Early History of Florida's Airboat Tourism

As I researched this article, as in most things in history, you get some different answers as to what came first, the chicken or the egg, or who was the first airboat tour operator.

- David Straycat” Laviolette

In the 1920s and into the 1940s, as the Tamiami Trail was built and crossed the state of Florida, rest areas and fuel stops were put in place. And … airboat tours arrived … to provide the weary traveler a chance to see the Everglades from something besides their car windows.

The first written or recorded airboat tour business I found was in the 1940s. Tigers Airboats claims their legitimate tours started in the early 1940s, per Jimmy Osceola of Tigers Airboat Tours. Growing up in the Glades, I remember seeing their beautiful painted signs along the Tamiami Trail. I recall seeing several tour outfits in my youth, along with original Indigenous Seminoles with their thatched hut Chikee homes along the road.

A quick timeline shows the progression of the use of airboats to promote tourism into the wilds of Florida started in the 1940s with small boats holding four to six passengers. As airboat building changed, so did tour boats with larger boats built to hold 8 to 10 passengers in the 1950s. Most of these were still powered by aviation engines and using wooden props.

In the 1960s, Florida tourism grew and that included tourists wanting to see alligators. So, the size of tour boats grew, and the number of tour companies grew. Larger boats with more horsepower engines could hold 10 to 16 passengers. In the 1970s and ‘80s and ‘90s, as engines increased horsepower, hulls were made even larger so they could hold 20 to 24 passengers.

In the 2000s, as more tour operators were providing a glimpse into "wild" Florida, a shift to a more personal experience and maybe a more exciting experience took place and, once again, there was a need for smaller tour boats. During this period, there was also an increase in licensing and training requirements as airboat tours started to receive more attention due to navigational accidents and a few fatalities.