Uncle Sam Chooses Tampa for Base in 1939

On July 14, 1939, the Tampa Morning Tribune announced the war department's decision to build the "Southeast Air Base" in Tampa. The land selected was a 6000 acre marshy area known as Catfish Point. As part of President Roosevelt's New Deal Program, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) paid local unemployed citizens for land clearing and road construction work. Runways, buildings, and airplane hangars were built by private contractors. Construction was competed less than two years later and the base was officially dedicated as MacDill Field on April 16, 1941.

"What is now MacDill was mostly pine and palmetto trees with some small farms that had hogs, chickens, and maybe a cow or two... and when riding horseback through there, we were always mindful of the rattlesnakes."

- Louise Lykes Ferguson

(on growing up near Catfish Point)

The Rattlesnake Cannery

As workers cleared the old Catfish Point site, they encountered thousands of rattlesnakes, and helped give birth to the world's only Rattlesnake Cannery. The attraction near Gandy and Westshore Boulevard even had its own post office. Entrepreneur George End ran the cannery and rattlesnake attraction until his untimely death in 1943.

George End's Cause of Death: Rattlesnake Bite.

Behind the Scenes

(Portraits of George B. Howell, Jerry Waterman, R. Ambler Liggett, and Mayor R.E.L. Chancey)

Many civic, community, and political leaders in Hillsborough County worked hard to bring the new air base to Tampa. The base promised jobs and a boost to the sagging post-depression economy. It's said that before selecting Tampa as the site for the new Florida air base, Army officials enjoyed visiting the city and particularly enjoyed the history and culture of Ybor City.

Tampa's Other 1930's WPA Projects

Bayshore Boulevard Sea Wall

Fort Homer W. Hesterly Armory

Peter O. Knight Airport

Marker is on North Ashley Drive north of East Whiting Street, on the left when traveling north.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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