Sebastian Inlet
Gibson's Cut, as his inlet was known then, appears as a feature in a United States Coast and Geodetic Survey map drawn in the winter of 1880-81.
Since Henshall was only passing through there was no way he could know that the "break in the coast line" he saw wasn't the "beginning" but the result of the effort to dig the cut from nearly a decade earlier.
[citation needed] In the July 28, 1886, edition of the Florida Star, letter writer G. W. Idner reports that talk was once again circulating about re-opening Gibson's Cut.
Some of the folks involved with the 1891 effort were "Nesbitt...Harris and Williamson [of] Micco [along with] Knight, Gibson, Eason, Jacobs and Mitchell" all of Sebastian.
][3][citation needed] In 1897 some winter residents of Brevard county made the third effort to open the inlet.
Todd broke the Fleming Grant up and sold tracts to his New Rochelle business acquaintances who then formed the Roseland Inlet Association.
[citation needed] History hasn't recorded exactly who was behind the sixth effort to open an inlet to the sea at Sebastian.
The County Commissioners promised to "...give it their united attention, and look up the law on the matter...."[citation needed] Memories of all the previous expensive failures were still too fresh.
[citation needed] A lack of funds and essential permits required by the federal government prevented any actual work on the inlet from taking place during 1914.
These plans were submitted to the state legislature by some Brevardians who made an appearance at the capitol with petitions and maps detailing the split.
[citation needed] The United States Army Corps of Engineers objected to the idea of the Sebastian Inlet for several reasons.
The chosen location presented the distinct possibility that once the cut was opened it would cause sand shoals to form in the Indian river and block the East Coast Canal.
The Corps was obliged to maintain the East Coast Canal at that time and didn't want the extra expense of dredging out new shoals.
Additionally they disagreed with the idea that the inlet would be dug, as had the East Coast Canal, using private funds which they viewed as a precursor to failure.
They repeatedly petitioned the government and were granted several public hearings to discuss the inlet issue at greater length during that year.
The Corps agreed to grant a permit for a private consortium to proceed with work on the Inlet if they could post a $20,000 indemnity bond to cover the cost of the Corps repairing the East Coast Canal should the Inlet cause shoals to form and a wealthy physician, Dr. Hughlett, from Cocoa was elected to the state senate.
In her 3rd edition, that of April 5, 1917 a large front page article appeared that openly called for the digging of several inlets along Brevard's coastline, including one at Sebastian.
[citation needed] Couch's lobbying, Holderman's editorial support and that of other editors in the area led Florida's legislature to draft, and pass, the Indian River Inlet Bill during its 1917 session.
[citation needed] As the August election drew close the inlet bill was a hotter, and more frequently discussed topic than was the 1st World War.
Sections 6 and 7 of the bill were found particularly objectionable because they seemed to give the commissioners unlimited power to increase taxes and condemn land.
Fish were scarce and this scarcity combined with the food shortage caused by the War meant a lot of families in the Indian River area were going hungry.
Although it was a privately funded entity, its creation, and Roy's perpetual lobbying, must have been good enough for the War Department because only 2 days later it finally granted a permit to dig the Sebastian Inlet.
[citation needed] The seventh effort to open an inlet at Sebastian proceeded as rapidly as possible once the long awaited permit was granted.
Not only was it felt that high water in the Indian River was essential for the Inlet to be opened, but the War Department permit expired on December 31, 1918.
[citation needed] An article that appeared in the May 1, 1918 issue of the Melbourne Times named the "officers of the Sebastian Inlet Association [as]: President, R.O.
[citation needed] Couch committed another dredge to the project and work continued through the winter, even past the December 31 expiration date of the permit.
Before long word of the projects continuance past the permits expiration date reached the War Department and this agency was not amused.
Every one of the Sebastian Inlet Association's board members and the dredge crews found themselves threatened with arrest if the work wasn't halted promptly.
[citation needed] The Sebastian Inlet Tax District came into being in 1919 after the new bill had been approved in an election and on August 31, 1920 this new agency was granted a permit to dig which would remain valid until December 31, 1923.
[citation needed] The Tax District's first $100,000 bond issue was delayed by court injunctions brought by some wealthy property owners and the F.E.C.
