Florida Outlaws
In Prohibition-era Florida and before, you didn’t want to get on the wrong side of John Ashley and Laura Upthegrove. Move over Bonnie and Clyde. Two decades before your crime…
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John Dolen
107 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.
“A Post of Annoyance”
Long before snowbirds, Florida still attracted all sorts of folks. It’s generally known that the Tequesta were the original inhabitants of South Florida. Tribal artifacts from New River settlements date…
General Interest
Today, Broward Health is one of the nation’s largest health systems. That might have been hard to imagine for the people who originally opened a humble hospital in a repurposed…
A People Divided
In early Fort Lauderdale, there was no enforced racial segregation. It was only when the town grew and tourism dollars began to flow that that moral stain of the south…
Shipwrecks, Mega-yachts and a Busted Flush
Bahia Mar’s colorful history includes refuge for shipwrecked sailors, a base for rumrunner-fighting Coast Guard patrols and the “home” of Fort Lauderdale’s famous fictional detective. No less a writer than…
Lights, Camera, New River
Long before Where the Boys Are, Hollywood giant D.W. Griffith gave Fort Lauderdale its first taste of the movies. You’ve probably seen some of the films shot in Fort Lauderdale…
Sky Pioneer
Adventuring businessman Joseph C. Mackey’s air travel legacy is still felt today in Fort Lauderdale. Joseph C. Mackey, an early pioneer in aviation and founder of Fort Lauderdale’s first air…
His Name Was Rubin Stacy
A new national memorial includes a tribute to the victim of one of the darkest days in Fort Lauderdale history. * Editor’s note: This column contains descriptions of a lynching.…
The First Party Boat
Long before the first dinner cruise or water taxi, two sons of 19th-century high society arrived on the New River in style, and with friends. River before the turn of…
The Miccosukees’ Men in Havana
As the story goes, when the Miccosukees needed help convincing the Federal government they were a tribe distinct from the Seminoles, they got help from an unlikely source. When the…