Marjorie Harris Carr: The Woman Who Stopped the Canal and Saved a River
A canal was coming through the middle of Florida, and one woman said no. Marjorie Harris Carr spent nearly three decades fighting the Cross Florida Barge Canal, and she won. The 110-mile greenway that replaced it now bears her name.
A Scientist First
Carr grew up in southwest Florida and earned her master’s degree in zoology from the University of Florida in 1942. She co-founded the Alachua Audubon Society in 1960 and spent years studying the wildlife along the Ocklawaha River, one of the last free-flowing rivers in the state. When the Army Corps of Engineers began digging the Cross Florida Barge Canal in the 1960s, threatening to destroy the river and everything that depended on it, Carr co-founded Florida Defenders of the Environment in 1969 to stop them.
The Fight That Took 30 Years
Her group helped write one of the nation’s first environmental impact statements, filed suit against the Army Corps, and lobbied Congress until President Nixon halted construction in 1971. The fight was far from over. It took another 20 years of political battles before Congress finally killed the canal project for good in 1990.
A Greenway in Her Name
Carr continued her conservation work until her death in 1997. The following year, the state renamed the former canal corridor the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway, a 110-mile protected trail that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the St. Johns River. Hikers, cyclists, and horseback riders now use the path that was supposed to be a shipping channel.
