A. Recent research by one of our members has uncovered a great deal of information about Burt Pruitt and the Fishin' Farm. Click here to read an article from the Spring 2015 edition of Port St. Lucie magazine, published by Indian River Magazine Inc.
This seems to loom large in many memories of very early residents and locals. We have only sketchy information and would like to be able to have a nice package of photos and stories to share about this pre-GDC landmark. It was located along the south side of the North Fork of the St. Lucie River, between Port St. Lucie and Morningside boulevards, near the Sandpiper Bay Resorts Wilderness Golf Course (now the Tesero development. The wide dirt path leading to it was known as Cane Slough Road.
It is remembered as place of epic card games, snakes hanging from trees over the river, fantastic snook fishing, wild turkeys, a variety of wildlife and "old man Pruitt's pet," a 5-foot alligator. A long-time St. Lucie resident recalls, "He would get out a couple of mullet and whistle that gator up. He came right up the bank and picked the fish from the ground."
According the the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission, the area was a wildlife refuge protecting "Florida wildlife as it was when the great chiefs Micanopy and Osceola camped, hunted and fished by the shores of the great St. Lucie River."
-- PSL Historical Society volunteer (Have any information or photos on Pruitt's Fish Camp? Please contact us)