mind if we watch?” The to men began to chuckle. “No, we don’t but you need to get back to the top…”


We grabbed our things and started to scurry back up the trail. The adrenalin was coursing through my veins. My carotid artery felt like a think heavy rope in my neck as it pumped rapidly… Not knowing when they would light the fuse was part of the rush… Finally we were at the top of the mine, sitting, waiting for what was to come. Still unable to see the men, we only saw the sticks of dynamite bound together, twirling end over end through the air, then disappear into the water’s surface. Pushing my little fingers into my ears I waited for what seemed like hours, then, BOOM!!! The ground shook beneath me… All the little rocks next to me rolled around from the vibration… Then we watched the massive wall of water mushroom into the sky… Fish and what looked like parts of fish started to fall from above… Fish also started to float to the top of the dark water that was still rippling… As we made our way back home I thought, Man that was better than any Forth of July I ever saw…