In 1913, work began on the Addison/Ellis Canal in what is now the Enchanted Forest area.

This year, the Brevard County Historical Commission will recognize the location of the unfinished waterway with a State Historical Marker to be dedicated at 10 a.m. Aug. 22.

Local historian and commission board member Roz Foster, who researched the story of the canal, will be there. So will Judy Gregoire, land manager of the Enchanted Forest, who helped with the nomination for historical recognition.

The tale of the canal combines the entrepreneurial ingenuity common to many of Brevard County's early settlers along with a natural obstacle that rendered the canal an unrealized dream. According to Foster, it all began in 1911 when Edgar W. Ellis and J.H. Beckwith put together a consortium known as the Titusville Fruit and Farm Lands Company.

The men had put together 22,500 acres of land they wanted to drain and make usable for agricultural purposes.

"Their plan was to connect the St. Johns River to the west with the Indian River Lagoon to the east," Gregoire said.

By 1913, some 43 miles of lateral canals had been dug when work began on the Addison/Ellis Canal, which led from Addison Creek to the outlying vegetable fields.

"The canal was intended to relieve flooding in the St. Johns River by diverting floodwaters to the lagoon and to transport supplies and crops from the St. Johns River to the Indian River Lagoon, ending at Addison Point," Foster wrote for the historical marker.

The unintended consequences of dumping large amounts of freshwater into the brackish lagoon would have been devastating, but, fortunately, it never happened.

"The company used the coquina rock extracted from the canal to pave roads to their fields," Foster wrote. "The marshland and sand ridges proved no problem for the equipment used, but a coquina rock ridge that runs north-south proved insurmountable, and the canal was never completed. The consortium went broke and the project was abandoned."

The remains of the canal project still are clearly visible, Gregoire said. An overlook in the Enchanted Forest provides a point where visitors can stand and look down.

"There are also places where you can stand and see it close up," she said.

For her part, Foster relishes the ability of the county historical commission to work with county and state groups to find, research and commemorate historic sites around the county. Using the commission's abundant collection of old newspapers, publications, artifacts and more to add to the body of knowledge about Brevard County is a challenge and a joy.

"There have been many collections that have been given to us that further our research," she said. "We can then provide these resources to the general public."