At Honeymoon Island State Park, urgency grows to defend 'the real Florida'

For Terry Fortner, the fight to save Honeymoon Island State Park from proposed development is personal. Nearly 130 years ago, just offshore from here, her grandmother Myrtle Scharrer was born in a pioneer home on Caladesi Island. She lived for decades in the tranquility of the then-untouched island chains that today include Florida's most-visited state park. When she was pressured to sell her acreage in 1946, Scharrer placed on it a deed restriction that would lay the groundwork for its protection.