Staff Spotlight, Henry Gonzalez

Henry was born in the Central American city of San Vicente, El Salvador. His childhood adventures in nature included climbing mountains, fruit trees and discovering dormant volcanoes. Fields of fruit and vegetables were plentiful as Henry was sure to keep an eye on each season’s crop of mango, banana, papaya, pepper, sweetcorn, and especially his favorites, orange and tomato!

Henry moved to the United States in 1989 settling near family in Southwest Florida.

In 2003, after attending Miami-Dade Community College, Edison Community College, now Florida SouthWestern State College, and working various jobs, Henry landed an over-lap Park Ranger position at Collier-Seminole State Park.

Within four months Henry's over-lap position status became permanent. In 2018, he was promoted to Park Services Specialist. This afforded him the opportunity to best utilize his skill and ability in the area of maintenance and interpretive programming.

Henry's hobbies and pastimes include interactive online games like Mario Cart. He also enjoys 60s, 70s and 80s music. His instant recollection and identification of popular tunes, recording artists and producers are amazing! His favorite song is Imagine, from John Lennon.

With Henry’s exceptional memory, he is the leading interpreter regarding the park’s historical machine, the Bay City Walking Dredge. Henry is proud to interpret this last remaining dredge, which was used in building the Tamiami Trail back in the 1920s.

The Tamiami Trail, U.S. 41, extends 275 miles starting from Tampa and ending in Miami. Henry's presentation about the dredge and other interesting topics are enjoyed on-site in the campground for campers and at the dredge for groups such as the Friends of Boca Grande and Elderhostel of Naples. Off-site locations include, Everglades City at the Museum of the Everglades, Grace Place Education Center in Naples and at various Collier County elementary schools.

Henry's unique mechanical talent comes naturally. He is always repairing park equipment such as tractors, trucks, swamp buggies, chainsaws and weed-eaters. Henry is seldom defeated in his tasks and is always ready for a new challenge. Henry's maintenance skills also include electrical, plumbing, carpentry and tile-work. Basically he's our MacGyver!

Henry is also the recipient of the Davis Productivity Award, saving the state of Florida $30,000 by repairing the campground sewage pipes, wood chipper and an old firetruck. In 2011, Henry also received an award for coordinating and repairing the historical water cistern located five miles down-river along the banks of the Blackwater River. This is the park's remote and primitive camping spot known as, "Grocery Place".

Henry considers himself lucky to be working at one of the most environmentally-diverse parks in the state of Florida. Getting to work outdoors in nature is what Henry loves most about his job. He is an essential member of the park's Exotic Plant Species Treatment and Removal Team, battling exotic and invasive plant species such as Brazilian Pepper, Lygodium, Air Potato and many invasive grasses.

We invite you to step back in time with a visit to Collier-Seminole State Park where you can meet Henry and hear his stories about the people who operated the Bay City Walking Dredge and those who built the Tamiami Trail. Learn of these dedicated workers who suffered many hardships during the construction of the trail and made the impossible, possible. Honorably, their past work has made it feasible for Collier-Seminole State Park to operate today and to serve all Florida State Park visitors well into the future.