Salty Cracker

Authentic native Floridian Butch Harrison talks an entertaining talk, but he has walked the wilderness walk.

By MICHELE MILLER
Published December 8, 2004

HUDSON - Butch Harrison is what some might call an endangered species in these parts, rating right up there with the Florida panther, the Southern bald eagle and the gopher tortoise.

While his dad came from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and his mom came from "somewhere in New York," the Santa Claus look-alike was born and raised on the outskirts of the Everglades in Delray Beach. That makes him a real Florida Cracker - one with a rather odd and lengthy resume worth telling a tale or two about.

There's all those years he spent frog gigging, hunting and working as a tour guide in the Everglades. For a time, he made his living reeling in bonefish and tarpon in the Keys. In later years, he worked in the flower, horse and ostrich businesses in Live Oaks.

Now Harrison works as a professional storyteller, traveling all over Florida and on occasion, into Georgia. He tells his stories at schools and folk festivals, state parks and environmental meetings.

"Basically, I go where ever I'm asked," he said.

Last week, Harrison spent some time talking to students at Hudson Middle School about what life used to be like in the Everglades before all the development - back when folks like his old friend Edgar used to make a living in the Everglades hunting and skinning 'coons and otters and selling their hides. He also delighted students by cracking his long red and black nylon whip out in the dew-covered grass.

"The original whips were made of buckskin and require a lot of upkeep. The reason I use nylon is I've gotten lazy," said Harrison, as students begged him to "do it again."

Harrison, with his raspy voice, is a colorful figure indeed, donning his signature attire - tan khakis and shirt, a well-worn black felt Stetson hat he has had "forever," a bright multicolored Seminole jacket he got as a gift, a diamond horseshoe pinky ring he wears on his right hand and a black patch that shields his left eye under his gold rimmed glasses.

He has no problem sitting back and telling the one about Kermit, a big old gator he trained to come when he called just to prove a point; another about the boasting prospective son-in-law who screamed like a baby when he woke up to find a gator (it's mouth taped shut) sharing his bunk, and another tale about the time he and a friend made the locals' eyes bulge big as saucers when they landed their plane on Route 27 because they had run out of gas while touring the Glades.

Harrison always seems ready and willing to spin one more yarn if there's time, though he won't tell his age or why he wears a patch over his eye.

"That's a story for another time," he says when asked.

He comes equipped with tools of his trade; the frog gigger - a pole fashioned with four fish hooks on the end for spearing frogs to be sold to restaurants or served at home with scrambled eggs and grits. Another handy accessory is the the "frog chute" a net-like contraption that's slung over a shoulder for easy storing of the creatures. There's the strange-looking home-fashioned headlight that when strapped around his forehead makes it easier to see during night-time hunting ventures. Then there's his whip. In olden days that whip would have been used for herding cattle and became the source of the name Cracker, given to the native Florida cattlemen because of the cracking sound it made when snapped over a steer's head.

Harrison never earned any university degrees. "I went to the college of hard knocks," he says. Still, he hopes his stories will help others understand the important role the Everglades plays in the environment.

"I've loved and been fascinated by it my whole life," he says. Over the years Harrison has seen his share of human encroachment on the Everglades and it bothers him.

"I've watched my favorite place go from paradise to an outhouse," he says, shaking his head. "Progress is necessary. But wildlife has become secondary to humans. That's not right."

[Last modified December 7, 2004, 23:48:19]