Native Americans Humans arrived in the Florida peninsula approximately 15,000 years ago.
Paleo-Indians came to Florida probably following large game that included
giant sloths,
saber-toothed cats, and
spectacled bears. They found an arid landscape that supported plants and animals adapted for desert conditions. However, 6,500 years ago, climate changes brought a wetter landscape; large animals became extinct in Florida, and the Paleo-Indians slowly adapted and became the
Archaic peoples. They conformed to the environmental changes, and created many tools with the various resources available. During the Late Archaic period, the climate became wetter again, and approximately 3000 BCE the rise of water tables allowed an increase in population and cultural activity. Florida Indians developed into three distinct but similar cultures that were named for the bodies of water near where they were located:
Okeechobee,
Caloosahatchee, and
Glades.
Calusa and Tequesta From the Glades peoples, two major nations emerged in the area: the
Calusa and the
Tequesta. The Calusa was the largest and most powerful nation in South Florida. It controlled fifty villages located on Florida's west coast, around Lake Okeechobee, and on the
Florida Keys. Most Calusa villages were located at the mouths of rivers or on key islands. The Calusa were hunter-gatherers who lived on small game, fish, turtles, alligators, shellfish, and various plants. Most of their tools were made of bone or teeth, although sharpened reeds were also effective for hunting or war. Calusa weapons consisted of bows and arrows,
atlatls, and spears. Canoes were used for transportation, and South Florida tribes often canoed through the Everglades, but rarely lived in them. Canoe trips to Cuba were also common. Estimated numbers of Calusa at the beginning of the Spanish occupation ranged from 4,000 to 7,000. The society declined in power and population; by 1697 their number was estimated to be about 1,000. Second in power and number to the Calusa in South Florida were the
Tequesta. They occupied the southeastern portion of the lower peninsula in modern-day
Dade and
Broward counties. Like the Calusa, the Tequesta societies centered on the mouths of rivers. Their main village was probably on the
Miami River or Little River. Spanish depictions of the Tequesta state that they were greatly feared by sailors, who suspected them of torturing and killing survivors of shipwrecks. With an increasing European presence in south Florida, Native Americans from the Keys and other areas began increasing their trips to Cuba. Official permission for the immigration of Native Americans from the Florida Keys was granted by Cuban officials in 1704. Spanish priests attempted to set up missions in 1743, but noted that the Tequesta were under assault from a neighboring tribe. When only 30 members were left, they were removed to Havana. A British surveyor in 1770 described multiple deserted villages in the region where the Tequesta lived. Common descriptions of Native Americans in Florida by 1820 used only the term "Seminoles".
Seminole Following the demise of the Calusa and Tequesta, Native Americans in southern Florida were referred to as "Spanish Indians" in the 1740s, probably due to their friendlier relations with Spain. The
Creek invaded the Florida peninsula; they conquered and assimilated what was left of pre-Columbian societies into the Creek Confederacy. They were joined by remnant Indian groups and formed the Seminole, a new tribe, by
ethnogenesis. The Seminole originally settled in the northern portion of the territory. In addition,
free blacks and fugitive
slaves made their way to Florida, where Spain had promised slaves freedom and arms if they converted to Catholicism and pledged loyalty to Spain. These African Americans gradually created communities near those of the Seminole, and became known as the
Black Seminoles. The groups acted as allies. In 1817,
Andrew Jackson invaded Florida to hasten its annexation to the United States, in what became known as the
First Seminole War. After Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, conflicts between settlers and the Seminole increased as the former tried to acquire lands. The
Second Seminole War lasted from 1835 to 1842, and afterward, the US forcibly removed about 3,000 Seminole and 800 Black Seminole to
Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), west of the Mississippi River. Many others died in the war. Conflict broke out again in the
Third Seminole War from 1855 to 1859, when a few hundred Seminole fought off US forces from the swamps of the Everglades. The US finally decided to leave them alone, as they could not dislodge them even after this protracted and expensive warfare. By 1913, the Seminole in the Everglades numbered no more than 325. The Seminole made their villages in hardwood hammocks or pinelands, had diets of
hominy and
coontie roots, fish, turtles, venison, and small game. Their villages were not large, due to the limited size of the hammocks. Between the end of the last Seminole War and 1930, the people lived in relative isolation from the majority culture. The construction of the
Tamiami Trail, beginning in 1928 and spanning the region from
Tampa to Miami, altered their ways of life. Some began to work in local farms, ranches, and souvenir stands. Some of the people who interacted more with European Americans began to move to reservations in the 1940s. These were their bases for reorganizing their government and they became federally recognized in 1957 as the
Seminole Tribe of Florida. People who kept more traditional ways had settlements along the Tamiami Trail and tended to speak the
Mikasuki language. They later were federally recognized in 1962 as the
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. As metropolitan areas in South Florida began to grow, the two groups were closely associated with the Everglades. They struggled to maintain privacy while serving as tourist attractions. They earned money by
wrestling alligators and selling craftworks. , the Seminole Tribe of Florida had five reservations, and the lands of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians were collectively considered a sixth reservation. The two tribes have each developed
casino gaming on some of their properties to generate revenue for support, services and economic development.
Exploration improved understanding of the features of the Everglades. The military penetration of southern Florida offered the opportunity to map a poorly understood and largely unknown part of the country. An 1840 expedition into the Everglades offered the first printed account for the general public to read about the Everglades. The anonymous writer described the terrain the party was crossing: No country that I have ever heard of bears any resemblance to it; it seems like a vast sea filled with grass and green trees, and expressly intended as a retreat for the rascally Indian, from which the white man would never seek to drive them. The land seemed to inspire extreme reactions of both wonder or hatred. During the Second Seminole War an army surgeon wrote, "It is in fact a most hideous region to live in, a perfect paradise for Indians, alligators, serpents, frogs, and every other kind of loathsome reptile." A survey team led by railroad executive
James Edmundson Ingraham explored the area in 1892. In 1897, explorer
Hugh Willoughby spent eight days canoeing with a party from the mouth of the
Harney River to the
Miami River. He sent his observations to the
New Orleans Times-Democrat. Willoughby described the water as healthy and wholesome, with numerous
springs, and 10,000
alligators "more or less" in Lake Okeechobee. The party encountered thousands of birds near the
Shark River, "killing hundreds, but they continued to return". Willoughby pointed out that much of the rest of the country had been explored and mapped except for this part of Florida, writing, "(w)e have a tract of land one hundred and thirty miles long and seventy miles wide that is as much unknown to the white man as the heart of Africa."
Drainage A national push for expansion and progress in the United States occurred in the later part of the 19th century, which stimulated interest in draining the Everglades for agricultural use. According to historians, "From the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, the United States went through a period in which wetland removal was not questioned. Indeed, it was considered the proper thing to do." Draining the Everglades was suggested as early as 1837, and a resolution in
Congress was passed in 1842 that prompted
Secretary of Treasury Robert J. Walker to request those with experience in the Everglades to give their opinion on the possibility of drainage. Many officers who had served in the Seminole Wars favored the idea. Florida quickly formed a committee to consolidate grants to pay for any attempts, though the
Civil War and
Reconstruction halted progress until after 1877. After the Civil War, a state agency called the
Internal Improvement Fund (IIF), whose purpose was to improve Florida's roads, canals, and rail lines, was discovered to be deeply in debt. The IIF found a Pennsylvania real estate developer named
Hamilton Disston interested in implementing plans to drain the land for agriculture. Disston purchased of land for $1 million in 1881, and he began constructing canals near
St. Cloud. At first, the canals seemed to work in lowering the water levels in the wetlands surrounding the rivers. They were effective in lowering the groundwater, but it became apparent that their capacity was insufficient for the wet season. Although Disston's canals did not drain well, his purchase primed the economy of Florida. It made news and attracted tourists and land buyers. Within four years property values doubled, and the population increased significantly. Along the way he built resort hotels, transforming territorial outposts into tourist destinations. The land bordering the rail lines was developed as citrus farms. By 1896 the rail line had been extended to
Biscayne Bay. Three months after the first train had arrived, the residents of Miami voted to incorporate the town. Miami became a prime destination for extremely wealthy people after the
Royal Palm Hotel was opened. During the 1904
gubernatorial race, the strongest candidate,
Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, a populist Democrat from Duval County, promoted draining the Everglades. He called the future of South Florida the "Empire of the Everglades". Soon after his successful election, he began work to "drain that abominable pestilence-ridden swamp", and pushed the Florida legislature to form a group of commissioners to oversee reclamation of flooded lands. In 1907 they established the Everglades Drainage District and began to study how to build the most effective canals, and how to fund them. Meanwhile, Henry Flagler continued to build railway stations at towns as soon as the populations warranted them. Although initially crops sprouted quickly and lushly, they just as quickly wilted and died, seemingly without reason. The increasing population in towns near the Everglades hunted in the area. Raccoons and otters were the most widely hunted for their skins. Hunting often went unchecked; in one trip, a Lake Okeechobee hunter killed 250 alligators and 172 otters. They were shot usually in the spring, when their feathers were colored for mating and nesting. The plumes, or
aigrettes, as they were called in the
millinery business, sold for $32 an ounce in 1915—the price of gold. Millinery was a $17 million a year industry that motivated plume harvesters to lay in watch of nests of
egrets and many colored birds during the nesting season, shoot the parents with small-bore rifles, and leave the chicks to starve.
Rum-runners used the Everglades as a hiding spot during
Prohibition; it was so vast there were never enough law enforcement officers to patrol it. The arrival of the railroad, and the discovery that adding trace elements like
copper was the remedy for crops sprouting and dying quickly, soon created a population boom. New towns such as
Moore Haven,
Clewiston, and
Belle Glade sprouted like the crops. In 1925, Miami newspapers published editions weighing over , most of it in real estate advertising. Waterfront property was the most highly valued. Mangrove trees were cut down and replaced with palm trees to improve the view. Acres of South Florida
slash pine were cleared. Some of the pine was for lumber, but most of the pine forests in Dade County were cleared for development. Between 1930 and 1937 a dike long was built around the southern edge of the lake. Control of the
Hoover Dike and the waters of
Lake Okeechobee was delegated to federal powers: the United States declared legal limits of the lake to between . Immediately, the effects of the Hoover Dike were seen. An extended drought occurred in the 1930s; with the wall preventing water from leaving Lake Okeechobee and canals and ditches removing other water, the Everglades became parched. Peat turned to dust. Salt ocean water intruded into Miami's wells; when the city brought in an expert to explain why, he discovered that the water in the Everglades was the area's
groundwater—here, it appeared on the surface. In 1939, a million acres (4,000 km2) of Everglades burned, and the black clouds of peat and sawgrass fires hung over Miami. Scientists who took soil samples before draining did not take into account that the organic composition of peat and muck in the Everglades make it prone to soil
subsidence when it becomes dry. Naturally occurring bacteria in Everglades peat and muck assist with the process of decomposition under water, which is generally very slow, partially due to the low levels of
dissolved oxygen. When water levels became so low that peat and muck were at the surface, the bacteria interacted with much higher levels of oxygen in the air, rapidly breaking down the soil. In some places, homes had to be moved to stilts and of soil was lost. One month before the dedication of the park, a former editor from
The Miami Herald and freelance writer named
Marjory Stoneman Douglas released her first book titled
The Everglades: River of Grass. After researching the region for five years, she described the history and ecology of South Florida in great detail. She characterized the Everglades as a river instead of a stagnant swamp. The last chapter was titled "The Eleventh Hour" and warned that the Everglades were dying, although it could be reversed.
Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project The same year the park was dedicated, two hurricanes and the wet season caused to fall on South Florida. Although there were no human casualties, agricultural interests lost approximately $59 million (equivalent to $ million in ). In 1948, Congress approved the Central and Southern Florida Project for Flood Control and Other Purposes (C&SF), which divided the Everglades into basins. In the northern Everglades were Water Conservation Areas (WCAs), and the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) bordering to the south of Lake Okeechobee. In the southern Everglades was Everglades National Park. Levees and pumping stations bordered each WCA, and released water in dryer times or removed it and pumped it to the ocean in times of flood. The WCAs took up approximately 37 percent of the original Everglades. The C&SF constructed over of canals, and hundreds of pumping stations and levees within three decades. During the 1950s and 1960s the Miami metropolitan area grew four times as fast as the rest of the nation. Between 1940 and 1965, 6 million people moved to South Florida: 1,000 people moved to Miami every week. Developed areas between the mid-1950s and the late 1960s quadrupled. Much of the water reclaimed from the Everglades was sent to newly developed areas.
Everglades Agricultural Area , dry (top) The C&SF established for the Everglades Agricultural Area—27 percent of the Everglades prior to development. In the late 1920s, agricultural experiments indicated that adding large amounts of
manganese sulfate to Everglades muck produced a profitable harvest for vegetables. The primary cash crop in the EAA is sugarcane, though
sod, beans, lettuce, celery, and rice are also grown. Fields in the EAA are typically , bordered by canals on two sides, that are connected to larger canals where water is pumped in or out depending on the needs of the crops. The fertilizers used on vegetables, along with high concentrations of
nitrogen and
phosphorus that are the byproduct of decayed soil necessary for sugarcane production, were pumped into WCAs south of the EAA. The introduction of large amounts of these chemicals provided opportunities for exotic plants to take hold in the Everglades. One of the defining characteristics of natural Everglades ecology is its ability to support itself in a nutrient-poor environment, and the introduction of fertilizers began to alter the plant life in the region.
Jetport proposition A turning point came for development in the Everglades at the proposal in the late 1960s for an expanded airport, after
Miami International Airport outgrew its capacities. The new jetport was planned to be larger than
O'Hare,
Dulles,
JFK, and
LAX airports combined, and the chosen location was north of Everglades National Park. The first sentence of the
U.S. Department of Interior study of the
environmental impact of the jetport read, "Development of the proposed jetport and its attendant facilities ... will inexorably destroy the south Florida ecosystem and thus the Everglades National Park". When studies indicated the proposed jetport would create of raw sewage a day and of jet engine pollutants a year, the project met staunch opposition.
The New York Times called it a "blueprint for disaster", and
Wisconsin senator
Gaylord Nelson wrote to President
Richard Nixon voicing his opposition: "It is a test of whether or not we are really committed in this country to protecting our environment." Governor
Claude Kirk withdrew his support for the project, and
Marjory Stoneman Douglas was persuaded at 79 years old to go on tour to give hundreds of speeches against it. Nixon instead proposed
Big Cypress National Preserve, announcing it in the Special Message to the Congress Outlining the 1972 Environmental Program. Although construction of only one runway was completed, the remains of the Everglades Jetport was later opened as the
Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport and is sometimes used as an aviation training facility. ==Restoration==