Ralph Bellman remembers the day he ran into Florida's future: September 15, 1969. In a way, it was the day he ran into his own future. Bellman is 57 years old now, with a thick horse's mane of gray-streaked black hair that reaches his shoulders in the back. OK, it's a mullet, thinning a little on top. Usually he wears a hat of some kind to cover the retreating hairline. But the guy's got a fat wallet. For years, he's owned a very successful business. He's also bursting with the energy of five normal people, has a booming ego, and stands just five feet, five inches tall. Back in '69, when he was 23, friends called...
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From top: The home fries in the early '70s on the boom of the tree crusher they vowed to destroy; Ralph Bellman, graying at the edges but radical still; Bellman and Rudy Lutz's hunting camp in the Fakahatchee; Judy Bellman has made the place look homey