A caring if rather meticulously researched account (but then this
is in the "Rivers of America" series) of the author's love affair
with the Tampa Bay region on Florida's gulf coast. This history cum
autobiographical reminiscence covers everything from geographical
formation to Ponce de Leon's dog Bexerillo - from the original
settlers to the doomed de Soto, the acquisition by Britain, then
America, colonization and the inhumanities of Jackson's Seminole
War against the heroic Osceola, the Civil War depression and Henry
Plant's dream and railroads and hotels and the cigar industry
(along with the first Cuban revolutionaries), plodding on up
through Italian immigrants, roaring '20's "Tin-Can" tourists (who
brought their winter meals with them) to the banana and fishing
industries to the oil spills and pollution that now threaten the
bay. There is even a spirited defense of Sunshine State culture -
from composer Jaromir Weinberger (?) to onetime resident Jack
Kerouac, but the heart of the book is in the change from wilderness
to civilization to nobody knows quite what: airport? Everglades?
Hillsborough River? or the dying of America's. Dream, or perhaps
America itself? (Kirkus Reviews)
"A beautifully written informal account of the Tampa Bay
region."--Library Journal "A colorful history of Tampa Bay, the
Hillsborough River which flows into it, and the cities of Tampa and
St. Petersburg, together with their smaller satellite
communities."-- Publishers Weekly From its idyllic source in the
Green Swamp, the Hillsborough River winds past columns of cypress
and matted shrubs and opens into Tampa Bay, part of Florida's
urbanized, publicized western Suncoast. The river is not a long
one, but the size of its legend in contemporary America is
far-reaching. Many factors have made the area special: its natural
history; its successive waves of immigrants; its wars, booms, and
depressions. The cigar industry, banana exporting, cattle raising,
fishing, and retirement have attracted many settlers in search of
the "Golden Ibis." All too often the vision has proved elusive, but
for some, like Henry Plant and Doc Webb, the spectacular was
possible. For others, like the Seminoles, a way of life ended. In a
narrative that is as exciting to read as it is historically
compelling, Gloria Jahoda traces the Hillsborough River's origin to
prehistoric times, chronicles the arrivals of the conquistadores,
the missionaries, and the marauders greedy for civilizing and for
treasure, and points out how 20th-century ambitions threaten to
destroy the environment as surely as earlier encroachment
annihilated native peoples. Gloria Jahoda, who lived in
Tallahassee, Florida, was the author of The Other Florida, The Road
to Samarkand, and the novels Annie and Delilah's Mountain. She died
in 1980. River of the Golden Ibis was originally published in 1973.
General
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