At the crossroads of Florida Street and the River of Grass lives Gerald Motes, a man who has called the Everglades his home for the past 12 years. Motes, who lives full-time in Old Glory, one of a small number of historical cabins built in the middle of the Everglades back in the 1950s, spent close to 10 years rebuilding the cabin after a lightning strike set it on fire in 2000.
“It’s a good thing it burned down,” laments Motes. “I hate to say it because it was a historical cabin, but it was so badly rotted.” It took him roughly 10 years to rebuild the new structure, as he spent weekends off from work transporting all of his supplies — including lumber and tools — to the camp entirely by airboat. “I bet I didn’t miss three weekends in 10 years out here,” he says with a laugh. “I did maybe as much as 80% of the work by myself.”
Old Glory is not the only historical cabin Motes owns. “East of here is Judge’s Camp,” he explains, pointing to a map of Water Conservation Area 2A, the section of the Everglades where he lives. “The people who had it weren’t able to take care of it. They held onto it until it rotted and then turned it over to the state. When I heard the state was going to remove it, I talked to them and they turned the lease over to me. I tore it down, rebuilt it, and now have a five-bedroom cabin over there.”
There are a total of 87 cabins in the Everglades registered with the state, with new building now prohibited.
Motes’ cabin has been featured in a number of movies and television shows, including “Swamp People,” “The Bachelor,” and “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.” With 20 beds, two couches, and two generators, Old Glory has the capacity to host quite a few guests.
Despite its remote location, the cabin has modern amenities including air conditioning, an indoor toilet, shower, and wireless internet. “We’ve got satellite dishes out here. Heck, I’ve even got TV,” jokes Motes, who uses his internet connection to post regular updates on his Facebook page under the handle “@OldGloryCamp.” Motes writes about weather conditions, visitors to his camp, what he’s up to for the day, and sometimes what he’s cooking — recently gator tongue after hosting a teen alligator hunt.
While Motes eats off the land some of the time, cooking up fish, and sometimes frogs, he estimates that about 90% of his food comes from the grocery store. Supply runs were one of the many adjustments that he made in moving out there full-time.
The first was mindset. “The adjustment is to let your world calm down,” reflects Motes. “Slow down. That’s the biggest thing.” And while he enjoys slowing down, there are always things that need attending to at Old Glory.
“Gasoline is my biggest challenge,” notes Motes. “I’ve been having to go into town twice a week for gasoline.” On recent trips, Motes has needed more than 180 gallons of gas at a time in order to fuel his booming airboat tour business. Because all of his supplies are transported via airboat, he collects the gas in five-gallon containers.
In addition to tours, Motes runs a rescue service as well. “I do a tremendous amount of recovery out here. Sunk boats. Turned-over boats. Wrecked boats,” he says.
Other challenges that Motes highlighted were repairs and keeping his boats running. “Fortunately, I’m able to order parts online now and Sawgrass Recreation Park will accept my packages and hold them for me. I drove for them for years and we’ve gotten to be very good friends.” The park is also where he keeps his truck.
Maintaining the property comes with its own set of demands, and Motes is the first to admit that he needs help. He’s constantly pulling back vines so they don’t overrun the manmade island his home sits on, and making structural repairs. “I’ve got tons of dock work and stuff that needs to be looked at before it gets too bad,” he says.
“I made a mistake in the beginning because it was just the way it was done back then, and I put telephone poles underneath the building,” explains Motes. “They’re gonna rot out. I need to go down and start replacing some of them and it needs to be done when the water is down. Once it goes down, I might only have a week.”
The water level where Motes lives can fluctuate by up to three feet, meaning at times, a large percentage of his lawn is underwater. The fluctuation depends on when flood water is released from other areas, such as Lake Okeechobee, which is all a part of the water management system in place in the Everglades.
“Water management is a miserable failure at trying to compete with Mother Nature. And I wouldn’t have her job for nothing in the world,” emphasizes Motes.
As we cross the wooden bridge that leads to an outdoor shower and bathtub, Motes stops to explain some of the plants growing beneath the platform, pointing toward a leafy green one. “It’s called a mallow plant and it grows in marshy areas. The derivative of the root of that plant was used to make the original marshmallow that we know of today. That’s the marshmallow plant.”
Extremely knowledgeable about the plant and animal life in the Everglades, Motes easily explains which species are natural and which are invasive.
For more information on Motes, to schedule an airboat tour, visit Old Glory, or even offer help, check out the Old Glory Facebook page or www.evergladesairboatexcursions.com.