Courtesy Marco Island Historical Society
Bud Kirk.
Courtesy Marco Island Historical Society
Bud Kirk fishing near Goodland. “He always came back to fishing.”
Courtesy Marco Island Historical Society
Bud Kirk with fishing net. “He always came back to fishing.”
Courtesy Marco Island Historical Society
Bud Kirk’s father Arthur Garfield Kirk celebrating his 94th birthday at Kappy and Bud Kirk’s home in Goodland.
Fast facts
Arthur Perry “Bud” Kirk, the “shoeless scholar”
Born Aug. 25, 1911, died July 13 1997
From Betsy Perdichizzi’s book Island Voices
Over the years many reporters have written feature articles about Bud Kirk, the “shoeless scholar of the Everglades.” Bud left school after the eighth grade in Rochester, N.Y. It was 1930 and the Depression was on. He was 19, weary of trying to find factory work and he came to the wilderness of Florida.
“I was a little sour on some things,” said Bud. “I was tired of conformity, and wanted a breath of fresh air in my life.”
Bud plunged alone into the heart of the Everglades and lived there alone for more than five years.
“I learned to live off the land … a thing any many can do if he is put to it,” he said.
Bud emerged from time to time only to sell skins of coons and alligators he trapped. As the months and years passed, Bud’s anger against civilization ebbed; his fascinations with the world of nature around him grew stronger. In time, he became a self-taught authority on all the varied life of the Everglades. He knew where to find the hidden birds, the rare flower, places where the elder Indians had buried their dead, long ago. University scientist often came to him for help; he was the man with the answers.
When asked what was the greatest thing he had leaned from his solitary sojourn in the water wilderness, he said with out hesitation, “ a degree of tolerance.”
Bud married Katherine “Kappy” Stephens on Feb. 23, 1941. Bud worked at many things over the years: Audubon warden, fishing, running a little store, post master and managing the clam factory for awhile. Whatever he did, he always came back to fishing.
They rented a house from Collier Company in Caxambas. The rent was50 cents a month. In 1949, the Collier Company wanted to clear the little houses from Caxambas in order to develop the area. The Company gave the houses to renter if they in turn bought a company-owned-lot in Goodland with no money down, reasonable rates and three years to pay.
Bud and Kappy bought a lot in Goodland and became instant homeowners in the “Great House Move” summer of 1949. Eighteen buildings were moved overland from Caxambas to Goodland on a truck from Fort Myers.
The house was their home for more than half a century. His widow Kappy still lives there.
Marco Island points of interest
- Marco Island — formerly Collier City 1923 to 1942
For information:
1. Chamber of Commerce
2. Key Marco Museum in lobby of Marco Island Realtors 140 Waterway Drive
3. Museum in Old Marco, 168 Royal Palm Drive in Old Marco
4. Marco Island Historical Society Museum under construction, located at 1264 Mistletoe Court, to open February 2010.
Three villages established in 1870’s:
- Marco Village, recent-day Old Marco
1. Location of the 1896 Pepper-Hearst Expedition.
2. Old Marco Inn, 1895 to present. Historical Markers for ferry landing and Marco school.
3. Site of Doxsee Clam Factory4.
4. Museum in Old Marco, 168 Royal Palm Drive.
n Caxambas Village, present day Estates area.
1. Otter Mound Park (Indian mound). Site of old village.
2. Historical marker for the Burnham Clam Factory
3. Indian Hill (a dune ridge at 52 feet, highest point in southwest Florida) was the site of the Heights Hotel owned by Jim and Tommie Barfield.
n Goodland Point. Historic fishing village and present-day Goodland.
1. Historic winding road entrance. Harry Pettit constructed this road with a wheel barrow and connected tops of shell mounds.
2. Deaconess Bedell, missionary to the Everglades mission. The old building is there but not open to the public.
3. Stan’s Idle Hour restaurant. Open air concert every Sunday. People come by boat, car and scooter to enjoy the food, drink and entertainment.
Marion Nicolay and Betsy Perdichizzi of the Marco Island Historical Society are compiling this report on a weekly basis for the Eagle. Shirley Beckwith oversees the archiving of photos for MIHS.
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