Culture of Mistrust Resurfaces in Everglades Airboat Closure 

Despite efforts to relieve a history of distrust between longtime Everglades residents and the government, an airboat family feels betrayed.

"I feel I have been lied to by South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and all the board members,” said Mitchell House, an Everglades City resident and owner of Captain Mitch's Everglades Private Airboat Tours along U.S. 41, just west of Carnestown.

House and his family closed their airboat operations after more than 30 years due to an inability to retain access in exchange for the state to make way for public access there instead, according to records of correspondence between House and SFWMD.

The exchanges indicate that House’s business was incompatible with the District’s plans and that SFWMD would work with House to operate and move out, but that he would not be able to stay. House said he learned this through a phone call in December and asked to receive it in writing, which he did on December 19, a week before Christmas 2024.

SFWMD began oversight of the Green Heart of the Everglades land, which was purchased by the state from the county’s namesake, the Collier family, in 2023. Just ahead of the purchase, SFWMD met in May 2023 to discuss with airboat companies and ecotour operators how the future could look for these longtime multigenerational families of the Everglades who operated in this Green Heart area. 

“Everglades City is the heart of the Green Heart of the Everglades,” said Jen Reynolds of SFWMD during that May 2023 District meeting.

The Green Heart of the Everglades includes an 11,000-acre swath of land and water that connects Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, and Picayune Strand State Forest. From the outset, airboat operators were concerned about their individual and collective futures. SFWMD attempted to put them at ease, according to meeting records. 

Gladesmen could maintain their culture, leadership in public education and economic vitality, recognizing the generations prior, while preserving and restoring the land and water to secure it for future generations, SFWMD officials maintained during the public meetings.

SFWMD board member Ron Bergeron shared commentary during that first meeting in May 2023 that rang in the ears of House and was long remembered by airboat operators throughout the region, they said.

To see and hear Bergeron, a Gladesman and cowboy, begin to cry in that public meeting, moved people emotionally. 

“It was the Colliers, it was these families,” Bergeron says, looking at the Gladesmen in that meeting. 

He begins to get visibly emotional.

“I can understand their concerns. I apologize. I’m supposed to be this big alligator wrestler,” Bergeron said. 

He regrouped. 

“I think the important thing is the preservation of this land is spectacular. But I think that it’s important that the traditional culture, the heritage, the roots, and the identity are a part of that,” said Bergeron. 

Bergeron was so moved that House’s understanding to this day of what would come next for his family business was not its eventual closure. 

“They not only make a living but they educate the world as to the importance of the environment,” said Bergeron of multigenerational airboat operators and ecotour guides, of which House is the living epitome. 

“They play a big role in the economy, and they make a living at it, but they do something much more important than that. They educate the world on one of the natural wonders of the world,” said Bergeron. “So, I think it’s important we make sure there is sustainable access and enjoyment and that the economy benefits,” he said. 

“I entered it when I was three years old,” Bergeron continued of the Everglades. "I know they can trust the State of Florida and our agency that we end up with some of the greatest preservation I’ve ever seen but at the same time be able to have that,” Bergeron said. 

Few airboat operators currently in operation embody that culture, heritage, roots, and identity like the House family does. Most of the airboat companies have since been bought out, leaving very few run by longtime Gladesmen. 

Here is a bit of the House family history in House’s words, from a letter to SFWMD:

In 1865, my family moved into this area on what is now known as House Hammock Bay. Over time, they had acquired a good portion of what is now called Flamingo and Cape Sabal. In the 1940s, my great-grandfather Lloyd "Barrelhead" House taught Raymond Wooten how to build the airboats. Raymond at the time was running a small two-passenger frog boat doing tours off the side of US 41. 

Barrelhead built the first commercial airboat out of two sheets of plywood, a couple two-by-fours with a slant six motor and a sawed-off jet prop for fishing the Flamingo flats in 1947. 

In 1948, my great-grandfather Lloyd "Barrelhead" House was arrested in his Flamingo, Florida home, sitting in his easy chair because the federal government wanted to create the Everglades National Park. 

Seven of his homes and his fish house were burnt to the ground, and the land taken from him. Being forced out by the National Park, he settled back on House’s Mound only to be pushed out again. 

In 1967, when the National Park wanted to expand, they pressured him to leave House Hammock Mound, where he then settled in Everglades City. 

Later, in the 1980s, the Big Cypress National Preserve decided they wanted all the land we were running on, so I then moved out to Collier's land. 

In approximately 1991, I entered a lease agreement with Collier Enterprises Management for the property I ran on, which has been acquired by SFWMD. 

For approximately 34 years, I have protected and maintained the leased property while educating customers from all over the world about my family history, the Everglades, and its ecosystem, which is now being destroyed by the government. Do you see a pattern here?

SFWMD officials attempted to address the questions that House raised with this reporter. 

“The reason this affects only Mr. House and no other airboat operators in the area is because he is the only airboat operator who launches from public property. All of the other airboat operators launch from private property,” said Jill Margolius, a SFWMD communications director, in an email to the reporter. 

House’s property on U.S. 41 is also unique with its building and paths created over decades. Much of this would be impossible to recreate at a reasonable price today, House said. 

Some kayakers say they don’t really need the access at the expense of a multigenerational family business. 

“The SFWMD's buying Green Heart land for conservation is a positive step. However, the idea of turning an airboat business into public access, while potentially suitable for kayakers given the area's mangroves and coastal marshes ideal for paddling, as noted by the SFWMD, raises concerns about limiting commercial opportunities. Collier County already offers significant access for kayakers, canoers, and SUP paddlers,” said Dennis Vasey, a Naples resident and chairman of Marsh Paddlers and the Water Symposium of Florida, Inc. 

“A balanced approach that considers both conservation and the economic needs of the tourism sector is crucial for the long-term vitality of the Everglades region,” Vasey said.

Instead, Kaitlyn House, 19, lost the opportunity to continue the family business's legacy, she said. 

“My grandfather, great-grandfather, my dad, they had it. I was supposed to be the one coming next, but it’s not going to happen because of this,” she said, her bare feet taking some of their last steps outside the family shop in May. 

She had been on airboats since in her mother’s womb, she said. 

Even though she is not old enough to rent a car, Kaitlyn has her motorcycle license, captain’s license, and knows the Everglades better than most people know the back of their own hands. 

The flow of her knowledge of her family’s unique swath of Everglades may not move forward to visitors and future generations as easily, much the way the flow of the water of the area is limited by control. 

When checking the salinity that was leading to a recent fish kill, she gauged the specific water parameters precisely, not using a device, but by sticking her finger in the water and tasting it. The water is freakishly saline instead of fresh, she points out. 

Vasey’s salinity gauge confirms she’s right on the dot in her salinity estimations. 

The water flow controls, in combination with the drought, could contribute to an ecosystem disaster, the family warns.

But that’s another story. See the next edition.