Malcolm Lightner, “Full Throttle” (2013) (all images from ‘Mile o’ Mud: The Culture of Swamp Buggy Racing,’ courtesy PowerHouse Books; all caption information by Malcolm Lightner) The distinctly ...

Like many quirky, homegrown traditions, swamp buggy racing started out small. In the early 1940s, about a dozen hunters in Naples, Florida, who used the strange, jeeplike vehicles to navigate the ...

Racing swamp buggies is deeply rooted in the history of Naples and the surrounding area, including the Everglades. But what are swamp buggies and how did the tradition begin? As one might imagine, ...

NAPLES, Fla. – The second race of the swamp buggy season is ready to make some noise at the Florida Sports Park for the Budweiser Winter Classic, just like they’ve been doing three times a year for ...

“Take these spectral bleachers and fill the air over them with Coppertone and kettle-corn perfume and Skynard and rebel flags snapping,” writes the Southern author Padgett Powell in the introduction ...

NAPLES, Florida — Before this town was a vacation spot, there were only swamps, and the men who played in them. Back in the day, which around here means the 1930s, Collier County was known for farmin' ...

Swamp buggy racing just might be the most Florida thing to come out of Florida. Three times each year in Naples, goggled drivers whiz down a flooded dirt track—officially christened the "Mile O’ ...

Milton Morris was born in West Point, Mississippi, in 1903. In a life that spanned 85 years, perhaps his greatest triumph came in 1955, when he was 52 years old. For years afterward, he tried and ...

It’s been a long 10 months for swamp buggy racing legend Eddie Chesser. Fresh off his 21st Big Feature win in March, Chesser was itching to defend his title in November, which was supposed to be the ...

Swamp buggies were developed as a practical way to explore the Everglades but have transformed into one of the area’s most exciting and deeply-rooted cultural events in Naples. Swamp Buggy Fever! is ...