Miami’s Yester’ Years and Its Forgotten Founder, Locke Tiffin Highleyman begins by looking at Florida’s past as a state, then turning the focus to southern Florida and the development of Miami. In 1904, Locke Highleyman traveled to Miami and saw its potential. In 1911, he moved his family there to settle and help develop the area creating the first dredged islands in Biscayne Bay. To do this, Locke T. Highleyman first sucked up enough mud to fill Point View. In the beginning, he was considered crazy. But Point View turned a profit. He then began pumping up bay bottom to build Palm and Hibiscus islands. Everyone still said he was daft, but doubts began to creep in when all the lots were sold before they were even there. By the early ‘20s, the new Biscayne Bay was offering gracious, tropical island lots for the wealthy. Taking a wilderness and turning it into a site of Paradise, this is the story of an era, an area and a vision of Miami and its forgotten founder, Locke Tiffin Highleyman.
As this reader began this book, it became apparent this was going to be a part of American history I had never heard of.
The author did a remarkable job researching this very important topic. It seems as though every detail was uncovered and its correlation to the building of Miami uncovered. It is quite the story with its many monies families involved.
For anyone who enjoys reading the history of the United States -- and especially Florida -- this is a book to add to your reading list. I would hope that this book is found in every classroom in Florida.
No surprise here that once again, Pat Daly-Lipc has written a grand book. The author of nine other books, she is well-known and respected for her excellence in writing and knowledge of Nature, history and biographies. Her authorship ranges from fiction to non-fiction and poetry with ease and professional ism.
Her latest book takes us into the very beginnings of Miami. Florida and the vision or her grandfather, Locke Tiffin Highlcyman to dredge, fill, and reclaim for development, portions of Biscayne Bay. This is an intriguing journey into the history of one of the most high-profile regions in this country. The author presents a detailed and fascinating view not only of the times (early 1900s onward) but of the land on which Miami was built and the people involved their own lives, their families, each with their own story.
Reading Miami's Yester'Years is going back in time: one becomes so immersed in the narrative and the people it's like being there in three dimensions. The old photographs add a uniqueness and while some are grainy with age, most are quite clear.
Our country as a whole has been through many challenges. No one needs reminding of this. Miami's Tester 'Years puts a magnifier on one (relatively) small portion of this entire continent, Miami, and shows us how that one arca of this vast country showed determination, foresight, and ingenuity to become what it is today.
