Trapper Nelson and the Loxahatchee

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Dickinson State Park: by Earnest and Theresa Woleslagel (above); Toby Marcovich (Below)

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The Wildman of the Loxahatchee River

     The black waters of the Loxahatchee National, Wild and Scenic River run through some of the most pristine wetlands and pine flatwoods in South Florida, and much of their preservation is due to the passion of one big, wild man.

  The story of Trapper Nelson and the Loxahatchee River he called home is quintessential South Florida and begging to be immortalized in a Hollywood film.

    The early 1900s saw the Great War and the Great depression, but neither were great for the working class American. Trenton New Jersey was much smaller in 1908-1923, when Vince Natulkiewicz was born and raised on her streets, but it was still a tough, urban area where working class men and women strove to make ends meet. For the Natulkiewiczes, recent Polish immigrants, things were made more difficult through not speaking English. They persevered as a family by all chipping in. From a young age, Vince and his brother Charles would spend most days hunting in the forests around Trenton for game to supplement the family’s meager wages. ​

​     Life was hard but exciting for the boys until their mother, Christine, passed away and their father remarried. Vince particularly did not like his new stepmother, and, at the age of 15, he ran away and dropped out of school. Using trains as a “free” means of transportation, Vince headed west to Colorado and New Mexico before making a fateful journey South into Mexico where he was arrested for gun running and sentenced to one year in prison. He did not serve much time at all, however. In fact, he claimed that he was released because the Mexican prison could not afford to feed him. So, he was asked to leave Mexico and never return.

    His next trip was back home, but not because he was homesick. He went to convince Charlie and their friend John Dykas to join him on an adventure in Florida. They intended to head to Key West to fish and hunt in the pristine, clear waters. As it turns out, it was not a hard sell, and the three young men quickly hopped a train south.

   As fate would have it, the bridge over Jupiter Inlet was in a condition where the trains that past over it had to slow down, and the three friends were awake and peering out over their first views of South Florida.

   What they saw was amazing, the Jupiter Lighthouse looked out upon crystal clear water teaming with snook, otters and goliath grouper. They did not make it to Key West, because they jumped off as soon as the train cleared the bridge.

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