So these waterways werr withheld, and at the first meeting of the Village Council of the newly formed municipality of North Palm Beach these waterways (but again no mention of the lands below the Earman river) are offered to, and accepted by, the municipality as a dedication with certain obligations and use restrictions. But the developer had another plan for the lands below the existing drainage ditch. Plats are signed by the municipality and this signifies they have been accepted by the local government who must then maintain them. The roads shown on this plat are dedicated to the public. Understanding that in any conveyance of an interest in real property there must be an offer and an acceptance. BUT it does not say anything about the area labeled as the “Earman River”. The plat, on its’ face, dedicates things like the streets to the public but specifically reserves unto the grantor the land below the waterways and lagoons shown on that plat. Plat 1 also showed what are clearly man made waterways as these have exact dimensions and straight lines like the main “North Palm Beach Waterway” and side canals labeled as the “Coral Lagoon”, “Blue Lagoon” and “Azure Lagoon”. All of this would lead me to believe that the developer believed, and represented to Buyers, that the Earman River was in fact a river and it was navigable when the State of Florida was created and that the state owned the land below that water and that the upland abutters enjoyed riparian rights. When the meander line moves the lot can get larger or smaller. It can and does move so long as that movement is “slow and imperceptible”. The “meander line” is said to be ambulatory. And (5) showed those side lot lines as having +/- dimensions. (4) showed the uplands lots as having lot lines that intersect the “meander line”. (3) having an irregular shoreline, a “meander line”. And it showed this as: (1) the legal description of the lnads contained on the plat runs down the centerline of the “Earman River” (2) a named body of water as a navigable waterway must be. It shows the lots along the C-17 as being along the “Earman River”. Plat 1 shows house lots (which were later sold), drainage easements (restrictions on some lots for the benefit of all), public rights of way (streets) which were “dedicated” to the public. Back in 1955 Bankers Life & Casualty Company (John D MacArthur) sold some land it owned (which the state did not) to another corporation, North Palm Beach Inc. You own what you own unless and until you give it away, sell it or it’s taken away from you. Property ownership rights are a pretty straight forward thing 95% of the time. Borman said in an interview in 1962: “I worked in it all the winter of 97, cutting muck down that floated out in the lake.” Today the waterway is known as the Earman River, or C-17 Canal.” Joseph Borman, before he became Palm Beach’s first town marshal, helped to dig “ Dimick’s Ditch” by hand, along with Nathan Pitts ( Pitts Island), Elisha N. “As preparation for the dredging of the Florida East Coast Canal in 1897, a ditch was dug south of the haulover from Lake Worth Creek in order to help drain the land for farming. Although he lived with his family in downtown West Palm Beach, Earman farmed north of town in the area that is now Lake Park and North Palm Beach.” John Sites Earman was voted the first mayor of West Palm Beach when it was incorporated in 1894. “ From 1918 to 1923, in what is now Lake Park, there was an Earman Post Office. The Palm Beach historcial society gives this information This name is pure marketing BS designed to sell houses not on the C-17 canal but on the scenic Earman River. What most folks breeze right past is that the “Earman River” was not a river. So who owns the land below that water in the C-17 canal? Thus, the land owners abutting these “overflowed lands”) do not enjoy statutory riparian rights. Thus most of this waterway is “overflowed lands” and thus is not “navigable” water by statutory definition. The problem is that most of the land below the C-17 canal was not navigable when the state was created and the actual meander line is down by the Rt 1 bridge. The C-17 canal on this plat was shown as the “Earman River” with an irregular shore line (a “meander line”) as a true riparian line would be shown on a plat. Basically, when the Village of North Palm Beach was first developed by a guy named John (Jack) Schwencke the first plat (Plat 1) was of land bordering on the C-17 canal from Anchorage Park to the Route 1 bridge and south of Lighthouse Drive. There was an article in the Palm Beach Post a few months ago about the Earman River so I decided to look into it a bit today. and the ownership of the canals in North Palm Beach in general? What is going on with the houses in North Palm Beach along the “Earman River”, North Palm Beach, Inc. Northern Palm Beach County Flood Information.Northern Palm Beach County School District Homes for Sale.
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