From the early 1950s through the 1980s, 26 African-American artists – now known as the Florida Highwaymen – used vivid and bright colors to paint scenes of beautiful, untouched Florida. Excluded from showing their work in galleries or museums in Jim Crow era Florida, they piled their paintings into the trunks of their cars and sold them along US Highway 1, thus earning the name “Highwaymen.” Today, their vibrant paintings are highly-collectible and widely sought after.

But the question still remains – whose job is it to put the kayak launch back to rights? After all, it is an official stop on the Blueways Trail, which is a interconnected statewide map and information system that gives kayakers access to where some of the best waterways are located along 220 miles of coastline. It includes tidal creeks, estuary bays and, in this area, Charlotte Harbor.