Explore Florida's everglades, its history, the native tribes that called
it home, and the fight to preserve the grassy wetlands documented
through a collection of images.
The Everglades once blanketed a quarter of Florida. Stretching from Lake
Okeechobee to Florida Bay, its saw grass prairies, mangrove swamps, and
hammocks were home to a profusion of animals, plants, and prehistoric
Native Americans, as well as Seminoles, Miccosukees, and Gladesmen of
historic times. In 1904, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward ran for Florida
governor with the political platform of creating farmland by dredging
the Everglades and spilling its water into the ocean. By 1914, this
spectacular natural feature was on the verge of destruction, and
environmentalist May Mann Jennings led a grassroots movement to preserve
Royal Palm Hammock. In the 1930s, Ernest Coe and Marjorie Stoneman
Douglas fought to preserve a larger area, culminating in the creation of
Everglades National Park in 1947.