PERDIDO WHAT? PERDIDO KEY?

Oh.... Well, I remember when...

By Baker Holman

Continued (4)

Flounders were plentiful. Since floundering is best at night and modern lanterns didn't exist, fishermen, ever resourceful, constructed a device projecting from the bow of the boat to hold pine knots. When lit, these pine knots gave enough light to see the shape of a flounder on the sand bottom, with eyes protruding, waiting for an unsuspecting prey. Flounder fishermen could easily gig enough fish in one night to feed several families.

Succulent oysters from upper Perdido Bay also graced dining room tables. Seafood from Perdido Bay and the Gulf was a significant staple diet for the residents.

Once Perdido Bay had an estimated 300 natural springs bubbling up from the sandy bottom. There were so many around the Lillian bridge that when construction on the high-rise bridge began, bridge engineers were appalled to see pilings sinking down below the surface, following the soft course of a natural spring. They had their work cut out to build cofferdams to shore up the pilings and prevent them from sinking.

Ono Island. Old River. A River? Well, yes, once maybe. I don't know how the name "Ono Island" originated, but it began in the last few decades, just as "Perdido Key" did. The natural course of the Perdido River may have flowed here at one time. Then the river changed its course to go around the western end of Ono Island, leaving Old River to become more like a lagoon than a flowing river.

In the twenties a few wild goats and lots of wild hogs inhabited Ono Island. People took their hogs to the island to let them graze. The hogs served a useful purpose. Hogs will eat rattlesnakes, which, along with coons, were all over the island. If a rattler struck a hog it was usually on the muzzle, or snout, and a wild hog's muzzle is too tough for a snake's fangs to penetrate. Of course, if the rattler struck some place other than the muzzle, then the rattler ate the hog (grin).

When it was time to market the pigs, the owners of the hogs would take a boat carrying a large cage over to the Island, to catch the pigs and take them to town. The hogs were so wild that occasionally men had to shoot the hogs to protect themselves. In later years, while walking Ono's beaches, I could sometimes hear a goat bleating, or a hog rooting and thrashing in the underbrush, but I never really saw one.

Ono Island was once known as "George Kee's Island," and also known as "Goat Island." George Ray Kee built the only house on the island, at the eastern end near Rabbit Island. He brought in more goats, allowed them to roam free, until there were an estimated 2,000 goats on the island plus the wild hogs that Kee allowed anyone to shoot for food. Property rights for the island were apparently not yet well established, and ultimately George Kee had to leave and lost possession of the land he had occupied.