Where is ‘Alligator Alcatraz’? In the heart of the Glades, out past the airboat rides
The state of Florida’s controversial new immigration detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” sits smack in the center of the Florida Everglades.
The project — which initially will consist of tents, trailers and portable bathrooms — is located on the north side of the historic east-west corridor long known as the Tamiami Trail but formally designated as U.S. 41. The camp is being quickly thrown up on the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a property owned by Miami-Dade and recently seized by the state. Few travelers would even notice the road leading to the airport gate as they zoom by at 60 mph-plus.
The site lies about 40 miles west of the Miami International Airport and about halfway to Naples, out past a series of tourist stops offering airboat rides like Coopertown and Everglades Safari. It’s also west of the Shark Valley outpost in Everglades National Park, famed for its tram rides and long biking trail. The closest large landmark to its east is the Miccosukee Indian Village.
Drive west and there are a string of camp grounds, then 10 miles later you’ll see famed Everglades photographer Clyde Butcher’s Big Cypress Gallery. Keep going and you’ll pass Skunk Ape Research Center, an attraction devoted to the mythical swamp dweller. A little further and you’ll see the Ochopee Post Office, reputed to be the smallest operating post office in the country.
The facility is within Big Cypress National Preserve, federally protected land, and surrounded on three sides by Miccosukee and Seminole tribal infrastructure, including homes and ceremonial sites.
The airport was constructed in the 1960s as part of an ill-fated effort to build the largest airport in the nation, the Everglades Jetport, before environmentalists shut it down. Since then, the airport has served as a training ground — or emergency landing spot — for pilots of planes large and small.
