Talk about escalating property values.

Resisting Everglades restoration planners for years, Jesse Hardy finally gave in and collected his $4.18 million settlement from the state of Florida in exchange for 160 acres 40 miles east of Naples, where he lived in an electricity-free house he built after buying the property in 1960 for $60,000. Hardy had argued for years that plans for filling area canals and diverting water southward through the Everglades to restore a more natural sheetflow would not affect his home.

FS