CORTEZ – Known as the Curt Johns net camp, the historic structure off the coast of the fishing village has fallen into disrepair and the Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (FISH) board voted at its March 4 meeting to begin restoration.
FISH board member Nathan Meschelle brought up the topic of the net camp at the meeting.
“I’d like people’s opinion of the giant polka-dotted elephant in Cortez that nobody wants to talk about a whole lot. It is the net camp. I feel like it’s very iconic for Cortez,” Meschelle said. “It’s embarrassing looking like that. For me as a fisherman in Cortez, I try to keep my boats well-maintained because I take pride in what I do. This is my home and when people come visit that’s what they see and that’s what they think of us.”
The building had been refurbished by FISH and has been occupied by an unnamed person for several years. Currently, the building has a hole in the roof and there are boats moored next to the building.
“My question is, who owns it?” Meschelle asked. “We need to find out who has ownership.”
“Curt Johns built that around World War II vintage. There are no existing documents from Curt Johns,” Alan Garner said. “It’s clearly FISH’s, because FISH essentially paid for the labor and the materials to have it restored.”
“We refurbished it because we realized we needed to do that before it fell down,” Garner said.
“It’s falling apart now,” Meschelle said. “We need to find out who has ownership.”
“Here’s the one thing that I would say,” FISH President Kim McVey said. “That thing would not be here for him to move into if FISH had not rebuilt it.”
“So, it’s FISH’s?” Meschelle asked.
“That’s how I look at it,” McVey said.
Net camps were wooden structures used by fishermen to hang hemp and cotton fishing nets to dry.
According to historic photographs, there were once dozens of net camps on the bay off Cortez. The Curt Johns net camp is one of only two off the village’s shores and is next to the recently rebuilt Guthrie net camp.
Noting that the net camp is a historical artifact in need of restoration, Meschelle made the motion “to trespass the present occupant of the net camp to begin a restoration project of the historic Curt Johns net camp.”
The motion was approved by the board.
