The wonders of the wild St Lucie River

The St Lucie River is a natural wonder many Floridians don’t properly appreciate.

The St Lucie River area along the Treasure Coast was the closest thing we had to a verifiable American jungle habitat. Some areas such as George LeStrange preserve in Fort Pierce preserve that jungle-like look.

In fact the St Lucie River area looked so much like the Amazon that a few scenes of the 1979 James Bond Movie Moonraker set in Brazil’s Amazon region were actually shot in this area. However, time, human malfeasance and development have taken a toll on the river. Here is a view of the river from the 1950’s preserved by the Department of State.

In the 1950’s the river looked like this: