"Life and Death on the Loxahatchee" is both the story of a real-life Tarzan and the people who grew up with him along Florida s first wild and scenic river. Vince Nelson was unique, but also a symbol of all those who fished, trapped, ploughed and hammered out hardscrabble lives on the Jupiter-Tequesta riverfront in the days before it became golf courses and mega-mansions. Who was Trapper Nelson? He was born in 1908, the sickly son of a landless Polish peasant. Over the next sixty years he would wrest from the wilderness ...
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"Life and Death on the Loxahatchee" is both the story of a real-life Tarzan and the people who grew up with him along Florida s first wild and scenic river. Vince Nelson was unique, but also a symbol of all those who fished, trapped, ploughed and hammered out hardscrabble lives on the Jupiter-Tequesta riverfront in the days before it became golf courses and mega-mansions. Who was Trapper Nelson? He was born in 1908, the sickly son of a landless Polish peasant. Over the next sixty years he would wrest from the wilderness eleven hundred acres along Florida s most breathtaking jungle river. Along his life s journey Nelson became the Legend of the Loxahatchee, with as many faces as the people who thought they knew him. Hobo, trapper, hunter, alligator wrestler, gambler, celebrity host, charmer of snakes and women alike, this modern Tarzan s life ended as mysteriously as he had lived it. On a steamy July day in 1968, a friend found Trapper Nelson dead in his jungle paradise, his torso torn open by a shotgun blast. Many people had a motive. So did Trapper himself. Draw your own conclusions as you read interviews with his family, friends, and those who insist that his spirit still roams the old campsite."
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Now living in San Antonio, Texas I was thrilled to come across this book about Trapper Nelson and life in early Jupiter, Florida where I grew up. My family moved to the unspoiled beauty of Jupiter in the late 1960's and growing up I had always heard about the mythic character of Trapper Nelson, our very own Tarzan and the mystery surrounding his death. Now, thanks to Mr. Snyder I finally know the whole story. He has done a great job separating fact from fiction and weaving a most enjoyable tale.
I can remember as a young boy, building rope swings, boating, waterskiing and canoeing up the North Fork of the Loxahatchee River where he lived, trespassing into Camp Murphy to look for discarded ammunition at "Bullett Hill" and swimming with local dolphins. It was always an adventure and the ghost of Trapper Nelson was always just around the corner. Thanks to this book I was able to relive some of those great memories of my own life on the Loxahatchee.
I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in unsolved mysteries (It would make a great movie) and life in a Florida now long gone.