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Totch: A Life in the Everglades
"Totch Brown's memoirs of vanished days in the Ten Thousand Islands and the Everglades--the last real frontier in Florida, and even today the greatest roadless wilderness in the United States--are invaluable as well as vivid and entertaining, for Totch is a natural-born story-teller, and his accounts of fishing and gator hunting as well as his life beyond the law as gator poacher and drug runner are evocative and colorful, fresh and exciting."--from the foreword by Peter Matthiessen In the mysterious wilderness of swamps, marshes, and rivers that conceals life in the Florida Everglades, Totch Brown hung up his career as alligator hunter and commercial fisherman to become a self-confessed pot smuggler. Before the marijuana money rolled in, he survived excruciating poverty in one of the most primitive and beautiful spots on earth, Chokoloskee Island, in the mangrove keys known as the Ten Thousand Islands located at the western gateway to the Everglades National Park.
Until he wrote this memoir--recollections from his childhood in the twenties that merge with reflections on a way of life dying at the hands of progress in the nineties--Totch had never read a book in his life. Still, his writing conveys the tension he experienced from trying to live off the land and within the laws of the land.
Told with energy and authenticity, his story begins with the handful of souls who came to the area a hundred years ago to homestead on the high ground formed from oyster mounds built and left by the Calusa Indians. They lived close to nature in shacks built of tin or palmetto fans; they ate wild meat, Chokoloskee chicken (white ibis), swamp cabbage, even--when they were desperate--manatee; and they weathered all manner of natural disaster from hurricanes to swarms of "swamp angels" (mosquitoes). In his grandpa's day, Totch writes, outlaws and cutthroats would "shoot a man down just as quick as they'd knock down an egret, especially if he came between them and the plume birds."
His grandparents were both contemporaries of Ed J. Watson, the subject of Peter Matthiessen's best-selling Killing Mr. Watson , and Totch is featured in the recent award-winning PBS film Lost Man's An Everglades Adventure with Peter Matthiessen . He also appeared in Wind Across the Everglades , the 1957 Budd Schulberg movie in which Totch and Burl Ives sing some of Totch's Florida cracker songs.
Loren G. "Totch" Brown was born in Chokoloskee, Florida, in 1920. After purchasing his first motorboat at the age of thirteen (and retiring from formal schooling after the seventh grade) he worked as an alligator hunter, commercial fisherman, crabber, professional guide, poacher, marijuana runner, singer, and songwriter.
Until he wrote this memoir--recollections from his childhood in the twenties that merge with reflections on a way of life dying at the hands of progress in the nineties--Totch had never read a book in his life. Still, his writing conveys the tension he experienced from trying to live off the land and within the laws of the land.
Told with energy and authenticity, his story begins with the handful of souls who came to the area a hundred years ago to homestead on the high ground formed from oyster mounds built and left by the Calusa Indians. They lived close to nature in shacks built of tin or palmetto fans; they ate wild meat, Chokoloskee chicken (white ibis), swamp cabbage, even--when they were desperate--manatee; and they weathered all manner of natural disaster from hurricanes to swarms of "swamp angels" (mosquitoes). In his grandpa's day, Totch writes, outlaws and cutthroats would "shoot a man down just as quick as they'd knock down an egret, especially if he came between them and the plume birds."
His grandparents were both contemporaries of Ed J. Watson, the subject of Peter Matthiessen's best-selling Killing Mr. Watson , and Totch is featured in the recent award-winning PBS film Lost Man's An Everglades Adventure with Peter Matthiessen . He also appeared in Wind Across the Everglades , the 1957 Budd Schulberg movie in which Totch and Burl Ives sing some of Totch's Florida cracker songs.
Loren G. "Totch" Brown was born in Chokoloskee, Florida, in 1920. After purchasing his first motorboat at the age of thirteen (and retiring from formal schooling after the seventh grade) he worked as an alligator hunter, commercial fisherman, crabber, professional guide, poacher, marijuana runner, singer, and songwriter.
280 pages, Paperback
First published September 20, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
March 24, 2012
If you're spending time in the Everglades this is pretty much a must read. That and a visit to the Smallwood Store to gather a bit of history. There you'll find a video playing with Totch himself telling some of his stories. The story is written in a "down-home" way, with Totch giving a glimpse into the life of an fisherman and an alligator hunter, first legal, then illegal and an eventual drug runner, who was trying to make a living as the designation of the Everglades as a National Park changed the way of life. The book gives a view into the lives of some good people living there in the early 1900's and some, like Edgar Watson, who were notoriously bad. Overall, a good read.
January 4, 2023
This little book of Everglades history, told by an old timey native in his simple way, makes me appreciate the 10,000 Islands even more.
March 4, 2011
What a wonderful read. A personal memoir of a man who was raised in the Everglades (botn in the late 20s). great adventure, grit, humor & determination. entertaining read.
December 12, 2018
I picked this up at a used book store on a whim, becuase it looked a little quirky, and because it covers a bit of history of a part of Florida I've always wanted to know more about - the Everglades. The writing isn't great, and at times it's very choppy - appears to be a series of notecards put together one after the next. But the voice is genuine, and the story is very interesting. The author covers the various phases of his life, and ties these to changes that took place in the Everglades. There are great photos included, as well as vignettes and anecdotes that paint a truly vivid picture of this man's life- or at least what he remembers it to be. He describes several actions he made in his life that he anticipates the reader might not like, and he tries to explain why he did them. Sometime this comes across as rationalizing bad behavior. But at other times he reflects on some of his actions with genuine regret, and in doing so is more honest. The story paints a compelling picture of how a group of people were changed by history and lost the land they inhabited, though they themselves only lived on that land after it was taken from its native inhabitants. This fact isn't lost on the author either. It has piqued my interest and makes me want to read more about this time in history.
January 9, 2026
4.5, rounded up to 5 stars
Top tier memoir! Could feel the author’s character throughout the book, and never a dull moment in this book. I love reading some good ol FL stories, and fear I kind of don’t want to read another non floridian memoir for a while because everyone else’s lives will be boring??
Top tier memoir! Could feel the author’s character throughout the book, and never a dull moment in this book. I love reading some good ol FL stories, and fear I kind of don’t want to read another non floridian memoir for a while because everyone else’s lives will be boring??
December 16, 2025
Try something completely new. What a life
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November 25, 2020While I'm glad this book was written, I didn't really enjoy reading it. Parts of it were really great, and it was cool to see how people made a living in the Ten Thousand Islands region of Florida very early on, and it was neat to see how they interacted with the Seminoles and the way they perceived things, but by God, this is largely about how to obtain game and sealife in detail. About boating excursions etc. About times dogs/babies/other living things were killed by mistake. I think he could've left the part out about shooting a manatee one day when he was bored and later having it wash up and his dad get angry about it, but I guess it showed the philosophy that you kill only what you need, even though the entire book seems to be about killing. At first they were poor and doing it just to get by, but later were selling excesses of fish that were in abundance then and now are no longer. In all fairness, not just the locals depleted the wildlife to its meager numbers now, and actually, of everyone involved, I would pick Totch to create laws to bring the Everglades back into abundance. He points out some things that could help now, like twice yearly burnings caused young green growth that was good for wildlife. Without the burnings, the swamp was much less attractive to living things. The roads have stymied wildlife trying to move north and south freely, and panther preservation efforts aren't accomplishing much good for the amount of money spent on them. He mentions just breeding panthers and releasing them would be money better spent. I think anyone who wants to volunteer or create legislation for a better Everglades should read this book. Even though locals depended on killing wildlife for income and food, they also respected it and learned natural rhythms, in order to ensure they didn't disrupt them, and therefore their food supply. People nowadays are not that smart. Glad this book was written so that the history of this area can be remembered. And maybe we won't continue to make the same mistakes.
December 31, 2020
Totch is an entertaining storyteller—straightforward and down-to-earth. No surprise there, as he spent his entire life living in the Everglades (b. 1920-d.1996).
One of the most striking things in this book are the photographs. Yes, the stories are amazing too, but when you consider the harsh conditions Totch and his family—and ancestors—endured, it all seems very exceptional, which it is.
But the photographs…for all the challenges and years of hard living, everyone looks hearty and very healthy. I expected rags and dirty faces and bedraggled expressions in the photographs. Nope.
Over his lifetime, Totch had a number of different jobs. Hunting alligators was quite a business for a while (until Everglades National Park was established), as was fishing for stone crabs. There are a lot more adventures for book lovers to enjoy.
I think the following quote best illustrates Totch's views about the Everglades: “If God would ever grant me the power, I’d take the Everglades back from the government and give it back to the Seminoles.”
One of the most striking things in this book are the photographs. Yes, the stories are amazing too, but when you consider the harsh conditions Totch and his family—and ancestors—endured, it all seems very exceptional, which it is.
But the photographs…for all the challenges and years of hard living, everyone looks hearty and very healthy. I expected rags and dirty faces and bedraggled expressions in the photographs. Nope.
Over his lifetime, Totch had a number of different jobs. Hunting alligators was quite a business for a while (until Everglades National Park was established), as was fishing for stone crabs. There are a lot more adventures for book lovers to enjoy.
I think the following quote best illustrates Totch's views about the Everglades: “If God would ever grant me the power, I’d take the Everglades back from the government and give it back to the Seminoles.”
June 19, 2019
Interesting look at how people lived in the Everglades back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. There is a lot of history with pictures of the first city within the Everglades. Reading how Totch lived as a child in the Everglades,
before the government obtained it for a National Park, was really interesting. Totch himself was quite the law breaker of rules as an adult, but that sure made his story fun to read. The Everglades is definitely on my list to see and now I feel like I will have a different appreciation when viewing it.
before the government obtained it for a National Park, was really interesting. Totch himself was quite the law breaker of rules as an adult, but that sure made his story fun to read. The Everglades is definitely on my list to see and now I feel like I will have a different appreciation when viewing it.
April 30, 2014
I have mixed feelings about this book. I found it interesting to read about life in the Everglades before all the tourists arrived, but I found the hunting and illegal activities disturbing. Breaking the law is nothing to be admired.
The book is written just as the author would talk.....not very well!
The book is written just as the author would talk.....not very well!
January 23, 2017
Suggested reading by an Everglades fishing guide that was related to Totch. Old Florida!
December 5, 2023
It’s the most unusual autobiography I ever read. The author’s life in the far southwestern tip of Florida—as much water as it is land—is surely among the more remarkable of modern mankind. But how grateful I am for his telling the rest of us about it.
His dwelling places shifted from time to time, but his birthplace and chief “home” in Chokoloskee is said to be the largest of the Ten Thousand Islands in what is now Everglades National Park. His life begins promising enough, born into a family of fiercely independent souls whose work was fishing, hunting, gardening, and caring for each other. They were friendly with the Seminole Indians whose ancestors had lived in those glades and islands for hundreds (thousands?) of years before white men ventured there. His family learned to trade the skins, feathers, and meat of the animals they didn’t eat. They learned to build their own boats, carve their paddles and oars, and to build (or jury-rig) motors to propel their ever-larger watercraft. They sometimes shared houses (some previously abandoned), sometimes lived in tar paper shacks or lean-tos, sometimes just camped on the highest ground a few feet above high tides.
But after an inspirational first half, the story turns a bit raunchy. Moonshining, then marijuana smuggling from South America followed a lot of alligator slaughter after the Everglades National Park was established. His final chapter is commentary on the good and the bad that the Park—and new roads to and through it—and finally unending tourists have brought to the earlier pristine area in which he grew up. As a visitor myself to Chokoloskee in 2018, I fell in love with it (except for the noise of the speed boats along the border of Everglades Park). By that time Totch was gone, but he had graciously left his legacy and advocacy to save as much nature as possible throughout the whole area. I disapprove (along with his wife) of his illegal drug-running, but he makes valid points about the National Park administration. Even he agreed, however, that without the Park, commercial development would eventually have destroyed the beautiful bounty of such a unique place on earth. RIP Totch.
His dwelling places shifted from time to time, but his birthplace and chief “home” in Chokoloskee is said to be the largest of the Ten Thousand Islands in what is now Everglades National Park. His life begins promising enough, born into a family of fiercely independent souls whose work was fishing, hunting, gardening, and caring for each other. They were friendly with the Seminole Indians whose ancestors had lived in those glades and islands for hundreds (thousands?) of years before white men ventured there. His family learned to trade the skins, feathers, and meat of the animals they didn’t eat. They learned to build their own boats, carve their paddles and oars, and to build (or jury-rig) motors to propel their ever-larger watercraft. They sometimes shared houses (some previously abandoned), sometimes lived in tar paper shacks or lean-tos, sometimes just camped on the highest ground a few feet above high tides.
But after an inspirational first half, the story turns a bit raunchy. Moonshining, then marijuana smuggling from South America followed a lot of alligator slaughter after the Everglades National Park was established. His final chapter is commentary on the good and the bad that the Park—and new roads to and through it—and finally unending tourists have brought to the earlier pristine area in which he grew up. As a visitor myself to Chokoloskee in 2018, I fell in love with it (except for the noise of the speed boats along the border of Everglades Park). By that time Totch was gone, but he had graciously left his legacy and advocacy to save as much nature as possible throughout the whole area. I disapprove (along with his wife) of his illegal drug-running, but he makes valid points about the National Park administration. Even he agreed, however, that without the Park, commercial development would eventually have destroyed the beautiful bounty of such a unique place on earth. RIP Totch.
April 28, 2025
In college, I took a two-week, poorly-planned canoe trip through the exact area where this book was set, and it was really cool to have some additional info on the rivers and keys we traveled through while swatting mosquitos and catching fish. Overall, it was a decent read, full of local color and historical info. However, it's clear that this book was written long, long after the events it describes, and there's a sepia tone to all of Totch's stories.
The only really thought-provoking paragraph in this book is midway through, when Totch pauses for a moment to consider whether he "did right by Mother Nature" as he was poaching, hunting, and commercial-fishing the Everglades and the Ten Thousand Islands. He concludes that he might, possibly, have been part of the problem, and at the end of the book, he mentions that the Glades has been mostly emptied out of wildlife due to men like him. A little more introspection would have made this book much better.
The only really thought-provoking paragraph in this book is midway through, when Totch pauses for a moment to consider whether he "did right by Mother Nature" as he was poaching, hunting, and commercial-fishing the Everglades and the Ten Thousand Islands. He concludes that he might, possibly, have been part of the problem, and at the end of the book, he mentions that the Glades has been mostly emptied out of wildlife due to men like him. A little more introspection would have made this book much better.
November 27, 2020
Although this is not the best-written book I've read, I give it a 5 star rating because it is so unique. Totch tells his own story in his own words, and his warm personality comes through. He was a pioneer who eked out a living and raised his family in what most would consider an environment hostile to humans. He doesn't gloss over his mistakes or the illegal activities he was involved in. He was an outlaw who valued life, human and animal alike, but he was also a philosopher with a compassionate appreciation for others. If he had been born in other circumstances, who knows what he could have accomplished in life? This book itself is a great accomplishment. It is a window into a time and place that few have experienced, and fewer still have brought to life.
May 17, 2017
the reason that I picked this book was I didn't have anything to read. My grandmother went to his homestead that Totch the main charter is from. When my family went down to vist her she gave my this book. I ended up picking up the book and I did not think it would be that good but it was very good. the book takes about life growing up in the everglades and I found it interesting that this was a real book and the main was still alive but he lives with almost no technology and has no connection to the outside world. If you are looking for a interesting book from a different point of view I would recommend it.
November 27, 2020
3.5 stars. The author is a third-generation inhabitant of what's now the Everglades National Park. To say he had a remarkable life understates the fact considerably. The book isn't the most elegantly written, but it was a fascinating dive into Florida and Everglades history told through the eyes of a man who dropped out of school in the seventh grade, but who was clearly a brilliant mind. He was a commercial fisherman, crabber, and hunter. He won a Bronze Star in the Battle of the Bulge. He poached alligators and ran drugs in the swamp. High up on the hypothetical "who would you like to have a beer with" list.
April 7, 2020
Read this for our book discussion, and was looking forward to it but - it took a bit for me to get into it. It was interesting for seeing what an old-time Florida man living in the Everglades would be like, but there was so much talk about killing things - like herons, and other wildlife that I don't think of people actually eating. But there were only a couple times Totch, as a young boy, killed purely for sport, and he expresses in the book that he regretted it. It's amazing what all he went thru.
February 5, 2023
I loved this memoir depicting a very unique and unforgiving life in the Everglades. I bought several copies for friends and family as well. This is truly a must read. This man was truly extraordinary in his own way. I learned about this book from his grandson who was our airboat tour guide down in Everglade City. I am so thankful he mentioned his grand dad’s book. This is unfortunately a jewel that is definitely not mainstream or found on the shelves at Barnes & Noble but is worthy of your time. I was truly engrossed with every page.
February 9, 2021
I read this book as I kayaked and camps in the Everglades recently. The book was a terrific red on the trip since we visited many of the places that Totch writes about in the book. Brown tells about a life that no longer exists. It was fascinating to red how he and his ancestors made a living in such a wild and unfriendly place. If you ever plan to visit the Everglades I recommend reading this book before you go!
July 21, 2018
Totch is just a down home guy telling his life story. It happens that he spent it in the FL Everglades and the Ten Thousand Lakes. Some of the keys I passed and stayed on during my Outward Bound experience (kayaking the Ten Thousand Lakes) were mentioned in the book. Not necessarily a great book club discussion book, but might be OK.
April 2, 2020
Tales of life and adventure by a man who grew up in the mangroves of the Gulf side of Florida at the edge of the Everglades. Totch Brown lived a colorful life, living off the land, or, for the most part, the water. A commercial fisherman with his own boat from the age of fourteen, Totch's story includes, as well, moonshine-distilling, sport-fishing, alligator-poaching, and pot-smuggling.
November 13, 2020
I really enjoyed this book, it put me in the Everglades before the place was called that, alongside a white man living off the land his ancestors encroached on. Reading this during the pandemic was excellent timing. It's a book my dad has recommended several times, but I hadn't bothered to get because its limited print and more expensive. It's worth the investment.
April 27, 2018
What a fascinating place and time. Not too far from my home and places I have spent time. But it was a different age. Great read of what Florida was like when people lived here but it really wasn't developed.
May 13, 2018
If you live in SWFL, this should be on your reading list. Totch gives an incredible window into the Everglades that those of us that live here should think about as the stewards of our spit of Florida coastline.
August 14, 2018
Loved reading about the history of the Everglades from the viewpoint of the author. Highly recommend for those who are new to southwest Florida.
September 16, 2020
skimmed for book club
March 18, 2021
3.5 stars. I wanted to stop reading early on but kept going. The book got better towards the end. It's a great book if you like fishing and Florida.
September 5, 2021
I regularly spend time on Chokoloskee island in southwest Florida. Totch's story is a staple of the history surrounding the Thousand Islands that Chocoloskee is central to.
February 20, 2022
If you like to learn about Old Florida, you'll enjoy this book.
June 19, 2022
Excellent little memoir of life and times in the developing Everglades. From what I know of local history - pretty much everything he describes is true :-)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews