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Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park

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Dedicated to the memory of Larry and Penny Thompson [1], civic leaders, camping enthusiasts and advocates of park beautification, the Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park and Campground is the largest park/campground in Miami-Dade County (Florida). [2]

The park, adjacent to Zoo Miami, totals 270 acres (of which 60 acres is dedicated to camping). [3] Containing some of the last portions of rock pine lands in South Florida, it is located in southwest Miami, two miles west of the Florida Turnpike's Exit 13 between SW 134th Ave. and SW 122nd Ave. on the north side of Eureka Drive (SW 184th St.). [4]

Features

The park has a 22-acre spring-fed fresh water lake and three large slides, plus picnic shelters, restrooms, five miles of bike trails and 2.5 miles of horse trails. The 60-acre camping area has 24-hour on-site security, 240 RV sites, WIFI, restrooms with hot showers/laundry, cabana for social gatherings and a heated pool. From December through March, the campground is fully booked with RV campers from the northern United States and Canada. The campground is 30 minutes from the Everglades National Park entrance, three hours from Key West and 30 minutes from Miami Beach. There’s additional space for tent camping.

The campground office has a permanent historic display with Larry Thompson’s 1941 Remington Noiseless Portable Typewriter he used to write his Miami Herald columns while on cross-country camping trips with his family, plus family photos and memorabilia. [5] [6] These items were donated to the campground by Carl Thompson in December of 2012 as part of the 35th anniversary of the campground’s dedication. Campers can also check out from the office various collections from Larry Thompson's Herald columns, in addition to three of his books,[7] including "Hogs Under My Bed",[8] which describes the Thompson Family's camping trip across Florida one summer.

The park and campground contain some of the last portions of wilderness in Miami-Dade County, with wildflowers, palmettos and rock pine lands in abundance. Once part of post-World War II agricultural research by the University of Miami, groves of avocado, mango and lychee fruit trees still flourish throughout the park.

Namesake(s)

Larry Thompson was a beloved humor columnist for the Miami Herald for more than two decades until his death February 18, 1973. [9] [10] He is in the Florida Newspaper Hall of Fame. [11] His wife Penny, who died September 22, 1975, was a pioneer in women’s aviation during the 1940s-1950s.She was the Florida chapter president of the 99s, the women’s pilot organization started by Amelia Earhart. She organized international women’s air races and published an aviation newspaper from Miami. In the Civil Air Patrol, she flew over the Gulf of Mexico searching for German submarines during World War II. Her plane was one of several hundred that was destroyed in 1945 when fire burned down the giant blimp hangars at the Richmond Naval Air Station, a short distance from the park and campground that today bear her name today.[12]

History

The Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park and Campground was originally part of the Richmond Naval Air Station, the world's largest blimp base at the time which came into existence when the U.S. federal government acquired by eminent domain 2,107 acres of undeveloped land. On September 15, 1942 it was commissioned as a base for U.S. Navy blimps in World War II to help protect ships on the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico from German submarine attacks. On September 15, 1945, three years to the date the base was commissioned, a hurricane and subsequent fire destroyed all three 17-story wood hangars and everything inside: 366 military and civilian aircraft, 25 blimps and more than 100 vehicles.

A connection to the World War II past is evident today at the south entrance to the park off SW 184th St., where a large concrete directional arrow still stands in the ground, pointing north – a guide for blimp and airplane pilots who landed at the Naval Air Station.

With the war over, the blimp base ceased operations. The hangars were never rebuilt and the blimps never returned. For the next 30 years, the land had varied uses including serving as the University of Miami's South Campus and a field research lab for 350 acres of fruit trees for the university. The parcel for the Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park and Campground (and Zoo Miami) was acquired in 1974 as part of a 1,010-acre land transfer from the U.S. government to Miami-Dade County.

Following the death of his parents, in late 1975, then 21-year-old Carl Thompson lobbied the Miami-Dade County Commission to name the park after his parents.[13]

On November 17, 1975, the Miami-Dade County Commission unanimously voted to name the park the Larry and Penny Thompson Memorial Park and Campground.

The campground was dedicated December 17, 1977. [14] The late Gene Miller, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for the Miami Herald and close friend of the Thompson's, represented the paper at the dedication and presented a bronze plaque donated by the Herald. [15] Today, the plaque is at the front of the campground office. The plaque quotes from Thompson’s February 3, 1956, Herald column: “All types of parks are needed in this complex civilization of ours, and we don’t have enough of any of them. Providing a place where a person can just sit --- where he can commune with God’s world – certainly is and always will be a primary requisite.”

On August 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew devastated the park and campground, severely damaging most of the picnic shelters and other buildings and flattening many of the trees. However, within a few years, the damage was repaired and the trees recovered.

References

  1. ^ "Park Honors Thompsons," Miami Herald, Nov. 19, 1975, Page B-1
  2. ^ Oklahoman-July 31,2015/
  3. ^ Colorado Springs Gazette, January 13, 2013, Pg. D-3
  4. ^ "The Magic City Captured by Miami Vice, Scarface, Movies and Burn Notice," By Col. James Staubach, Pg. 93, Describes history of property, from WWII blimp base to Miami Vice and description of rare pine lands found in park.
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ South Miami News, "Park Exhibit Opens Honoring Columnist Larry Thompson and Wife Penny," December 29, 2013
  7. ^ Publisher: Wake-Brook House, Sanbornville, New Hampshire, later moved to Coral Gables, Florida
  8. ^ Library of Congress Catalog # 63-15337
  9. ^ Kansas City Star, February 19,1973
  10. ^ Oxnard (California)Press Courier, Associated Press, February 19, 1973, Pg. 3
  11. ^ Tallahassee Democrat, "Miami Columnist Inducted into Newspaper Hall of Fame", August 5, 2015, Pg. 4-C
  12. ^ Miami Herald,"Penny Gave Up Flying and Devoted Her Life to Larry," September 23, 1975, Page B-1
  13. ^ Miami Herald, "The Thompson's Park: It Would Please Them," November 23, 1975, Page 4-E
  14. ^ The Miami News, December 16, 1977, Page 11-A
  15. ^ The News Leader,"Festivities Mark Park's Opening," December 16, 1977, Pg. 7-A

Books

History of Property

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