Tamiami Trail Blazer
Milton D. Thompson (1906–1977), Fort Myers, Florida was my grandmother Clarist’s second oldest brother. He was 17 years old when he signed on for the expedition to blaze the first road from his hometown of Ft. Myers to Miami across the Florida Everglades in April of 1923. A calculated 3-day trip took the blazers nearly 3-weeks to complete. The caravan paraded through the streets of Ft. Myers and was bid good luck by two of Ft. Myers most famous winter residents, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. Twenty-five men and 4 women set out on 10 vehicles consisting of a commissary truck, a tractor, 7 Ford Model T’s and an Elcar (made by the Pratt brothers in Elkhart, Indiana. The challenges of the cypress bogs, with their endless knees jutting up, the sawgrass, and the rough coral rock terrain resulted in two lost vehicles, lack of fresh water, and rations so low that they had to be supplemented by deer, turkey, frog legs, cabbage palms and cattail roots that their native Miccosukee guides were able to provide.
The Tamiami (Tampa to Miami) Trail was designed to link Tampa on the west coast of Florida to Miami on the east coast of Florida for the relatively new form of transportation, the automobile. Florida was in the midst of its first Construction Boom and the population increased in Florida from just under 1 million to nearly 1.5 million throughout the 1920s. Linking Tampa and Miami with Ft. Myers in the middle was vital to expanding growth in the state. The construction was begun in 1915 and by 1923 the Trail was completed from Tampa (starting at US 60), following the east side of Tampa Bay, through Riverview, Bradenton, Sarasota, Arcadia, Punta Gorda, through Ft. Myers and south to Naples. From Miami they had constructed 3.5 miles west from US1/Brickell Avenue on Southwest 8th Street what is now colloquially known as “Calle Ocho”. Unfortunately, funds to complete the final east-west link across the everglades were gone and much political wrangling was necessary to raise the funds to finish the project. The purpose of the Trail Blazers trip was to not only set the path but more importantly gin up support for completion of the Trail. Nearly every newspaper in the United States and some across the world covered the trek especially when the group failed to arrive as scheduled and speculation was that they had been captured and killed by natives or eaten by alligators.
With the finances secured construction of the final leg was begun. The project was finished and officially opened on April 26,1928 with a convoy of 500 vehicles traveling from Tampa to Miami. The Tamiami Trail was renamed US 41, (although it was originally named US 94, SR 90, SR 45, SR 27 and SR 5) at different sections of the road. The 284-mile highway was completed at a total cost of $8 million, which in today’s dollars would be almost $120 million. At that time the average speed of a Model T was 40-45 MPH, meaning that the trip would have taken 6.5 – 7 hours. That would be a tough sell today when a plane ride is up and down in 45 minutes from Tampa to Miami.
I can remember sitting in Uncle Milton house in Ft. Myers in the early 1970’s talking to him, Uncle George (the family historian) and my mom about his experiences constructing the highway through the everglades. Not only was he a Trail Blazer but he was also on the construction crew building the roadway. As one of only two remaining Trail Blazer survivors in 1974, he was invited to speak at the March 12 meeting of the Collier County Historical Society. He relayed that the engineers had to first rely on the trailblazers to mark the path of the road. The path was then surveyed and the grade established before large steam powered draglines were brought in to dig the adjoining canals which provided the base layer and helped with drainage of the roadway. When the draglines encountered coral rock, it was blasted with dynamite and it along with the soil and muck made up the base layer. The base layer was then compacted and covered with crushed limestone, rolled, and either asphalted or covered with oil saturated sand to cut down on road dust. As a kid I can remember traveling across the Trail from Miami to Ft. Myers and mom would pack Vienna sausages for a snack and Ed and I would count the alligators on the banks of the canal. Sometimes mom and dad would stop at one of the roadside “Indian” attractions and we could buy bows and arrows or tomahawks form the vendors.
Since the completion of I 75 across Alligator Alley in 1992 linking SW Florida with Ft. Lauderdale, and then turning south to join the Florida Turnpike, my use of the Tamiami Trail has diminished but maybe on my next trip to Miami I will pay homage to Uncle Milton and take it across the everglades. I might even stop at the remaining Miccosukee Indian Cultural Centers and take in an Alligator wrestling show. I haven’t seen one of those in 50 years!
Joseph P. Ludovici
August 1, 2025
I can remember sitting in Uncle Milton house in Ft. Myers in the early 1970’s talking to him, Uncle George (the family historian) and my mom about his experiences constructing the highway through the everglades. Not only was he a Trail Blazer but he was also on the construction crew building the roadway. As one of only two remaining Trail Blazer survivors in 1974, he was invited to speak at the March 12 meeting of the Collier County Historical Society. He relayed that the engineers had to first rely on the trailblazers to mark the path of the road. The path was then surveyed and the grade established before large steam powered draglines were brought in to dig the adjoining canals which provided the base layer and helped with drainage of the roadway. When the draglines encountered coral rock, it was blasted with dynamite and it along with the soil and muck made up the base layer. The base layer was then compacted and covered with crushed limestone, rolled, and either asphalted or covered with oil saturated sand to cut down on road dust. As a kid I can remember traveling across the Trail from Miami to Ft. Myers and mom would pack Vienna sausages for a snack and Ed and I would count the alligators on the banks of the canal. Sometimes mom and dad would stop at one of the roadside “Indian” attractions and we could buy bows and arrows or tomahawks form the vendors.
Since the completion of I 75 across Alligator Alley in 1992 linking SW Florida with Ft. Lauderdale, and then turning south to join the Florida Turnpike, my use of the Tamiami Trail has diminished but maybe on my next trip to Miami I will pay homage to Uncle Milton and take it across the everglades. I might even stop at the remaining Miccosukee Indian Cultural Centers and take in an Alligator wrestling show. I haven’t seen one of those in 50 years!
Joseph P. Ludovici
August 1, 2025 
