Imagine a vast open landscape dotted with cabbage palms, roaming cattle, and miles of endless fence. Now imagine a man staggering towards you on this landscape with a .22 rifle under his arm that he uses to drag his immobile left side as he walks. And now imagine that man as he approaches you, lets out a long sigh and utters the only word he is capable of saying for the rest of his life: “Goddamn.”

Judge Hugh Starnes smiles as he recounts this story of his past. The paralyzed Leonard Whidden is one of the many characters that he met out in the Corkscrew area during the 1940s and 50s.

Poor Leonard was involved in an automobile accident during the 1940s and ended up developing a paralysis on his left side. He used the rifle to help him walk, but he also used it to go hunting, which he did entirely by himself. He was also only able to say one word following the accident, and that word was “goddamn.”

“He used it with every inflection available,” the Judge recalls. If Leonard was having a bad day, he would shake his head, look at the ground and very solemnly say, “goddamn.” If something caught his attention, he would point and exclaim, “goddamn!”

Leonard Whidden was a member of one of the four or five families that lived in the Corkscrew region during that time. Back then, the properties that surrounded the Corkscrew Swamp area were primarily used for cattle. When Starnes was old enough – and by his accounts, “old enough” meant seven years of age – his father began taking him out to the property that he owned to raise his cattle.

On his first visit out to the ranch, seven-year-old Starnes joined his dad in his Model-T Ford as they rode from their house in Fort Myers out to the lands at Corkscrew. Just four miles away from Corkscrew, the Model-T got stuck. Another member from the rugged Whidden family, Sam, rescued them with his flatbed truck.

The entire ordeal gave the Starnes’ just enough time to drive back home, which was in the middle of Fort Myers on Royal Palm Avenue. At that time, there were only about 15,000 to 20,000 people living in the area.

If the population of Lee County is hard enough to imagine, try to think of walking to the grocery store, school, and work. That was the lifestyle back then, and it was even more unimaginable out in the Corkscrew Swamp.

For the four or five families that settled in the Corkscrew region during the middle of the twentieth century, life was tough. There was no electricity, there was no plumbing, and the mosquitoes would get so bad at night that the families without screens on their windows had to sleep with special nets draped over their beds.

Judge Starnes got to hear these stories from the settlers on the swamp, but fortunately for him, he only had to experience it during the times when he spent more than a day out on the ranch.

A lawyer by profession, Starnes’ father ended up acquiring cattle which he took care of on the weekends. Following in his father’s footsteps, Starnes attended law school after he received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Florida. After thirteen years of being a lawyer, Starnes was nominated to fill a vacancy in the Circuit Judgeship. Of course, he was awarded the position.

Judge Starnes bought the cattle and the property from his father and partner, and he continued to take care of the entire operation. On the weekends, he would drive out to Corkscrew to focus on what he calls his “working hobby.” After dealing with the stress of the courtroom all week, the times that he spent out on the ranch were considered to be therapy.

The Judge has earned quite a reputation in this area. His position as a Circuit Court judge certainly helped him to earn that reputation, but it’s his life stories that make him such an interesting character.

To give you an idea of his strong connections to the southwest Florida area, I will tell you about the beginning of the interview that I set up with Judge Starnes. As we sat down on one of the couches in the halls at FGCU, the Judge pulled out a section of that day’s edition of the News Press. Inside was a picture taken by a couple who stopped on the side of Corkscrew Road. It was a picture of a horse running free alongside a fence with Florida’s natural beauty providing the backdrop. Of course, the Judge recognized the fence and the horse – both of them belonged to him.

The stories of Judge Starnes’ ranch life and courtroom life will continue. Check back soon for the next article!