preserving bullfrog creek and history

Jeanie Ekker Johnson sends out weekly digital “bouquets” to a lucky group of folks on one of her e-mail lists.

Sometime the photos are actually of flowers. More often they feature some of the wild creatures – this week’s stars are an osprey and a turtle – that share Johnson’s little slice of heaven, the Ekker Preserve on Bullfrog Creek. The land was once owned by her family. Now it’s part of the Hillsborough County Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program (ELAPP).

But while Johnson has a great appreciation for Mother Nature’s gifts, she’s also fascinated by the history of some of the small communities that grew up along U.S. 41, south of Riverview, in the late 1800s and early in the 20th Century.

Her mom, Marie T. Ekker, was from one of the area’s founding families and loved local and family history. She did a lot of research as a hobby and got Johnson started in the 1990s. After Marie Ekker died in 1999, Johnson began rooting around on her own.

The results is Swamp Cabbage, an informal group of local people who’ve been around awhile, who are helping Johnson gather the history of Adamsville, Gardenville and Gibsonton, a fascinating area once touted by a developer as “Florida Garden Lands.”

An April story in the Observer News by Melody Jameson reports:

“Before there was what now is known locally as “Gibtown,” before any semblance of the Tamiami Trail, before phosphate processing plants at the mouth of the Alafia, there was white sand beach where the Roosevelt River met Tampa Bay, cozy waterfront cabins along the shoreline, spontaneous geyser-like water gushers offering limitless supply, an open-air dance pavilion quite literally over Tampa Bay, and more.

“These were just some of the amenities that W.D. Davis, president and treasurer of the Davis Mercantile Company in Tampa, promised all comers to the eastern shore of Upper Tampa Bay in 1910. He subdivided, he built and they came.”

Johnson would love anyone with stories about those early settlers to join Swamp Cabbage. She is recording many of the reminiscences for later transcription.

She’s also interested in artifacts from the era and is cataloging those that come her way.

A well bucket from an 1898 cabin on Bullfrog Creek is one recent find; another a 1926 Florida vehicle tag. An old Giant’s Fishing Camp bumper sticker has also been donated.

One day, Johnson hopes to compile a book of the oral histories. They tell stories of the past with more texture, personality and passion than third-party tomes, says Johnson.

If you have anything to contribute, or a just interested in the history of the area, join the group.

Meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month beginning at 9:30 a.m. at 11002 Ekker Rd., Gibsonton. The meetings are handicap accessible. For more information or to join one of Johnson’s e-mail lists, call her at (813) 671-3693.