During the s and s, Ernest F. Coe led the campaign to create a national park in the Everglades. Congress passed an act to create the park in , but the Depression and World War II delayed its founding until As more and more people moved into South Florida, the diversity of plants, animals, and habitats declined. Hunting, fishing, collecting, changing water flow, and encroaching development all contributed to the decline.
The s plans for Everglades National Park included most of Big Cypress Swamp, but for political and financial reasons, it was excluded from the park boundaries. During the s, another campaign for a national park began, and led to the creation of Big Cypress National Preserve in It differs from a national park in that some economic and recreational activities are permitted, such as oil exploration and hunting.
People began visiting the Everglades for pleasure during the late s. Most traveled on small sailboats to coastal settlements, such as Coconut Grove and Chokoloskee. Steamboats and other, smaller boats carried sightseers up canals and "improved" waterways. As roads were built and improved, more people ventured inland.
During the past century, humans changed South Florida's environment, making it possible for the cities along the coast and the farms south of Lake Okeechobee to exist. Native Americans inhabited south Florida even before wetter climatic conditions set into motion the beginning of the Everglades 5, or so years ago.
At the time European explorers arrived in the s, Native American cultures were well established, and people lived by hunting, fishing and gathering wild foods. Villages around Lake Okeechobee may have grown corn, at least for a time.
Most of the Native American population was settled in villages near estuaries and on the coastal ridge. People traveled from these villages back and forth to camps in the Everglades to hunt and fish, much as modern urban dwellers continue to do today. By the mids, the original Native American cultures encountered by European explorers were gone, their members killed, enslaved or dead from diseases to which they had no resistance.
They established small settlements on the tree islands, and hunted, fished, gardened and collected wild foods. The word mangrove is used to describe a cluster of several trees -- all with impenetrable root systems and the ability to flourish in salty environments.
Both mysterious and beautiful, mangroves help clean water clean while also providing shelter to marine organisms.
During the dry months, wading birds congregate here to feed and nest, and in the summer, the mangroves provide the first line of erosion defense against the winds and waves of tropical storms and hurricanes.
This site remains in virtually the same condition as it did during the Cold War. Park visitors can take guided tours of the base and occasionally meet soldiers who were stationed there during the conflict with the Soviet Union.
Learn more about Nike Missile tours. The park and the pristine blue water that encompasses its southern boundary will one day enjoy a virtually endless supply of clean, fresh water as a result of Everglades restoration. There is a lot more to discover at Everglades National Park!
Check out these interesting facts about this vast and unique national park: 1. Photo by Glenn Nagel www. An aerial view of the Everglades backcountry. Photo by National Park Service. We are a group of people. We're just like everybody else. We want to be respected. We want to be recognized; but, at the same time, we also want to be left alone.
These events, along with maintaining museums and libraries on the reservations, are how they try to balance their traditions while accepting parts of the modern world. Oral stories are used to convey history and typically do not focus on a specific person. No individual is glorified or memorialized for their achievements. Traditionally, when an Indian dies, the memory of that person and his or her name fades with time. Frank knows the exact spot in the swamp where he was born, and uses it as a reference to where other villages and camps are located.
He can point to it on a map of tribal lands, which sit between Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park and the sprawling Miami metropolis. He also knows where his mother and father were born, and where they first met and were later married. His ancestors are buried in the Everglades. Their remains, he says, supply the nutrients and foundation on which trees and plants now grow — plants that are harvested for medicine, food, tools and building supplies.
Burying people in a natural way allows their bodies to decompose. Indians often planted fruit or oak trees on top of the actual burial sites, which were typically located on cypress tree islands and near camps. The trees grew on top of the bodies of their ancestors, and the trees, in turn, provided food, fire wood and medicine. If we don't have camps and use our land, we lose our lives, our existence," says Frank, part of the last generation of Miccosukees who were born and raised in the Everglades.
Facebook Twitter Email. Tribes in Florida's Everglades pay price of prosperity. Show Caption.
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