Life and Death on the Loxahatchee

"Life and Death on the Loxahatchee" is both the story of a real-life "Tarzan" and the people who grew up with him along Florida's first wild and scenic river. Vince Nelson was unique, but also a symbol of all those who fished, trapped, ploughed and hammered out hardscrabble lives on the Jupiter-Tequesta riverfront in the days before it became golf courses and mega-mansions.

Born in 1908 as Vincent Nostokovich, Trapper Nelson settled on the Loxahatchee River in Martin County, Florida in the mid-1930s. Physically imposing at 6' 4" and 240 pounds, he lived by trapping, hunting, and fishing in what was then wild country. As the population of South Florida grew, he acquired extensive land holdings. He eventually developed a zoo on his property in the 1950s, and his camp and zoo became popular tourist attractions, where such celebrities as Gene Tunney and Gary Cooper visited. On a steamy July day in 1968, a friend found Trapper Nelson dead in his jungle paradise. His land was acquired by the state of Florida and is now part of Jonathan Dickinson State Park.