The value of the story of Gasparilla Island and old Florida
This Tuesday, retired history teacher and certified tour guide David Bredemus brought a tour bus to Boca Grande. It was not an ordinary bus tour group, interested in drinks, theater or casinos. Instead, the group from All Around Tours was interested in Florida history, all of it.
The group was from around the Sarasota area. Most on the trip had never been here and did not know the story of Boca Grande until their visit.
The tour was called the “Rustic Florida Backroads” tour; the company offers a number of trips like this that highlight the ever-decreasing unspoiled places around us. As he plans tours, Bredemus tries to find what he calls the “traces of old Florida still left.”
It is good to be a part of the “still left.”
The trip positioned the whole story of Gasparilla Island as part of a day trip that included the little railroad town of Alva, which has to its name only a small museum and humble frame church. Here’s how they positioned Boca Grande:
“Tour two Florida islands that has been both a playground for the rich and famous, world-famous fishing location and important mining site. Learn about and see a body of water which attracted fishermen from around the world at the turn of the 19th century.”
The company’s other trips also echo the mystique of old Florida, from journeys to the glass-bottomed boats of Silver Springs to Flamenco shows in Tampa. They even offer a “Sacred Places of Florida” tour that looks at places like the disappeared town of Angola, a free-slave settlement that was in what was downtown Bradenton.
They first visited the south end of the island, where they heard about the Lighthouse, the phosphate docks and tarpon fishing. They also loved Whidden’s. A reminder to all: travelers want to see authentic.
“Whidden’s, that’s an interesting place,” said Bredemus. “The people that run it are as interesting as the building itself.”
People want to see a place, yes, but they also want to see people, and connect. Part of what you are selling when you have tourists come is pure enthusiasm. They found that enthusiasm at the Boca Grande History Center, as well.
“That little museum in town,” Bredemus said, “…. they are really cooperative.”
The group went over to The Gasparilla Inn and admired the lobby and its state of preservation. “That’s such an important hotel in America,” Bredemus said.
Part of the lure here is celebrity history, even the famous people who are no longer with us. Many visitors on the bus, when asked of highlights, said that seeing the outside of the simple house where Katharine Hepburn stayed was a reward in itself. Celebrity and film history always resonates through time and conjures up memories. It also sells.
“I’m a fan of Katharine Hepburn,” said Bredemus, of why he highlighted that. “I kind of wanted to see where she stayed.”
While the tour company takes traditional cruise and casino trips as well as school charters, it has a niche in cultural tourism. Paige Balsinger, All Around’s vice president of operations, gives Bredemus leeway on his tours, as he comes up with the itinerary.
Bredemus, who lives the other half of the year in Minnesota, got into the business of taking tours while teaching history and social studies in St. Paul. He would try to interest his students and athletes in history, and found that adults were game to understand more, too. History seemed at first to be the least interesting thing, but he found he could interest the junior high kids in history when he coached athletics.
“The coach was always the teacher in Minnesota,” Bredemus said.
There is much more history in Florida to sell and understand. For instance, sometimes dreary Lehigh Acres, with few attractions, can become interesting when you tell its story. All along, there is a tale to tell, on every one of our rustic backroads.
“The adults are hungry for learning,” Bredemus said.
Yes we are.
Garland Pollard is the editor of the Boca Beacon. Email editor@bocabeacon.com
