Smallwood Store Celebrates Stilts Centennial

It was billed as a weekend of celebrating 100 years of the Smallwood Store on stilts. It was that and so much more on Friday and Saturday, January 23-24, in Chokoloskee, just outside of Everglades City. The celebration included a community showing of the new documentary, Outlaws of the Everglades, authentic Native American food, a live en plein air painting of the iconic landmark by renowned local artist Paul Arsenault, top-notch live country music, and more kindness than anyone could ever expect.

A lot of the kindness came compliments of the three Native American tribes who were a central component of the event: members of the Miccosukee, Seminole, and Independent Tribes.

Lynn McMillin, granddaughter of the historic store’s namesake, Ted Smallwood, was emphatic in her insistence that her Native American friends were front and center at the event.

“I think the significance of the celebration is that they had a close relationship with my grandfather,” McMillin said. “I grew up with them and went to school with them.”

One of the highlights of the centennial celebration was the delicious food—especially the Indian hamburger, a ground beef creation wrapped in Indian fry bread, then deep fried. There were also a number of booths being operated by the various Tribes. It was impossible to be less than impressed by the genuine kindness shown by everyone involved in the weekend celebration.

A special bonus was the community showing of the new documentary about the famous marijuana smuggling operation that put Everglades City and Chokoloskee under a national spotlight in the 1980s. The Centennial Celebration marks only the second showing of the documentary, which appears destined for bigger and better things.

“We had our world premiere at the Key West Film Festival on November 16,” said Rob Hoovis, director of the film. "We had 200 people in the hall. It was packed, and it was a great response. So, this is actually the second showing. We have some other film festivals down the road, some small, hopefully some big."

Surprisingly, it is Hoovis’ feature length filmmaking debut.

“The funny thing is, I have never made a film before,” Hoovis said. “Not like this. I've made short films and things like that. But I'd never done anything like this. And I don't like anything that I do. I'm hard on myself as far as being a critic. I do like how it turned out, and so that's rare for me. And we've had a very good response.”

Thomas Lockyear, manager of Museum of the Everglades and a former film student, was effusive in his praise of the documentary.

"I thought it was phenomenal,” Lockyear gushed. “We get people walking into the museum all the time asking about the story. I've been the manager of the museum for nine years now. So, I speak 100 percent as an outsider. I’ve learned as much as I can about it because it's a huge part of the history. But to get a bunch of these surviving people who were instrumental in the whole operation here, telling their version of the story and telling it completely, and in many ways, humbly. To hear Darrell Daniels talking about how he doesn't feel proud of what he did, but he's proud of the fact that he did a great job at doing it. It's what everybody needs as far as the definitive story of what Operation Everglades was, what the drug smuggling business was. But the other thing for me, it shows that it was more complicated than it's usually put forward. The director shows one after another the changes in the commercial fishing industry in 1951, the national park boundary in 1947, and then going up through the 1970s. It keeps changing. It’s like these guys are literally trying to make a living and put food on the table. The noose is tightening. But to throw it up there and say, okay, this is the actual legislation that occurred, it's not just opinion. It literally happened. And to watch it in a video, it shows you what they're talking about. I think that it's going to resonate with a lot of people. I think that a lot of people are interested in the story. I know they are from working at the museum and hearing people that want to know about it. And it'll be wonderful when it’s available commercially so I can say, ‘Oh, you need to go watch this film.’”

Lockyear sees the film being picked up by the big boys.

“It should be something that's showing on the History Channel or something like that,” he said. "Absolutely. It's professional quality. You know, the production value is incredible. When I say a film is phenomenal, I'm talking about all aspects of it, from the technical standpoint to the production standpoint. Everything is so beautiful.”

Kent Daniels, the star of the documentary, was on hand to sign autographs and regale attendees with his seemingly bottomless wellspring of stories. He’s proud of the job his rookie director did.

“He was nervous about it,” Daniels said. “But I think he did a great job.”

Besides interviewing many of the key players in the smuggling ring, Hoovis brought in now-famous author Carl Hiaasen, who covered Operation Everglades in the early 1980s as an investigative reporter for the Miami Herald.

"That was a boon,” Hoover said of bringing Hiaasen onboard. "Yeah, absolutely. Our producer said that he heard that he was down here during the Operation Everglades. And so we hired a researcher, Barbara Linstrom, and we said, ‘Can you get Carl Hiaasen?' And she got him. She just tried and tried and emailed his website, and somebody responded. We went to his house. He was the sweetest guy in the world. There was nobody there. He asked if he could help us bring our equipment in. It was very cool.”

Tucked away adjacent to the food tent sat perhaps Southwest Florida’s most famous artist, Paul Arsenault, who was putting the finishing touches on an en plein air painting of the Smallwood Store. He even enlisted a few of the Native American children in attendance, in their colorful dresses, as models. Arsenault autographed copies of his new book, An Artful History of Naples and Collier County, for thrilled fans. Arsenault has spent over 50 years painting Southwest Florida’s disappearing landmarks since he settled here in 1974.

To top things off, the Jake Hair band, from Okeechobee, took the stage performing country music hits. Hair, who resembles George Strait, delivered the goods wearing his cowboy hat and playing his red Fender Telecaster.

All in all, it was a wonderful event at one of the most historic sites in Southwest Florida.

“It's a local landmark,” Lockyear said, "and I always tell people they should visit here. There's not a lot of old Florida like this left. I think that it's incredibly important, not just as a landmark, but as a place where local history and heritage are collected and shared. So, I love it. It's certainly more than equal to Museum of the Everglades in its importance in preserving the local history."

Looking back on this weekend’s festivities, one is left with one burning question: Perhaps this should become an annual event?