We are now publishing a reader's comment section near the bottom of this site.  Visitors may submit their comments as an email to the Webmaster at the address provided near the bottom of the page.  Some editing may be required.  Personal memories of your visit to the Everglades Wonder Gardens, or perhaps your interaction with the Piper brothers, in the years between 1945 and 1985, are welcome.

A souvenir pennant from the Everglades Reptile Gardens, circa 1946.

A souvenir pennant from the Everglades Wonder Gardens, circa 1952.

A souvenir water transfer decal, circa 1950.

A souvenir water transfer decal, circa 1958.

A souvenir pennant from the Everglades Wonder Gardens, circa 1954.  All four of the above items were sold in the Gardens' Gift Shop.

One of the billboards at the entrance of Everglades Wonder Gardens, circa 1950.  The sign would later be modified and became red with white letters and graphics for more impact to motorists.

The Fifties

Created, Designed, and Edited by Charles LeBuff

INTRODUCTION

FOR SEVENTY-THREE YEARS, the Everglades Wonder Gardens, the premier wildlife and botanical showplace of southwest Florida, has been a popular attraction to visitors and regional residents. This web page presents a short history of the Gardens as well as a brief biography of the Gardens' founding brothers, Bill and Lester Piper. This web page's content is primarily based on conversations with former Wonder Gardens employees. Their dialogue, all part of the saga and the exciting workplace that existed at the Everglades Wonder Gardens during the 1950s, presents the viewing reader with interesting and factual material. This was a special time, an era before the region's decline — before Southwest Florida was ruined by developers and crushed by an ever-expanding human population. The Fifties was the decade when the Everglades Wonder Gardens was at its peak in both business volume and exhibition of its native wildlife.  At the same time, the fascinating Piper brothers were in their prime.  Join those of us who were part of those times as we pay tribute to these remarkable men.

      This web page is not affiliated with the Everglades Wonder Gardens, nor does it receive any compensation from the attraction.  At the very bottom of this page you will find current information on the Gardens, i.e., admission cost, hours of operation, location, and telephone number to contact their management.

     You will find four unique video clips on this page.  It's suggested you read the text adjacent to each player first.  This will give the videos time to load and become operable, and you'll better understand the content of the clip before viewing it.  For best results you need a broadband connection.  Be sure your volume is turned up.

    This page's content is being periodically upgraded.  Therefore, I recommend that readers do not save the page as a favorite, but come in fresh from time to time.  

— Charles LeBuff   

Aerial view of the Everglades Wonder Gardens, circa 1959.  To the left is the Imperial River and U.S. 41 is in the foreground.  Bill Piper's residence is in the top, right-hand corner.

Lester Piper with most of his Guides from the Fifties

(L-R) George Weymouth, Charles LeBuff, Lester Piper, Ralph Curtis, & Warren Boutchia, circa 1982.

Bill Piper and his huge male Florida black bear, "Tom."  Tom played "Old Slewfoot" in the 1946 motion picture The Yearling.  Tom was by no means tame.  Here he is drinking Pepsi Cola from a nipple-fitted Pepsi bottle.  This was one of the bear's favorite beverages.  Tom learned that as he neared emptying the bottle if he bit the nipple off he could drain the container.  Bill caught on to this trick and on one last occasion he pulled the bottle away just before Tom drained it.  This enraged the bear and Tom promptly attacked and grabbed Bill with claws and teeth.  Fortunately, after knocking Bill to the ground, Tom seemed to lose interest and returned to his cage.  Bleeding profusely, Bill managed to get to his feet and open the cage door, and only then sought medical help.  It took 27 stitches to repair Bill's throat and shoulders. This image is from an old post card in the collection of Ralph Curtis.

In the Beginning . . .

        In the middle of the 20th Century, before the coming of today’s mega resorts/tourist destinations like Bush Gardens, Sea World, and Disney World, a variety of small tourist attractions were scattered through the Florida peninsula. Northern visitors poured into the state each winter and were hungry for information on Florida and its wild creatures. They would find no well-established publicly owned zoological gardens outside of Jacksonville and Sanford and no real botanical gardens outside of Miami. To fill the void, "roadside zoos" sprang up along major highways in Florida.  Places like the popular Ross Allen’s Reptile Institute at Silver Springs,  Florida Reptile Land on U. S. 301 southwest of Jacksonville near Lawtey, the Saint Petersburg Alligator Farm, the Sarasota Reptile Farm and Zoo, and other similar wildlife-oriented attractions are now dim memories or have been completely forgotten.  Others, like ‘Gatorland in Kissimmee, survived because of their proximity to the new wave of centralized attractions.  Most of the small, family-owned attractions have been closed because of competition, traffic rerouting to new major highways,  or bureaucratic over-regulation.

    In 1932, on their second visit to Florida as adults, two brothers of German-American genealogy found Bonita Springs, then a quiet hamlet in southern Lee County, Florida.  Both men were born in Lancaster, Ohio.  Wilford (Bill) James Piper was born on January 8, 1900 and Lester Thomas Piper on December 13, 1902.  

The Piper children at Largo, Florida, in 1910.  L-R — Wilford, Lester, and Anna May.  Photo courtesy of Anna Mackereth.

    Before they were teenagers, the brothers traveled to St. Petersburg and Miami, Florida, with family and became enchanted with the state’s environment and wildlife.  At 16-years of age, Bill enlisted in the U. S. Naval Reserve and went on active duty after the start of World War I.  He served in France.  After the war, Bill drifted to Alaska and worked in the commercial fishing industry there, and he even found work as a cowboy while out west.  The latter must have been the origins of his later interest in cattle and horses.  When he returned home without any real career prospects Bill was reactivated into the Navy for a four-year stint.  On his second hitch he served aboard the USS Yantic, in 1924.  When he left  school too early, Lester’s career kicked-off in a shipyard, and later he moved to the automotive industry.  

    With the advent of The Noble Experiment (Prohibition, 1920-33) the Piper brothers made a career change, in 1928, and became very successful boatmen on the Detroit River.  They discreetly ferried contraband liquid cargo aboard their motor vessel, Neptune, from across the Canadian border where it eventually reached alcohol-thirsty Americans.  Over time, despite the Great Depression, this lucrative enterprise allowed them to amass what they considered to be a fortune.  By 1931, big-time organized crime had taken over the independent alcohol importing enterprises in Michigan, and gang-related killings increased.  Independent operators, like the Pipers who had collectively become known as the "Shipyards Gang" around Detroit and Wyandotte, saw the light and got out of the business at about that time.  Those that didn't clashed with the mobster kingpins and many ended up dead.

Click the images below to enlarge them. 

Left — The Neptune on her trial run, circa 1928.  Right — The Neptune at port, 1930.  Photos courtesy of Anna Mackereth.

    With cash reserves Bill and Lester returned to Florida and looked for somewhere and something in which to wisely invest some of their money.  They purchased a parcel of land on the northern banks of the Imperial River, in downtown Bonita Springs. Over the next twenty years the Piper brothers’ landholdings would expand until they owned a total of twenty-three sections (twenty-three square miles) of wild lands in Lee and Collier Counties.  (Editor's note: Compared to current prices for real estate near Bonita Springs land was reasonable, i.e., in 1950 the Piper's paid $8,722.40 for two sections —  1,280 acres @ $6.81 per acre.)  Bill and Lester convinced themselves and their neighbors that they were indeed retired, but at the same time they began to realize there were things in life other than fishing if they were to enjoy a retiree’s life of leisure.  So, as a hobby, they started to spend their time collecting specimens of the Everglades region's wildlife.

    In a 1959 interview, published in the Bonita Banner, Bill Piper is quoted, "We considered ourselves as retired and figured we could put in a few cages of animals, and charge tourists to see them, while we spent all day hunting and fishing and occasionally bringing in a few new animals.  That is the silliest thought I ever had.  We have had a 12 hour - seven day a week job ever since."

   Earlier, Bill had befriended E. Ross Allen (1908-1981) who operated Ross Allen's Reptile Institute, at the popular Silver Springs attraction near Ocala, Florida.  Allen had founded the Institute in 1929.  In 1931, he and Bill Piper formed a partnership, bought 40 acres of land, and opened an "alligator farm" east of Silver Springs. They each invested $1,626.53 between April 1935 and November 1936, but this was not successful and the partnership ended.  In 1935, Lester got the idea of going into business and they started developing a wildlife exhibition on their riverfront land in Bonita Springs.  T There is no known paper trail that reveals any initial financial contribution by Bill's brother, Lester Piper.  It's more in keeping with Lester's character that he offered a lifetime's commitment of labor and sweat to launch the enterprise.  If this is an accurate assessment, Lester went on to fulfill that agreement, but later he would sometimes complain about his overwhelming responsibilities to friends in his close circle.  

Ross Allen, circa 1952, "milking" a large eastern diamondback rattlesnake at his popular Reptile Institute at Silver Spring, Florida.

        Their collection of native wildlife grew into a broad representation of many of the state’s indigenous birds, reptiles, and mammals.  Bonita Springs Reptile Gardens opened to the public to serve touring motorists on U. S. Highway 41, in 1937. The business was soon renamed Everglades Reptile Gardens.  They discovered that the word Everglades in the enterprise’s name drew patrons, but because of the connotation suggested by the use of the word "reptile" many motorists, especially those vehicles transporting people who were squeamish about snakes, passed without stopping. To draw more customers the business became Everglades Wonder Gardens by the end of the Forties.

Entrance building — Bonita Springs Reptile Gardens, circa 1937

Entrance building (L) — Everglades Reptile Gardens, circa 1945.  The building would soon be raised to elevate it above ground level.

A busy day at the popular Everglades Reptile Gardens, circa 1947.

    Lester and his wife, Lucille (1907-1993), lived in the building that served as the entrance to the Wonder Gardens.  Bill and his first wife, Frances, lived in a freestanding modest home at the northwest corner of the compound.  Anna Piper, mother of Bill, Lester, and their sister Anna May (1905-1987), came to Bonita Springs to be with her boys in 1945.  Anna May and her husband, Russell Penno (1904-1987), later lived southeast of the Gardens on the other side of the Imperial River and Highway 41.  Russ worked at the Gardens in the mid-fifties.  Mrs. Piper occupied a small cottage between the Gardens’ entrance and the Wonder Gardens Restaurant.  Later, Bill and Frances would divorce and he would take a second wife, Alida (Whittle) Piper.

The Everglades Wonder Gardens' entrance, circa 1956.  Lester Piper and his family lived in an apartment located in the rear of this building.  The towering royal and coconut palms are examples of the many exquisite specimen trees from around the world that Lester maintained in his well-manicured landscaping .  He managed a small plant nursery on the grounds and generously shared his trees with his friends.    

      Bill Piper was an accomplished acoustic guitar player. Unfortunately, while he was capturing an alligator the reptile managed to clamp his jaws down on Bill’s right thumb. The ‘gator rolled and cleanly severed the end digit of Bill’s thumb.  Bill could no longer hold a pick and his guitar picking came to an end.   (Editor’s note: For more details watch and listen to the video near the bottom of this web page.) 

Bill Piper, Bonita Springs, Florida.  This photo was taken on December 23, 1934.  Photo courtesy of Anna Mackereth.

David Piper, 1941.  David, son of Lester and Lucille, helped raise three orphaned bear cubs, one of which would later become a popular animal movie star.  Photo courtesy of Anna Mackereth.

An old postcard from 1942.  The bear cubs had to be restrained at this point because they acted like small children and would otherwise get into much mischief.

Click these thumbnail images to enlarge and compare them.

Below — One of the earliest brochures from the Everglades Reptile Gardens, circa 1947.  

Below — The first brochure with the attraction's new name — Everglades Wonder Gardens, circa 1949.

Left — One side of an Everglades Wonder Gardens brochure from 1952.  The bald eagle was a life-long resident of the Wonder Gardens.  It’s left wing was amputated after the bird was found and brought to Lester Piper for help.  It had been shot by some stupid "hunter." Many of the specimens housed in the Gardens’ collection were given a new lease on life because of the caring Piper brothers.

Left — One side of the 1955 version of Everglades Wonder Gardens brochure.  On the left of the image, Lucille Piper is holding a river otter she hand-raised.  The adjoining photo is of the two Florida panther siblings which later became breeding studs.  The two right panels show Lester and Lucille with their Florida white-tailed deer (not Key deer as implied) as well as photos of the flamingos, otters, and alligators.  (Editor's note: The flamingos are an interesting story in and of themselves.  Up until 1955, Lester Piper purchased flamingos from wild animal dealers, like Ralph Curtis.  That year, my friend Laymond Hardy, a Naples High School biology teacher, told me that he was sure the Gardens' flamingos would reproduce if they had a source of mud.  I passed this suggestion on to Lester and he placed  a seeping hose on the bare ground in the shaded rear of the enclosure and fitted a curtain of canvas to the fence for the birds' privacy.  Within days, the flamingos started to build their strange, volcano-shaped, mud nest mounds.  Soon, they were laying eggs and raising their young.)

Right — The flip side of the 1955 brochure is self-explanatory.  It should be noted that the bald eagle being held by Lester is the very one that will later be discussed by Warren Boutchia.

NEW  Video

There are more videos lower on this site.

It's suggested you read the blue text above this and each of our other video players first. This will give the videos time to load for some Internet connections, and you'll better understand the content of the clip before starting it. By right clicking any of the videos on this site you have the option to enlarge the screen, but you will lose picture quality. Be sure and turn up your sound.

Bill Piper at Everglades Reptile Gardens — 1946 

In 1946, the Wonder Gardens was just ten years old.  This video clip was transferred from a short, 8 mm, silent, home movie film that consists of a combination of color and black and white footage.  It was apparently made by a family during their visit to the Gardens, in 1946.  It was edited because of download space constraints. The original print of this unique and rare film was generously given to the editor as a gift for use on this site by Southwest Florida historian Alvin Lederer.  Alvin's consideration and kindness is most appreciated.

The film's scene sequences are: 1-Highway sign; 2-sign at the Gardens entrance, still bearing the attraction's original name; 3-Bill Piper catching and handling alligators and putting one to "sleep" by rubbing its belly for the photographer (unknown). Bill still has both thumb tips; 4-Bill with large eastern indigo snake; 5-Bill and his nephew, David Piper, force-feeding a rat to an eastern diamondback rattlesnake; 6-Tom, "Old Slewfoot," animal star of The Yearling being petted by Bill; and 7-a series of the bear Susie with Bill.

Although he wasn't born a "Florida Cracker" the music I've selected for this clip is appropriate for a Florida cowman who lived that old time traditional lifestyle of early cattlemen, and was a lover of the land, like Bill Piper.  The song is "Florida Cowman."  It was written and is sung by Frank Thomas, and was downloaded from the Internet.  The song is a track from the wonderful CD of Florida environmental songs from various artists "These Diamonds,"  © 2005 Will McLean Foundation. To order this CD, click here.

Bill, Tom the bear, and Lester, circa 1950.  Soon after this photo was taken, Lester grew a goatee that he would wear for the rest of his life.  Photo courtesy of Anna Mackereth.

Retired film star Tom the Bear, in the days when he had all of both ears.

Crocodile feeding time, circa 1951 — Lester Piper is at the wall to the far left and Bill Piper is standing to the right of him.  In the background is a group of visitors being guided through the Gardens. Guide Chuck Normandy is standing behind the spectators, just to the right of the gate.  This is the same pen where Warren Boutchia had a hair-raising experience he'll relate later in his narrative.  Photo courtesy of Anna Mackereth.

    Their collection of Florida wildlife grew through the years. At first, the Pipers collected many of the animals themselves, but by the time they opened their attraction they were receiving "orphaned" and injured animals from all over southwest Florida.  Bill favored Florida black bears while Lester's favorites were Florida panthers.  Cubs of both animals, which were brought to the Gardens or were born there, were hand-raised by the brothers.  Bill even handled the bears after they became adults.  Some of these bears were named Suzie, Donny, and Tom, Dick, and Harriet.  Of these, Tom became the most famous.  When the MGM movie The Yearling was filmed in 1946 Tom played the part of "Old Slewfoot" in the production.

    Left —  Tom,  "Old Slewfoot,"  and Bill Piper on The Yearling set in Florida (1946).  Tom was born on January 11, 1941 and died of old age in 1957.  The exact date of the bear's death was not recorded.

    During filming, Tom killed one of the dogs, which was owned by Naples area Florida Wildlife Officer Luby Kirkland. (Editors note: Luby was the father of Bobby Kirkland who is married to Natalie LeBuff Kirkland, sister of Charles and Laban LeBuff.) Lester’s panthers, and other species in the Gardens’ collection, were also used in other movies such as Distant Drums, Yellowneck, Shark River, and Wind Across the Everglades. 

  (Lower right) Bill Piper with "Susie," a female Florida black bear, in the years before the attraction's name change.

    The Florida panthers in the Everglades Wonder Gardens collection become controversial in the 1970s.  Panther biologists, at the state and federal levels, who were engaged in developing recovery protocols for this endangered species, questioned the bloodline of the Piper’s captive animals. They refused to use any of Lester Piper’s panthers in the Panther Recovery Team’s captive-breeding program because testing of cats in Everglades National Park indicated that those cats were not genetically pure Florida panthers.  Instead they wasted time as they stumbled through development of their recovery strategies.  Finally, they came up with the idea to breed captive Florida cats with Texas cougars — sidestepping the fact that pureblood Florida panthers were caged in Bonita Springs. These biologists suggested that Lester had earlier introduced a non-native cat into his breeding program.  There is absolutely no evidence to support this assumption.  However, with considerable media fanfare, a pair of surplus purebred Florida panthers from the Wonder Gardens was accepted by the National Park Service and released into the park in the mid-fifties. (Editor's note: A literature search indicates it has been claimed that up to seven individual panthers from the Everglades Wonder Gardens were released into Everglades National Park.  Lester Piper was a poor record keeper, and left no paper trail.  If five more of his panthers were indeed released into the Park the releases occurred after 1959, and I seriously question the documentation.  As recently as 1973, a letter from the Superintendent of Everglades National Park encouraged Lester Piper to release more panthers there.)

A female Florida panther that was produced because of a sound captive-breeding program at Everglades Wonder Gardens walks from a portable cage into the wetlands of Everglades National Park, circa 1956.  According to biologist Bob Garrison, who was present at the release, the male cat was freed first.  When the cage door was opened he bounded and disappeared into the wilderness.  The female behaved more stoical when she was released — she just slowly walked away, sloshing off into the Glades.  Photo courtesy of Bob Garrison.

    The pedigrees of Lester Piper’s Florida panthers were never compromised. The aberrant bloodline that is said to exist in the Park’s panthers may indeed be because of a release there, but the animal responsible for the contamination did not originate in Bonita Springs. (Editor’s note: I suspect an animal dealer or a private collector from somewhere around greater Miami liberated a cat(s) into the region.)

    Until 1956, all of the panthers in the Pipers' collection were pure Florida panthers. That year, Marlin Perkins, the late director of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois, sent Lester a western cougar as a gift.  However, this male was never mated with one of the native cats.  In the Forties and Fifties the stud Florida panther was one of Lester’s favorites, a very large native cat named "Tom."  Tom was the only individual used for breeding until he had to be put down because of kidney failure, in 1958. (Editor’s note: I watched the outwardly tough Lester Piper burst into tears twice. The first time was the morning he told me about Don Carroll's death, the second instance was when he had to put his panther, Tom, out of its misery. I joined him, crying with him both times.)     After Tom’s death, every two years Lester would move one of two sibling male Florida panthers, that were caged adjacent to the otter pen, into the cage of the female he used as a breeder in the rear cages when she was receptive.  During the Fifties the integrity of the Everglades Wonder Gardens’ Florida panther gene pool was indeed sustained by cats coming into the collection and inbreeding of captives was never a factor. (Editors note: I was present when two wild-caught Florida panther kittens were brought to the Gardens from a ranch near Devil’s Garden [Hendry County], in 1953. I was also at work when a cattleman brought in a litter of three, with their eyes still closed, from the Big Cypress near Sunniland [Collier County], in 1955.)

Lester Piper, circa 1950, with two of his hand-raised charges.  These two were produced by one of Lester's favorite cats he called "Queen."  Queen was born in 1941 and lived until 1969.  Lester never received any serious injuries while working with his Florida panthers, like Bill did from his bears.  Photo courtesy of Anna Mackereth.

A sleepy, one-month old, captive-bred, Florida panther kitten that was born at the Everglades Wonder Gardens, in 1956.  It was being lovingly hand-raised by Lucille Piper.  Photo courtesy of Bob Garrison.    

Lester Piper with a hand-raised Florida panther kitten, circa 1974.  This would be the last of Lester's captive-bred Florida panthers. Photo from Florida State Archives.

    Through the years, Bill represented the public persona of the Everglades Wonder Gardens because he was the most outspoken of the pair.  Bill was the point man.  Lester preferred to stay in the background doing what he did best — taking care of his captive wildlife and tropical gardens.  By 1945, the roles of the Piper brothers began to diverge.  Lester had complete responsibility for day-to-day operations of the Everglades Wonder Gardens — literally seven days a week — or, in today's vernacular, 24/7.  That is, except when someone on the staff wanted a raise, then he would always say, "I don't own this place all by myself.  I have to check with Bill first."  He never took a vacation because he was doing what he loved to do, and lest we forget — Lester was already "retired!"

    Bill, on the other hand, lost interest in the Gardens and took on the challenge of altering the upland saw palmetto dominated prairies on their land and turning them into fine improved cattle pasture.  Bill had decided he wanted to try his hand at becoming a cattle baron.  Over time, the Piper herd grew to sizeable proportions until their pastures reached capacity and smaller pastures had to be leased to accommodate the herd.  Costs for stock, fences, structures, labor, seed, feed, fertilizer, and taxes were met by the income of the Everglades Wonder Gardens.  In the late Fifties, Lester would often complain to his friends and Gardens employees that "Bill has never sold a cow."  Over time this became a divisive family issue. (Editors note:  After reviewing Bill Piper's personal Journals, I find that Lester's comments were not completely accurate.  Later on, Bill did sell hundreds of head of cattle before the Piper and Piper partnership was dissolved.  After the rerouting of US 41 to the west of Bonita Springs, completion of I-75 to the east, and opening of Disney World, visitation at the Gardens plummeted as traffic bypassed the attraction.  Livestock was sold to meet the Gardens' operational expenses and make up the deficit in income.  Bill Piper kept very good records.)

Bill Piper (L) the cattleman, mounted and ready for a hard day's work on the ranch.  The other men are unknown at this time.  Photo courtesy of Bob Garrison.       

    In 1954, Bill became dedicated to saving the Corkscrew Swamp in Collier County.  He worked closely with the National Audubon Society to keep that pristine cypress forest from being destroyed by loggers.  He raised many thousands of dollars for the acquisition of the Swamp.  If you haven't been there, be sure and visit Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary to see what a remarkable ecosystem Bill Piper helped preserve.

   In 1958, the Piper brothers were offered a tract of land at Carnestown (near Everglades City, at the junction of US 41 and SR 29) on which to build and relocate the Gardens.  They declined.

    Near the end of their lives the Piper brothers divided their assets, and on December 31, 1981, Lester became the sole proprietor of the Everglades Wonder Gardens.  Bill Piper passed away on January 13, 1989, and Lester died on April 25, 1992.  Bill Piper was cremated and his ashes were scattered over the water he loved.  Lester and Lucille Piper are buried at Naples Memorial Gardens Cemetery, just a few miles south of Bonita Springs. 

The Piper gravesite, Naples Memorial Gardens Cemetery, Collier County, Florida.  11/25/05.

Don Carroll, 1954 & 1956

Left photo by Warren Boutchia, Right photo from Taylor County Historical Society

(L) Don Carroll at the Wonder Gardens. (R) Don is humorously arm-wrestling a Taylor County Judge in Perry, Florida, just minutes before he went on stage to start his presentation and meet his tragic accident.

   Donald Francis Carroll was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 1928. He left home at an early age, and because of his love for wild animals he was drawn south and migrated to Florida. Don soon found work with the famous rattlesnake specialist Ross Allen at his Silver Springs Reptile Institute. It was here that Don had an occasion to meet Bill Piper, himself a former associate of Ross Allen.  Bill and Ross had parted company years before but still occasionally visited each other on guarded but somewhat friendly terms.  Later, Don left the Reptile Institute and joined the Army.

    During his stint in the Army, and because of his impressive knowledge about American snakes, particularly the venomous species, Don became an instructor at the Fort Benning, Georgia, survival school.  After his discharge he married and settled in Bonita Springs, Florida, where by 1952 he became manager of the Everglades Wonder Gardens.  Meeting Bill Piper earlier had paid off when Don applied for the job.

     In 1954, Don left the Wonder Gardens and went back north to visit family in Chelsea.  He took a temporary job at his brother’s service station while he waited word on the outcome of a pending application he had submitted to the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission.  Don had applied to fill a newly created position as an Education Officer with that agency.  He would later be accepted and would tour the state in an eighteen wheeler tractor and trailer rig — a rolling exhibit of Florida’s wildlife.

      In 1953, on-location scenes for the United Artists movie Shark River, starring Steve Cochran and Carol Matthews, were filmed in the Hole-In-The-Wall, a beautiful cypress strand northeast of Naples.  Don Carroll, Bill and Lester Piper, and Ray Barnes (1895-1976) appeared in the movie. Both Bill and Don had speaking parts but only Bill’s name appears in the film’s credits. 

Don Carroll — A frame from the movie, Shark River.  Image courtesy of Warren Boutchia.

        A few years after Shark River was filmed, Bill Piper and Ray Barnes, a Florida Wildlife Officer, would have a serious argument over a hunting dog. The altercation led to a gunfight between the two and Bill was hospitalized with gunshot wounds that he barely survived. 

(L) Bill Piper and "Opal" and (R) Ray Barnes and "Bowser" during happy times, January 1947.  Both men loved their dogs.  Photo courtesy of Anna Mackereth.

      It so happened that when Shark River premiered in Boston in 1954, Don Carroll was in the audience.  So was Warren Boutchia (more on him later).  Near the end of the movie, Warren went to the back of the theater, turned and looked toward the screen.  He couldn’t believe it when he looked down and saw Don who was still seated.  Reunited, they socialized occasionally until Don returned to Florida to take up his new position.

Click to enlarge

The editor's collection of Shark River lobby cards.  Bill Piper's name appears on each of them.  Don's name was not included.

      Don, his wife Jackye, son Donald, Jr., and newborn daughter Leslye settled in Ocala, Florida.  Leslye was named after Lester Piper.  Whenever in the area Don would visit the Wonder Gardens to borrow animals for his traveling menagerie and visit his many friends in Bonita Springs.  In early October 1956, Charles LeBuff and his youngest brother, Laurence, were houseguests of the Carroll's in Ocala.  Less than one week after that, Don visited Ralph Curtis at Wild Cargo in Hollywood, Florida.  When leaving, Don said to Ralph, "I’ll be swinging by here again in a couple of weeks.  Right now I’ve got to head home then up to some town south of Tallahassee to do a fair."

     Just days later, on October 13, 1956, Don was lecturing to an audience in Perry, Florida, at the annual Pine Tree Festival.  During his presentation on Florida’s snakes, Don received his first and last bite by a venomous snake.  He was struck once, solidly behind the left knee just above his new knee-high snake-proof boots, by a recently caught and nervous five-foot eastern diamondback rattlesnake.  During his lecture, the excited snake had tried to crawl off the low stage into the audience.  Fearing for the safety of the people, Don tried to stop the rattler by stepping on it.  In an unusual move, the snake suddenly swung around and both fangs penetrated the back of Don’s unprotected leg.  Apparently, the venom was injected directly into an artery and there was little hope.  Despite valiant medical efforts to save his life, Don died in a Tallahassee hospital twenty-two hours later.  He is buried in Chelsea, MA.

    Jackye Carroll never remarried and passed away in Chelsea, MA, on January 17, 2003. Don Carroll, Jr. had preceded his mother in death.  Leslye (Carroll) Simard was nine months-old when her father died.  She now lives in New Hampshire.  Don and Jackye have five grandchildren.

More Videos

      It's suggested you read the blue text above each video player first  This will have given the videos time to load, and you'll better understand the content of the clip before starting it.  Be sure your volume is turned up.

Video from The Yearling ©1946, MGM Studios (below)

    The Yearling was filmed by MGM on a Hollywood sound stage and on location near Florida's Silver Springs, in 1946.  The Technicolor film starred Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, and Claude Jarman, Jr.  The Piper's furnished a Florida black bear named "Tom" to play the part of "Old Slewfoot."  Bill Piper had hand-reared Tom and handled the bear during the filming.  The video clip is an outstanding scene of raw animal conflict.  After the movie was released, Tom became one of the earliest, famous animal movie stars.  For a time, he was better known and more popular in America than the collie dog, "Lassie."  Tom's popularity in the forties and fifties drew thousands of customers to the Everglades Wonder Gardens who came to see Old Slewfoot.

Video from Shark River ©1953, United Artists (below)

    The Pipers and their animals were featured in the 1953 movie, Shark River. The film was shot in color but this video clip was produced from a poor quality VHS tape.  In one of the initial scenes, Don Carroll plays a Deputy Sheriff.  When he enters the scene there is gunplay.  Don is next seen on the ground with his upper torso raised.  The scene shifts to the main actors and then back to Don, who speaks.  These words represent the only known recording of Don's voice.

    The clip changes to footage of a posse on horseback and then to frames with three individuals in the forefront. These men are, L-R, Ray Barnes, Bill Piper as the Sheriff, and Lester Piper. Bill utters a few words, holsters his pistol, and all turn away as the clip fades.

Charles "Chuck" Normandie (1888-1963) was the winter season Guide until 1953.  In this photo, circa 1940, he's inside one of the snake pits demonstrating the white mouth of a cottonmouth to a group of Everglades Wonder Gardens patrons.  Photo courtesy of Anna Mackereth.

The  flamingo pen at Everglades Wonder Gardens, circa 1952.

Living Guides Remember . . .

Ralph Curtis, in 1952

Photos provided by Ralph Curtis

(L) Guide Ralph Curtis in his Seminole Indian jacket at the Wonder Gardens while taking a break from guiding. (R) Ralph's image taken at his father-in-law's photo studio in Tampa.

    Ralph Curtis was born in Farmer City, Illinois, in 1932. In his early years he became interested in reptiles and other wildlife in Illinois and his family often visited his grandparents in Florida. On one of these trips his grandfather bought him a baby alligator at an Indian village in the Everglades. In 1947, Ralph came to Florida and went to high school in the Tampa Bay area. In his senior year he often hunted snakes around Tampa. He kept both harmless and venomous snakes at times.

    At the end of his senior year, in 1950, Ralph was activated into the Marine Corps at the beginning of the Korean War. Before leaving for the service he married his high school sweetheart, Billye. After five days he left and returned in 1952 after serving in Hawaii and Korea with the 1st Marine Division. After a few months in Illinois, Ralph contacted some old friends from the Hillsborough Herpetological Society, in Tampa, to see if anyone was interested in a trip into the Everglades. He joined a small group led by Tampa naturalist Ernest Taylor. Taylor was leading a group into the Corkscrew Swamp to conduct a biological ascertainment of the ecosystem. He had learned that a timber company was poised just outside the cypress swamp and cutting of the virgin giant cypress was imminent. The trip had assistance from the state game and fish commission and from the Piper brothers at the Everglades Wonder Gardens. Because of Ernest Taylor’s perseverance in bringing this threat to the public’s attention, the National Audubon Society eventually acquired Corkscrew Swamp and saved it.  In the end, Taylor received little credit for identifying the looming threat and spearheading the opposition which wrested ownership from the powerful timber companies and protects the Swamp today.

    After coming out of the swamp and visiting the Everglades Wonder Gardens, Ralph helped Lester Piper and Don Carroll move some crocodiles. During this task, Ralph asked Don if there was any chance of getting a job there. He loved the Wonder Gardens and vowed he would be back soon. He returned to Illinois and moved back to Florida within the month.

    In August 1952, Ralph became the Garden's primary guide. The earlier guide, a seasonal employee named Chuck Normandie, was from out of state and he only worked during the winter season. Ralph became the first permanent guide. He remained there until September 1953, when he decided to enter the University of Tampa. During the time at the university he started dealing in reptiles, selling them to several of the larger U.S. zoos. At the end of the school year he accepted an offer from the owners of the Tarpon Zoo in Tarpon Springs, to relocate to Hollywood, Florida, and operate their animal compound called Wild Cargo. He continued his zoo selling business from there and later in association with another wild animal importer, The Pet Farm, in Miami. During this period, Ralph often supplied animals and birds to Lester Piper, at the Everglades Wonder Gardens.

 Guide Ralph Curtis, August 1952, holding a black racer while inside a snake pit during a tour.  The jar on the rail contains  preserved American crocodile eggs.

    The looming changes in the wildlife importation business convinced Ralph to make a career change and he joined the City Fire Department in Hollywood, Florida. He continued in the animal import and sales business on his off duty days until 1972 when he switched from selling live animals to selling animal and reptile books to his zoo and animal contacts. He founded Zoo Book Sales and the Ralph Curtis Publishing companies.

    Ralph fondly remembers his time with Lester and Bill Piper, and his other Wonder Garden friends. Talking about those times, Ralph said, "Some of the people I worked with, like Charles and Laban LeBuff and Warren Boutchia are still close friends after more than 50 years. It wasn't easy work and there were more responsibilities than just guiding people. There were late evenings, butchering meat for panther food, cutting oranges for the bears, or cutting fish for the crocodilians, birds, or otters. It could be dangerous sometimes working with the crocodiles, the poisonous rattlesnakes and cottonmouths, and some of the other animals.

    "Once while I was guiding a group around the Gardens, one of the guests noticed that a rather large pygmy rattlesnake was caught half way out of a crack in one of the cages. I pinned the snake and was pulling it loose when it pulled back and slipped enough to bury one fang in my finger. First aid surgery in the feed room certainly took care of any danger from the venom, however gangrene caused the finger to turn black overnight. The next day, I decided to see a doctor in Naples. The doctors, Dr. Meli and Dr. Craig, were fascinated by the snakebite, and always both of them examined me at every visit. When he first came into the examining room, Dr. Craig bluntly said, ‘I can either cut your finger off now or you can let me try something. If that doesn't work we can cut it off next week.’ He told me he had read of a new method that had been used to treat frostbite gangrene in the Korean War and thought that it might work on snakebite.

    "For the next couple of weeks, I guided with my arm over my head in an elevated splint. My arm and hand were wrapped in elastic bandages. In a couple of weeks, new pink skin was forming under the dead tissue. I still have the finger, though it’s not perfect, it is still usable." (Editors note: Although employees regularly dealt with venomous snakes, bites were rare, and Ralph was the only worker to receive one during the fifties. In all the years the Gardens’ owners handled poisonous snakes, Lester Piper was bitten once and Bill three times [up to, and through 1959].  Much later, near the end of his life, Bill would be rattlesnake bitten by one of the snakes he kept caged at his home.  He came close to losing an arm.)

    Ralph remembers guiding some very memorable personalities. "Once I gave a private tour for Gloria Swanson, the famous movie star from the 1930's. Arthur Fiedler and the entire Boston Pops orchestra were guests on another occasion. Steve Cochran and other actors from the movie Shark River were in attendance while that movie was being filmed. Other zoo personalities I guided included Marlin Perkins of the Wild Kingdom television series. He came to film himself hunting snakes with the Piper brothers."

    Ralph retired from the Hollywood, Florida, Fire Department in 1982 as Chief of the Training Division. He and his wife Billye relocated to Sanibel Island. Today he is semi-retired, but keeps busy with his publishing company and collecting military insignia and traveling. He and Billye have three daughters, two of them are veterinarians and the other owns and operates a gymnastic school. They also have seven grandchildren including four in the area or away at college.

Warren Boutchia, in 1954

Photo by Charles LeBuff,  provided by Warren Boutchia

Warren Boutchia with a large nuisance alligator that he had helped capture the night before in the Imperial River. After snapping this picture, Charles LeBuff assumed the same pose but before Warren could snap the shutter Charles was suddenly and violently knocked off his feet by the 'gator's powerful tail.

     Warren Boutchia was born in East Boston, Massachusetts, in 1935, and grew up in Medford, a suburb.  As a youngster he was nicknamed Butcher by his cohorts and during his tenure at Everglades Wonder Gardens he was known by that moniker.  Just before his sixteenth birthday Warren left Medford High School to launch a life of adventure.  Although underage, with the help of his father he joined the U. S. Merchant Marine and celebrated his birthday aboard a freighter bound for India. This part of his Merchant Marine career was short-lived and late in 1952 he stepped off an Atlantic Coast Line passenger train in Bonita Springs, Florida.  He had decided to join his Medford neighbors and friends, the LeBuff family, who had arrived there just a few weeks earlier. Within days, Don Carroll hired him at the Everglades Wonder Gardens and the Gardens’ head guide, Ralph Curtis, befriended him.  At first, Warren camped in a tent about halfway down Bonita Beach Road (near its modern intersection with new U. S. 41) on property recently purchased and outfitted with a water well by the LeBuffs.  Early in 1953, Lester Piper offered him a small storage trailer next to the Garden's slaughterhouse for sleeping quarters.  However, this accommodation had strings attached to it.  When one lived on the grounds he could be jostled out of bed at any hour to accompany Lester to pick up some errant cow, horse, or mule that had wandered into the path of a vehicle or train and been killed. The dead animal would be trucked back to the Gardens and quickly butchered in the slaughterhouse. The quarters of meat were hung in a spacious walk-in cooler, and later used as food for the captive carnivores.

        After the death of Steve “Speedy” Cornett, a quasi-employee who also lived on the grounds, Warren moved into his tiny quarters at the rear of the Wonder Gardens property. Speedy was a close friend of Lester Piper and despite his frequent binges because of a serious alcohol problem he was the only person to work at the Wonder Gardens who took his meals regularly at the Piper dinner table.

        Around Halloween, 1953, Warren drew a series of pencil caricatures of certain well-known Bonita Springs residents.  They were displayed in the Post Office on the bulletin board for a few days, then one by one they started to disappear.  The editor of this web page salvaged this one for himself and posterity .  He knew that he would have an important use for it one day.

     When asked what was his most memorable experience at the Wonder Gardens, Warren replied, “It was the time I saved the eagle from the tar pit.  Somebody had dumped some tar on the side of Highway 41 outside of town.  A variety of wildlife, including, insects, mice, and birds had become stuck in the tar. This included a bald eagle. I managed to rescue it — I was able to pull it loose from the tar without breaking any of its bones and took it to the Gardens.  We plucked its tar-covered feathers and Lester turned it loose about a year later.

Lester Piper and the bald eagle that Warren Boutchia rescued from certain death, in 1953.  Photo courtesy of Bob Garrison.

    "My scariest episode happened inside the large pen that held about thirty adult American crocodiles.  A section of concrete from the slanted bottom of the pen had been undermined by leaking water and collapsed during the night. So, early this morning the entire Gardens crew pitched in and got repairs underway.  After the new concrete slab was poured and finished I was assigned to remain in the pen and keep the crocodiles away with a long, wooden pole until the concrete set-up.  It so happened that the dominant male crocodile in the enclosure was a fourteen-foot-long brute that Lester had named Ironhead.  His snout was much broader than that of a typical American crocodile and he had a menacing appearance.  He was tough, too.  I watched helplessly once while he disemboweled a smaller crocodile before any of us could break up the fight.   

  Guide Warren Boutchia (R) telling a group of Wonder Gardens patrons about crested caracaras and king vultures, circa 1954.

         "I had taken a book about wild cats with me into the pen to pass the time. Every so often, I’d glance up from reading, and have to get up and tap some croc on the snout with the pole a few times to back it off to keep them at the far end of the pen and away from me and the wet concrete. This continued through the day, while I waited for the cement to harden to a point the crocs wouldn’t damage the finish.   I was really into the book, when all of a sudden the hair on the back of my head felt funny — it was literally standing up.  I glanced up, focused, and looked into the glaring brown eyes of Ironhead.  He was only inches away and standing on all fours. The bull croc with the bad reputation had quietly sneaked up on me and was staring at me with his mouth partly open.  I reacted instantly and pushed myself away.  After gaining my feet, I slammed his head with the heavy pole to divert his attention, then climbed the ladder that led out of the pen to reach safety.  Not too long after that day, Lester decided to isolate Ironhead.  We roped and hauled him into a smaller enclosure after my scary experience. The last time I saw him, years later on a trip to the Wonder Gardens to visit Lester, Ironhead was still in solitary confinement. To this day, I get chills when I think of that close call.

        "The saddest thing that happened during my time at the Gardens happened in 1954.  Gordon Bullard and I were moving dirt from a pile behind the rear panther cages for maintenance on the grounds.  Gordon was a fifteen-year-old Bonita Springs native who worked at the Gardens after school and on weekends. He was a hard worker.  We were shoveling dirt into a wheelbarrow.  Suddenly, Gordon dropped to the ground.  I tried to revive him but couldn’t.  Charlie (LeBuff) was guiding near the deep turtle pen, I could hear him talking, so I dashed through the gate and told him what had happened.  He asked, ‘Is there a doctor in the group?’  There was, and I led the doctor to Gordon. The doctor tried, and tried but could not resuscitate him.  Gordon Bullard was dead!"

    After a few years at the Gardens, the sea once again beckoned Warren. He returned to Boston and shipped out and traveled to many ports around the globe before joining the U. S. Army in 1956. He served in Korea from 1956 to 1958 and was assigned to the Army Security Agency.  Following his short military career he went into the medical research field and retired from the Veteran’s Administration in 1993 as a medical photographer.  His hobbies include computers, woodcarving, photography, and art.  Today, he lives in a delightful spot on the bank of the Hillsborough River near Tampa, Florida, with his wife Doralinn. They have one daughter, Karrie Delaney.

Charles LeBuff, in 1955

(L) Guide Charles LeBuff demonstrating a Florida kingsnake to a visiting group of school children. (R) Charles posing on the Garden's grounds with an eastern indigo snake around his neck. The new Stetson hat was a recent gift from Lester Piper.

    Charles LeBuff was born during 1936 in Medford, Massachusetts.  He grew up in this suburb of Boston with an intense interest in amphibians and reptiles.  In his early teens he interned at the Boston Museum of Science and the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology.  By fifteen he had published his first piece in Herpetologica, a scientific journal. A year later, his family relocated to Bonita Springs, Florida. They were urged to do so by Don Carroll.  As a youngster Don had worked with Charles LeBuff, Sr. in the woodworking field. 

        In late November 1952, the family arrived in Bonita Springs and the next day they visited Everglades Wonder Gardens to let Don know they had arrived. They met Lester Piper and Ralph Curtis who was the Gardens’ chief guide at the time.  Soon, Charles was spending much of his free time at the Gardens and in 1953 he was hired as a substitute guide.  After his graduation from Naples High School, Class of 1954, Charles was offered the position full-time.  He worked as primary guide until 1956 when he left and went into the construction industry. The first week of 1958 he resumed his position at the Gardens and remained there until the end of the year when he accepted a position with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Sanibel Island.

       When asked to comment on his times at Everglades Wonder Gardens, Charles began, "My experiences at the Wonder Gardens were outstanding. I had the opportunity to work with and learn from these remarkable men and have relied on much of what I learned from them through my life.  I wouldn’t have traded those times for anything.  Bill and Lester Piper were tough men’s men who lived long, charmed lives. There is but a few of their breed left and there were very few men of their character to walk the earth before them.

        "There were many challenges at the Gardens and some of those I've filed away as vivid memories.  For example, in early 1956, we received a call from a nervous woman in Fort Myers who reported there was a coral snake in her yard. Usually, for us to actually respond to similar calls from such a distance away were not normal.  Most times after we arrived the animal could not be found.  I happened to be off that day and was at the Gardens with my Bonita Springs-born girlfriend (Jean Williams) so Lester asked me if I wanted to go and try to catch the snake.  I did, and Jean and I took off up the Trail in my brand-new 1956 Ford.  We arrived at the Coconut Drive home and were directed to a small rock-lined garden pool in the yard.  Sticking out from an opening in the lime rock was about six inches of coral snake tail.  I grasped the snake with both hands and with just a little stretching pressure I began to pull the snake out.  Ever so slowly it was coming out — one inch at a time!  After about half an hour I had three feet of the snake free and it just kept coming! Coral snakes usually average about thirty-two inches in total length.  Finally, the black tip of the nose was free and the enormous snake writhed as coral snakes typically do.  Jean had passed me my snake hook, and with it I held the snake away from my exposed hand that held its tail.  I dropped it into a snake sack.  Back at the Gardens Jean and I showed Lester and the crew the snake.  It was the largest eastern coral snake any of us had ever seen. It was carefully measured and totaled 43.75-inches in length.  It held the record for several years, until a 47.5-inch specimen was collected near Ocala, Florida.  Incidentally, Jean and I were married in 1957 and we’re still together. 

    "Lester raised pork for his dinner table on the Garden's grounds. We had a large pen that at any one time held about a dozen pigs. Their feed, mostly obtained from area restaurants, was cooked in a large slop barrel nearby. Periodically, the fire would have to be lit to cook the swill.  We typically used lighter pine to stoke the fire after shoving some newspaper under it to get it started.

       "Frank Liles was a 15-year-old local teenager that worked part-time at the Gardens. This particular day he was sent to relight the hog pot fire. After he prepared everything, Frank fetched a coffee can full of gasoline to toss on the wood after he’d lit the paper. As he swung his arm some of the gas spilled and soaked his pants leg.  In a split-second the fire flashed back and Frank was ablaze.  At this instant, I happened to be walking under the pole shed nearby as Frank ran toward me in flames.  I responded by tackling him and rolling him over and over on the sandy ground, and sweeping handfuls of the sand on his jeans to extinguish the flames.  I soon had him out without any serious burns to either of us.  Frank went on to full careers with both the Lee County Sheriff's Department and Sprint Telephone Company. He continues to live in Bonita Springs. (See photo below.)

    "Before the days when screwworms were eradicated in Florida, they were a major problem.  Any of the mammals that might be injured somehow, like physical encounters or the newborn with open wounds or unhealed placentas, would give screwworm larvae entry points. (Editor's note: Whether in captivity or in the wild.) Tom’s (Slewfoot) cage was next to Donny’s cage and Donny was a younger, larger, and more aggressive bear. We had to be very careful when feeding him or cleaning his cage because he’d try to catch us with his claws through the feeding flap on the front of the cage.  One day Tom got his ear too close to the wire that separated their cages and Donny bit off the end of it.

        "In a few days, screwworm maggots were eating away the living flesh of Tom’s ear and something had to be done fast.  Bill asked me to help him.  We went to Tom’s cage, Bill unlocked the door and passed Tom . . . you’ve got it . . . a bottle of Pepsi.  Soon, the bear was out cold, snoozing on the floor.  I asked, ‘What did you give him, Bill?’  Bill answered, ‘I slipped him a Mickey Finn (Editor's note: Chloral hydrate).’ We entered the cage and I sat down and held Tom’s head in my lap.  Bill knelt on one knee, took scissors and cut away all the remaining fur around the oozing wound.  Screwworms get their name because the larvae literally tunnel into the flesh then return to eat cellular fluid at the surface. When forced to retreat, because the victim happens to rub the irritated wound, the larvae literally screw themselves into their tunnel to avoid being dislodged.  The half-inch-long maggots were doing this and only a few of the dozens that hadn't screwed themselves deeper were still visible.  Bill took a magnifying glass in one hand and a cloth and surgical forceps in the other.  Wiping bloody fluid away for visibility he removed each screwworm larvae from the wound — virtually scores of them.   Next, satisfied he had removed them all, Bill scooped a black tar-like ointment out of a jar, and with his fingers he pressed and worked the substance into and around the wound to be sure all larvae tubes were filled.  Finally, he liberally coated the outside of the ear with the compound.  After a few hours Tom came to, none the worse for wear.  The wound healed rapidly and the bear fully recovered.  Had this been a wild bear he likely would have died a slow death.  Tom lived a long life for a bear.  He was born in 1941 and died in 1957 of old age, but Old Slewfoot lived on for the public for a few years more — Donny replaced Tom and was given the famous bear’s screen name. Only those of us who worked there and knew about the ear could tell the difference."   

In 1955, the Naples Drive-In Theater re-showed The Yearling.  David Piper and Charles LeBuff (center, in Stetson hat) hauled "Old Slewfoot" to the drive-in each night for movie-goers to get up close and personal with Tom the bear.  Photo from the Everglades Wonder Gardens Museum.

      When asked about other aspects of his Wonder Gardens tenure, Charles said, "My favorites were always the crocodiles.  At the time, we had the largest collection of American crocodiles anywhere — for that matter maybe more adults than were left in the wilds of southern Florida at the time.  All of these had been captured in the mangrove forests of upper Florida Bay and sold to the Pipers." 

        "I once helped Lester catch a 9.5-foot leucistic (white, but not albino) crocodile near Osprey in Sarasota County, in 1953.  We made the mistake of putting it in the large crocodile pen and within days Ironhead had killed it.  Maybe it was because it was nearly totally white and it attracted the attention of the mean-spirited, very aggressive  male.  The last wild-caught American crocodile to be added to the Gardens' collection that I know about was a four-footer that was caught as it crossed U. S. 1 on Key Largo, in 1956.

       "In April, it was customary for one of us to be at the crocodile pen early in the morning.  We’d take a long pole with a tin can attached to it and scoop out any eggs the females had deposited in the water (in those days there was no dry ground addition to the enclosure).  In 1954, I managed to collect about a dozen fresh eggs that were not cracked.  I buried them in an enclosure near the hog pen.  I took personal charge of the eggs and watched them carefully until they hatched a little over two months later.  As far as I know these were the last American crocodile eggs to be hatched at the Everglades Wonder Gardens."

Left - Charles LeBuff holding a non-native boa constrictor at the Wonder Gardens, in 1953.  Although they specialized in the exhibition of wildlife native to the Florida Everglades, Bill and Lester Piper would often accept gifts of exotic animals. Periodically, unwanted boas and pythons, monkeys, and even lions found a home at the Gardens.

    Charles retired from the J. N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge, on Sanibel Island, after a 32-year career, in 1990.  He also served six years on the Sanibel City Council (1974-1980), and formed a sea turtle conservation program in 1968 that was known as Caretta Research.  Most sea turtle projects that now operate on the Florida Gulf Coast are offshoots of Charles’ program.  In retirement he writes, replicates Calusa Indian artifacts and weapons, and lectures.  He is the author of three books — The Loggerhead Turtle . . ., Sanybel Light, and The Calusan.  Charles and Jean have two children and one grandchild.

Charles LeBuff feeding the otters during a tour, in 1958.  Photo courtesy of Alvin Lederer.

Laban LeBuff, in 1953

Photos provided by Laban LeBuff

Laban LeBuff during the period he worked at the Wonder Gardens.  His marksmanship paid off later in the Army.  He became the top pistol shooter in his battalion's pistol team.

    Laban LeBuff was born in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1938. He arrived in Bonita Springs with his family in November 1952.  He started to work part-time on weekends at the Wonder Gardens in 1955.  After graduation from Naples High School in 1956, he started working there full time.  When asked to reminisce about his time at the Wonder Gardens, Laban replied, "That’s a long time ago, but one of my most vivid memories at Everglades Wonder Gardens happened right after someone had given Lester some nasty spider monkeys. Lester couldn't say no when it was a question of giving an animal shelter.  We had just finished building a tall cage for the monkeys across the walkway from the private pen of Old Man Mose.  Mose was a huge, perfect specimen of a bull American alligator.  He was well advertised on the Wonder Gardens highway slat signs of the era.  Bill Piper wrote most of the copy for those advertising signs.  I remember a few of the lines well, like, 'Old man Mose, sure was a buster, he ate five dogs and a feather duster.'

    "One day, someone left the feeding flap unlatched on the bottom of the monkey cage and by the time it was discovered one of the monkeys had squeezed through and was found perched on the railing of Mose's pen picking at himself.  As we approached with nets, the monkey tried to escape by vaulting across the pen to reach a guava tree.  Mose caught him in midair and that was that.  I'll never forget the eerie sound the monkey made when he was caught.

    "Before I became an employee, sometime in early 1953, I was at the Gardens when Don Carroll burst into the slaughterhouse looking for Lester.  Don loved to hunt wild hogs.  On his days off he'd ride out in the woods east of Bonita Springs on one of Bill Piper's horses and spend the day searching for feral hogs.  In those days, if you went half a mile east of U. S. 41 you'd be in real wilderness.  Don was covered in blood and was carrying his hog dog, "Blue."  Blue was an Airedale-pit bull terrier mix that loved to hunt pigs as much as his master.  Don had fashioned a unique breast armor from heavy leather that he attached to Blue like a harness.  The thick leather protected Blue's chest and throat from hog tusks. This particular day, after Blue caught a large boar hog by its snout, the armor slipped and Blue's throat was slashed wide open.  Picking up his severely injured dog, Don held him in his arms as he galloped on horseback back to the Gardens for help. Blue was placed on the meat-cutting table and everyone in the building held the wailing dog down while Don carefully cleaned and stitched up the wound — without anesthesia. The nearest veterinarian was twenty-five miles away in Tice and Blue would not have survived the ride. Two weeks later, Don and Blue were in the field together and again happily hunting wild hogs. (Editor's note: For a good description of a hog-hunt with Don Carroll, his dog, Blue, and Bill Piper see the October 1956 issue of TRUE The Man's Magazine.)

Florida's feral hogs have 44 teeth. This includes the group of four enlarged canine teeth called "tushes" by hog hunters. These tusks continue to grow throughout the animal's lifetime. The tusks from the upper jaw, or whitters, curl up and out. These constantly rub against the larger lower tusks and hone a razor like surface on the edge to the lower tusks. Adult males, boars, can have tusks extending up to five inches in length — the largest on record is eight inches. The tusks of females are smaller but can be just as dangerous to an adversary.  Photo courtesy of Anna Mackereth.

    "We used to catch the buck deer and saw their antlers off when they were out of velvet because they would injure one another when dueling and screwworms would get in the wounds. Thank God, screwworms were totally eradicated in Florida by 1959.

     "I remember Bill and Lester were asked to supply fifteen, eight-foot alligators to a New Jersey-based educational exhibit which was to feature Florida Seminole Indian alligator wrestlers.  Bill Piper walked into the pen and selected the individuals, noosed them, and passed the line to the pulling crew.  With a lot of effort we pulled the ‘gators out of the pen and into wooden shipping crates. Lester's son David was fooling around with an electric cattle prod and poked Speedy with it and damned near sobered him up.  David worked at the Gardens whenever his father needed him, but most of his workdays were spent on the ranch with his uncle, Bill.

    "One time a close friend of Bill's and Lester's from the Detroit days named Arty (Arthur Rohmer [1902-1968]), who had arrived in Bonita Springs down and out, was given a job to help him get back on his feet.  Once, Arty was tantalizing one of the panthers with their food and the cat nailed him good.  He told Lester that he had cut himself on some wire.

    "Whenever Lester and his close friends, like Jim Helsengren (1911-1974) from Estero, got together in the slaughterhouse in the evenings or when Don Carroll stopped in to visit after he went with the Game Commission, J. W. Dant was very popular."

     Laban went on to work for the City of Naples in the Engineering Department from which he retired in 1993.  He and his wife Jean also created the very successful LeBuff Orchids, a Naples orchid nursery. Today, Laban fools with antique vehicles, plays guitar, and is an accredited judge with the American Orchid Society. The LeBuffs have one son and one granddaughter.

Dennis Morgan, in 1957

Photo provided by Dennis Morgan

The above photo was taken with a Brownie Hawkeye camera, before the days of good viewfinders. Dennis has a yellow rat snake around his neck and the watch he’s wearing has its own story.

    Dennis Morgan was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1941. His family moved to Bonita Springs in the summer of 1952. He was hired as a full-time employee by Lester Piper early in the summer of 1957, and worked at the Wonder Gardens until his induction into the U.S. Army in September 1958.

    Dennis remembers his time at the Gardens fondly and with good humor. "One night in mid-1958, when the Immokalee Road was under construction, David Piper slowly drove his jeep along the roadbed. Every passenger in the crowded vehicle was scanning the limerock grade out ahead of the headlights, looking for alligators and snakes for the Gardens. We all wore battery-powered lamps, like coal miners use, on our heads. We all were trying to be the first to spot the next pair of alligator eyes reflecting red like a hot coal. An illuminated gator would stay put as long as the light was in his eyes. A brave guy named Charles LeBuff would ease into the water and grab the gator, hold his mouth shut, and steer him to us. We would tie him up and put him in the jeep. After much ribbing, the guys convinced me to try it. I spotted a small one about 50-feet out and got close to it, but it went under the water and was headed in my direction. With much fear, I raced toward shore. Every time my foot hit a branch I thought I was a goner. Never again!

    "In September, 1958, I was trying to get up the nerve to tell Les Piper that I was going to quit the Gardens and enlist in the Army. When I finally told him, he didn’t say anything at first. I think I hurt his feelings. After a while, he said ‘If the Army won’t take you, don’t bother to come back here. If you’re too sorry for the goddammed Army, I guess you’re too sorry for me!’ I still love the old guy!"

    Lester’s son, David, had a reputation of being a serious practical joker. That is, some of his "jokes" could sometimes be downright dangerous. Some of David’s jokes often backfired on him, as Dennis relates. "On the last day I worked there I was walking past the rattlesnake pen where David Piper had just removed a dead 3-foot diamond-back rattler. He threw the dead snake at me and it wrapped around my neck. As he was throwing it, one of the snake’s fangs caught his finger. David sucked on his finger for a while and then dismissed the incident. When I came home on leave three months later, I was talking to him and asked why half of his finger was missing. He said it was the result of throwing a dead snake. That could have been my neck!

    "One evening, David and I had just butchered some sheep for cat food. David saved a big piece of fresh sheep hide. He and I took some wire and wrapped it around Glen Priddy’s muffler. Glen drove for a couple of days with a very bad odor coming from his car before finding it. I couldn’t believe that he accused David and me?

    "One afternoon, Lester sent me to the slaughterhouse for his rye whiskey and 7-Up. When I returned to the place he and I was working, he wasn’t there, but I could hear him calling frantically for me. I kept looking for him until I spotted him inside the alligator pen. He had fallen in! When I got there he was standing pretty far in from the wall surrounded by big alligators. I passed him a long pole to push the gators away while I opened the gate to let him out. After he got out, he glared at me for awhile before chewing me out for not finding him fast enough. We all had to deal with Lester’s hot temper. Just about everyone who was ever lucky enough to work at the Gardens was intimidated by him, but this time he made me mad. I said, ‘How would you like it if the next time you call for me, I go to the alligator pen to look for you.’ I expected him to throw me in with the gators, but he left without doing anything. Man, was I relieved.

    "After closing time one evening, I was busy scrubbing the otter pen and Les Piper was drinking his third rye whiskey and 7-Up of the evening. Next to us were three cages and each of them held a noisy female panther. All were in heat and howling loudly to attract a male cat. From a nearby area, an elderly couple who was still enjoying the Gardens asked me what was wrong with the cats. While I was thinking of a tactful way to tell them, Lester spoke up and said, 'These are females and their pants are on fire. They want the males over there to put out the fire for them.' The wide-eyed couple promptly left.

    "In the picture of myself I have a watch on my arm. In those days I couldn’t afford a watch! I found the Timex while I was diving in the fast current under the dam in the upper Imperial River. At the time, I was looking for fishing lures that had been lost when they got hooked on the rocks. I asked around to try to find the owner. It was Gary Hogue’s watch and he told me to keep it because he had already bought a new one."

    Dennis served three years in the U.S. Army. For two years he was stationed in Mannheim, Germany as an Armored Vehicle Mechanic, attached to the 8^th Calvary. Today, he works as a Parts Manager for a large automobile dealership in Ocala, Florida.

    He and his wife Carol live near Silver Springs, Florida. They have two children and three grandchildren.  (See photo below.)

Richard Beatty, in 1959 & 1963

Photos provided by Laban LeBuff

(L) Richard Beatty atop the National Life Insurance building in Nashville, Tennessee, when he and Laban LeBuff visited the Grand Ole Opry.  (R) U. S. Army Pfc. Richard taking time out of the trenches during the great Hawaiian War.

    Richard Beatty is a native of Hazard, Kentucky.  He was born there in 1939.  Richard was also a distant cousin of Speedy Cornett.  His family relocated to Naples, Florida in 1956 and moved into a home next to that of the LeBuffs.  He quickly befriended his neighbors and roamed the woodlands and wetlands of Collier County with them.  Although he was never on the payroll at the Everglades Wonder Gardens, Richard volunteered to work there every spare moment of his time in the late fifties.  When asked to share his memories about those days, Richard smiled, and said, "I never got any money for my work at the Everglades Wonder Gardens, I got something better; knowledge and friendship. Plus, I never had to ask Lester for a raise and could come and go as I pleased.

    "What are some of my experiences that stand out?  There were so many. Once, Charles (LeBuff), Lester and I were beginning to butcher a mule in the slaughterhouse.  It was on the cradle, on its back, and we were all busy skinning it.  I was cutting up sections of hide into smaller pieces and putting them into a wheelbarrow to later feed to the alligators in the big pit.  Lester had just opened the body cavity when he stopped, and said, 'Look at this on the mule's stomach!'  When Charles and I bent over to get a closer look, Lester stuck the guts with his knife and the gas exploded in our faces. The smell was enough to gag a maggot!  Lester let out a whoop after pulling a fast one on us. To this day I've never changed a baby's diaper.

    "Charles, Lester, and I were putting the roof on the new golden eagle cage. Lester got thirsty and needed a drink.  After his successful surgery for throat cancer his salivary glands didn't function properly.  Charles and I went for a soda, when all of a sudden we heard Lester scream from the tool shed. 'Son of a bitch!'  He repeated this phrase and then added a few more choice words.  I thought some animal had escaped, then I thought, maybe he had been snake bitten.  We ran to him and he said, 'Look what I found!'  He showed us a bottle of his favorite rye whiskey, and continued, 'I hid this from my mother about six months ago.  Go get us some Seven-Ups.'

    "We went into the slaughterhouse to have a few drinks. We were tipping them back when Lester's mother came in unexpectedly.  I handed the bottle to Charles and he passed it to Lester.  Mrs. Piper started beating Lester with her cane.  I learned then and there a man is never too old to get his ass whipped by his mamma.  Lester was in his early sixties and his mother in her eighties. Then and there I also learned to say yes ma'am to her."

    Richard Beatty went on to a career with Sprint Telephone Company. He retired in 2001.  His hobbies include his grandchildren, the woods in his yard, the ongoing study of herpetology, and watching sporting events on television.  He and his wife Melinda live near Naples. They have two children and five grandchildren.

Feeding time in the Everglades Wonder Gardens deer yard.  Florida white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, and a sandhill crane are sharing vitals.

    George Weymouth was born in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1934. He relocated to Southwest Florida from Spencer, a town near his birthplace, in 1958.  George arrived in Naples late that year with his wife Iris, daughter Rose Marie, and son Michael.  Because of his interest in wildlife and the outdoors he befriended Charles LeBuff. The two, along with other friends, spent countless nighttime hours tagging American alligators in the Big Cypress Swamp and collecting snakes they found trying to cross roads or were discovered with the use of personal headlamps in the canals that paralleled the roadways. They also recorded the quantity and species of amphibians and reptiles that had been killed by motor vehicles while the animals attempted to cross the Tamiami Trail (U. S. Highway 41) east of Naples. 

     George moved to Bonita Springs and replaced Charles LeBuff as the primary Everglades Wonder Gardens guide when the latter relocated to Sanibel Island at the end of 1958.

   When asked to share some of his Everglades Wonder Gardens stories, George said, "Lester and Bill Piper were ‘Mountain Men of the Everglades.’  They were a breed of toughened men that are now only written about!  I witnessed many things during my time there — and I’ve heard many more stories.  Their lives would make an unbelievable book if someone would do the research and pry information from those who were closest to the Pipers during their later, mellower years.

    "Bill didn’t come around the Gardens much while I was there.  One day I was cleaning the slanted glass on the rattlesnake pit.  All of a sudden I heard a yell and turned around to see Bill jump up on the rail of the long, roof-covered pit that contained alligators, caimans, and crocodiles.  Bill stood up, got his balance, and then leaped out and caught hold of an overhead cross joist.  He dangled there for a few seconds before dropping down among all the crocodilians. Unknown to me a pair of Carolina wrens had nested in Bill’s backyard and fledged some chicks.  Bill assumed he saw one of "his" baby wrens drop into the pit as it struggled to learn to fly. The crocodilians weren’t full-grown but they were sizeable enough to be dangerous.  But still, not every guy would have had the nerve!

    "One day as I walked behind the entrance building I couldn’t help but notice through the Piper’s bedroom window that Lucille was wrapping a big stretchable wrap around Lester’s barrel chest.  Later, I asked her about Lester and she informed me that about a week earlier he had fallen off a building he’d built to store grain in and landed, back down, on an empty wheelbarrow.  He had cracked one rib and broken two others, yet none of us who worked there had been informed or had the slightest idea he’d been hurt.  Lester had not whimpered or complained once.  Of course, he never did!"

    George remembers another event during his five-year tenure at the Gardens when Lester Piper again escaped serious injury.  "Another time, while I was guiding I heard Lester yelling from the direction of the big ‘gator pool.  He had fallen in while he was using a pole to break up a fight between two bull ‘gators.  When I got there fellow employee Glen Priddy had already opened the gate to let Lester out. The very evening before, a box full of scrap meat and fat from a local market had been fed to the alligators in the exact corner Lester had fallen into.  As he kneeled against the angled wire, and prodded and belted the fighting alligators with a long pole, the fence gave way and Lester had tumbled in on top of the ‘gators.  He was wearing a heavy leather jacket because it had cooled off a bit during the night. This probably provided some protection from the biting reaction of the alligators.  Lester was likely spared from being twisted into many chunks because the ‘gators were somewhat chilled — or startled, but they were full, too.  However, for three days he went ahead with his landscaping project — loading and hauling big loads of dirt around in a wheelbarrow until he finished. Then the word got out. This time he had cracked two ribs and only broken one — again, none of the staff was even aware of his injuries!"

     George Weymouth left the Wonder Gardens in 1963 and moved to Sanibel Island. Over time, George built a reputation on Sanibel as an outstanding field ornithologist and he initiated the first wildlife tours on Sanibel.  His George Weymouth Birding Tours enterprise on Sanibel and Captiva became very popular and he introduced many visitors to the bird life of the barrier islands.  George also became a respected artist in both paint media and as a wildlife carver.  He carved beautiful, life-size renditions of birds for discriminating buyers and art collectors during the off seasons.

    Today, George lives in Sopchoppy, Florida, on the edge of the Appalachicola National Forest in Wakulla County.  For several years he owned and operated Weymouth Wildlife Art there.  He is now semi-retired and devotes his work time to the practice of taxidermy, serving regional fishermen and hunters.  He continues to spend time in the field and enjoys birding and his skill as a bow hunter.  He has five grandchildren.

    Lester and Lucille Piper's only child, David, survives and lives in Enterprise, Alabama, with his wife Eleanor. Their son, David Piper, Jr., a former Bonita Springs city councilman, owns and operates the Everglades Wonder Gardens and celebrates the life of his grandfather, Lester. 

Right — David Piper, Jr.'s right forearm bears a portrait of Lester Piper, a tattoo in honor of his beloved grandfather.

    Bill Piper had a daughter by his third wife, Myrtle Irene "Emie" (Hodges) Piper.  Anna May (Piper) Mackereth has a son who bears her father's middle name. They live in South Fort Myers, Florida.  Anna graciously allowed me to borrow and study her father's archives.  Many of the older photographs and some of the historical information about the Piper brothers and their Everglades Wonder Gardens became available for this page because of her generosity.

Anna May (Piper) Mackereth and her son, Austin James Mackereth — 09/17/05

    Other people who worked at Everglades Wonder Gardens in the fifties but are deceased, include: Eddie "Jeff" McCoy (1900-1979) and Ned, black men who worked mostly with Bill improving pasture, but Jeff also worked at the Gardens when needed.  Also gone are:  Ralph Floyd (1934-2007) of Shepherd, Texas, Don McKeown (1937-2003) of Estero, Harry Metts (1920-1978) and Russ Penno (1904-1987) of Bonita Springs,  Glen Priddy (1912-1974) of Naples, and Bill Widden of Tarpon Springs. The whereabouts of other coworkers like Frank Bryant, Ed Caperton, Ed Taylor, and Larry Wilson are unknown.  If you know anyone who worked at the Everglades Wonder Gardens in the 1950s that has been omitted, is still kicking, and wishes to be listed and/or add their photograph and written memories about the place, please contact the webmaster — this remains a work in progress.  

    Eddie "Jeff" McCoy, circa 1970, at his home in the Piper brothers pasture south of Bonita Springs near the Collier/Lee County line.  Jeff was a good friend of Bill and Lester and they took care of him in his later years.  Earlier in his life, Jeff had labored on the construction of the Tamiami Trail and he loved his connection to the Everglades Wonder Gardens.  Photo courtesy of Jim Vanas.

VIDEO

    See and hear Bill and Lester Piper at the 50th Anniversary party for Everglades Wonder Gardens, held on February 22, 1986.  Also appearing in this clip are: Ralph Curtis (in brown shirt, holding can, and talking), Warren Boutchia (walks by, wearing slouch cap), and Jim Vanas (wiping 'gator's bottoms and talking).  Turn up your volume.  At start-up, 84-year old Lester is on the left of the screen and 86-year old Bill is on the right.

Interested in Florida wildlife?  Visit the NEW Southwest Florida Natural History Newsletter by clicking the link below.

  Florida Wildlife Newsletter

    On November 25, 2005, with the kind cooperation of the Everglades Wonder Gardens owner David Piper, Jr. and the involvement of members of Bill Piper's family, a unique reunion occurred at the Everglades Wonder Gardens.  Employees from the 1950s, those who could participate, and who have contributed their personal accounts which are published above, reunited at the Gardens.  This was a wonderful, nostalgic, and respectful event for these six "old" men.  Each of them had been fortunate enough to have spent some of their young formative years under the stern guidance of Bill and Lester Piper.  Photos of this unique assembly are published below.

L-R — Richard Beatty, George Weymouth, Laban LeBuff, Warren Boutchia, David Piper, Devin Piper, Wiley Piper (Devin's father), Anna (Piper) Mackereth, and Ralph Curtis — 11/25/05.

L-R — Warren Boutchia, Ralph Curtis, Charles LeBuff, Laban LeBuff, Richard Beatty, and George Weymouth.  George is wearing the actual Stetson hat that he guided in from 1958-63 — 11/25/05.

Some recently added photos

Dennis and Carol Morgan returned to Bonita Springs on May 6, 2006 to help celebrate the annual Bonita Springs Pioneer Reunion.  Here they are pictured standing in front of the famous banyan tree that Dennis often climbed while growing up.

Frank Liles, Everglades Wonder Gardens alumni from 1958, also regularly attends the festivities.  A good time was had by all!

David Piper, Sr. and his wife Eleanor at home in Enterprise, Alabama, October 20, 2009.

    Reader's Comments

Received 11/04/07

For a glimpse of old Florida, to see the wildlife of the Everglades close-up, and to hear about them from well-informed guides, don't miss visiting Everglades Wonder Gardens at 27180 Old U.S. 41 in downtown Bonita Springs.  They are open daily: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The last tour leaves at 4 p.m. Live specimens of Florida wildlife are featured; including alligators, crocodiles, bears, panthers, and wild hogs. A museum displays mounted and preserved wildlife specimens, native American artifacts, and a pictorial history of the Gardens. Admission fees are: $15. for adults; $8. for children ages 3-10; and free for children age 2 and younger.  Phone 239.992.2591 for additional information.

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Send your email to the webmaster (Charles LeBuff) at Amber_Publishing@comcast.net  with any relative questions or comments about this site.

Published July 4, 2004

A bumper sticker from the 1950s.