The Good Ol’ Boys’ Hacienda
Red Crise’s Hacienda Village sounds like something out of a Hiaasen novel. It wasn’t. Slow Down. Pull Over. You’re in Hacienda Village. A deliciously fitting headline told the story for…
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John Dolen
72 posts
John Dolen writes for several Fort Lauderdale area publications. Previously, he was an editor and supervisor for 27 years at the Sun-Sentinel newspaper.
Ancient Snowbirds
The Tequestas, Southeast Florida’s first residents, were great fishermen who built a complex society – and got out of town every summer. It’s march, that time when all the snowbirds…
Major Lauderdale’s Fort
William Lauderdale beat the British, battled the Red-Stick Creeks and, in his final act, brought a battalion from the Smokies into the Southeast Florida swamps. William Lauderdale gave our city…
Up the Creek With a Bottle
Today it’s part of a family-friendly state park, but Whiskey Creek earned its name through a colorful history. In the 1920s, distilleries in England couldn’t believe their luck. Prohibition was…
Guns, Muck & Yellow Fever
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward was a gunrunner, sheriff, governor, and a man who held views both progressive and vile. We look at the county’s colorful namesake. In the 1880s, he ran…
Swamped With Offers
Buy property in the Everglades? In the early 20th century, many Northerners thought that sounded great. One of my first memories of Florida was formed decades ago on a road…
Shirttail Charlie, Myth & Man
Lurid details surround the legend of Shirttail Charlie, but the true story is a quieter, sadder tale. A letter written by Fort Lauderdale citizen August Burghard, dated Dec. 12, 1938,…
The Long Road to the Port
Local farmers demanded it, the 1926 hurricane postponed it, and President Coolidge forgot about it. But eventually, Fort Lauderdale got a port. President to open port bay mabel screamed the…
Mother Lauderdale
In our community issue, we dig into the life of the woman who was a kind of founding mother to our community. At age 19, Ivy Cromartie Stranahan became our…
Troubles, Then Triumph
Fort Lauderdale’s first Jews faced anti‑Semitism, infighting and the 1926 hurricane. They endured. You don’t need to look far to find hostility toward Jews in Fort Lauderdale’s history. The attitude…