Canaveral Palms

5 x 7

From Canaveral Paint Out. I'm a sucker for the view across the water. This is a little 5 x 7 sketch. This was done after the quick draw at the Eldora House. Eldora House is a renovated home that is used by the wildlife refuge as a small museum with artifacts from the area. This is a really beautiful area. If you are in the area you should visit it. Canaveral Seashore National Wildlife Refuge was purchased by the federal government when the area was selected to house the space program. If you look at a map of Florida there is cape about half way down the east coast of Florida. That is Cape Canaveral -- now called Cape Kennedy. Because it was taken over by the government it was not developed like the rest of Florida. All of the area has been protected. The part north of the space program is a National Wildlife Refuge. This fact had an enormous economic impact of the town of Titusville where I grew up. Unfortunately, that impact has been negative, at least compared to other similarly situated Florida cities. Economic times are really tough now. The space program is being phased out and jobs are being cut. There is very little tourist industry in Titusville. Thirty of forty years from now the wild refuge will be a major asset for the area, but that doesn't help if you are unemployed. How do you create an industry around viewing wildlife? Maybe thirty or forty years from now people will rather see an unspoiled beach and wetland and wildlife than ride the E ticket rides at DisneyWorld. I guess we'll see. If you take a trip to Florida, go visit and see what you've been missing.

Thanks for looking.