Draining and development of the Everglades

Broward's promises sparked a land boom facilitated by blatant errors in an engineer's report, pressure from real estate developers, and the burgeoning tourist industry throughout south Florida.

[4] In 1838 comments in The Army and Navy Chronicle supported future development of southern Florida: [The] climate [is] most delightful; but, from want of actual observation, [it] could not speak so confidently of the soil, although, from the appearance of the surrounding vegetation, a portion of it, at least, must be rich.

Whenever the aborigines shall be forced from their fastnesses, as eventually they must be, the enterprising spirit of our countrymen will very soon discover the sections best adapted to cultivation, and the now barren or unproductive everglades will be made to blossom like a garden.

[6] To avenge repeated surprise attacks on himself and ammunition stores, Colonel William Harney led an expedition into the Everglades in 1840, to hunt for a chief named Chekika.

The anonymous writer described the hunt for Chekika and the terrain they were 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".

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.

[3]Territorial representative David Levy proposed a resolution that was passed in Congress in 1842: "that the Secretary of War be directed to place before this House such information as can be obtained in relation to the practicability and probable expense of draining the everglades of Florida.

"[3] From this directive Secretary of the Treasury Robert J. Walker requested Thomas Buckingham Smith from St. Augustine to consult those with experience in the Everglades on the feasibility of draining them, saying that he had been told two or three canals to the Gulf of Mexico would be sufficient.

The statesman whose exertions shall cause the millions of acres they contain, now worse than worthless, to teem with the products of agricultural industry; that man who thus adds to the resources of his country ... will merit a high place in public favor, not only with his own generation, but with posterity.

[3] Smith suggested cutting through the rim of the Everglades (known today as the Atlantic Coastal Ridge), connecting the heads of rivers to the coastline so that 4 feet (1.2 m) of water would be drained from the area.

IIF trustees found a Pennsylvania real estate developer named Hamilton Disston who was interested in implementing plans to drain the land for agriculture.

[20] Disston opened real estate offices throughout the United States and Europe, and sold tracts of land for $5 an acre, establishing towns on the west coast and in central Florida.

[22] Due to Disston's purchase, the IIF was able to sponsor railroad projects, and the opportunity presented itself when oil tycoon Henry Flagler became enchanted with St. Augustine during a vacation.

He built the opulent Ponce de Leon Hotel in St. Augustine in 1888, and began buying land and building rail lines along the east coast of Florida, first from Jacksonville to Daytona, then as far south as Palm Beach in 1893.

[28] Soon after his election, he fulfilled his promise to "drain that abominable pestilence-ridden swamp"[29] and pushed the Florida legislature to form a group of commissioners to oversee reclamation of flooded lands.

The project quickly ran out of money, so Broward sold real estate developer Richard "Dicky" J. Bolles a million dollars worth of land in the Everglades, 500,000 acres (2,000 km2), before the engineer's report had been submitted.

Even decades earlier, Harriet Beecher Stowe had been horrified at the hunting by visitors, and she wrote the first conservation publication for Florida in 1877: "[t]he decks of boats are crowded with men, whose only feeling amid our magnificent forests, seems to be a wild desire to shoot something and who fire at every living thing on shore.

[48] The advent of the fishing industry, the arrival of the railroad, and the discovery of the benefits of adding copper to Okeechobee muck soon created unprecedented numbers of residents in new towns like Moore Haven, Clewiston, and Belle Glade.

[51] The canals proposed by Wright were unsuccessful in making the lands south of Lake Okeechobee fulfill the promises made by real estate developers to local farmers.

Though he tended to avoid controversy regarding development, in Ornamental Gardening in Florida he wrote, "Mankind everywhere has an insane desire to waste and destroy the good and beautiful things this nature has lavished upon him".

[70] One month before the dedication of the park, the former editor of The Miami Herald and freelance writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas published her first book, The Everglades: River of Grass.

[74] Coinciding with the dedication of Everglades National Park, 1947 in south Florida saw two hurricanes and a wet season responsible for 100 inches (250 cm) of rain, ending the decade-long drought.

Between 1952 and 1954 in cooperation with the state of Florida it built a levee 100 miles (160 km) long between the eastern Everglades and suburbs from Palm Beach to Homestead, and blocked the flow of water into populated areas.

However, an early report by the project reflected local attitudes about the Everglades as a priority to people in nearby developed areas: "The aesthetic appeal of the Park can never be as strong as the demands of home and livelihood.

The fertilizers used on vegetables, along with high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus that are the by-product of decayed soil necessary for sugarcane production, were pumped into WCAs south of the EAA, predominantly to Everglades National Park.

Developers began acquiring land, paying $180 an acre in 1968, and the Dade County Port Authority (DCPA) bought 39 square miles (100 km2) in the Big Cypress Swamp without consulting the C&SF, management of Everglades National Park or the Department of the Interior.

The new jetport was planned to be larger than O'Hare, Dulles, JFK, and LAX airports combined; the location chosen was 6 miles (9.7 km) north of the Everglades National Park, within WCA 3.

Business Week reported real estate prices jumped from $200 to $800 an acre surrounding the planned location, and Life wrote of the expectations of the commercial interests in the area.

"[97] When studies indicated the proposed jetport would create 4,000,000 US gallons (15,000,000 L) of raw sewage a day and 10,000 short tons (9,100 t) of jet engine pollutants a year, the national media snapped to attention.

[98] The New York Times called it a "blueprint for disaster",[99] 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.

A color satellite image of the northern Everglades showing green chunks of Everglades surrounded by white settlement areas of the South Florida Metropolitan Area to the east and red agricultural fields in the Everglades Agricultural Area to the north
Satellite image of the northern Everglades with developed areas in 2001, including the Everglades Agricultural Area (in red), Water Conservation Areas 1, 2, and 3, and the South Florida metropolitan area
Source: U.S. Geological Survey
A color satellite image of the southern Everglades, Florida Bay, Atlantic Ocean, and Gulf of Mexico; the Everglades are green with large sections of blue water, with some brown raised areas and the southernmost tip of the South Florida Metropolitan Area in white
Satellite image of the southern Everglades with developed areas in 2001, including Everglades National Park , Big Cypress National Preserve , Florida Bay and the southern tip of the South Florida metropolitan area
Source: U.S. Geological Survey
A black and white drawing of Seminoles crouched behind the massive roots of a mangrove tree while U.S. Marines in three canoes are shown in the background
Marines search for Seminoles among the mangroves during the Second Seminole War
A black and white hand-drawn map of the lower two-thirds of the Florida peninsula
Map of the Everglades by the U.S. War Department in 1856: Military action during the Seminole Wars improved understanding of the features of the Everglades.
A black and white image of a land sale notice announcing 4 million acres (16,000 km2) purchased by Hamilton Disston; 20,000 acres (81 km2) are up for sale, specifically featuring town lots for sale
Hamilton Disston's land sale notice
A black and white photograph of a canal lock built in the Everglades, directing millions of gallons of water toward the Atlantic Ocean
A canal lock in the Everglades Drainage District around 1915
A blueprint of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the surrounding Everglades to the west divided into lots for potential sale, featuring the canal systems
Blueprint for drainage canals in the Everglades in 1921
A black and white photograph of a line of at least seven open-air buses filled with potential real estate investors, showing banners that read "HI-A-LE-AH", stopped on white dirt roads surrounded by lawns in undeveloped neighborhoods; some houses in the background
A group of tour buses leads prospective buyers to newly drained lots in Hialeah in 1921
Color painting of two women in fine dresses and hats with large pink and purple bird plumes
A 1904 magazine cutout showing the plumes for women's hats that were harvested from wading birds in the Everglades
A black and white photograph of the ruins of a bridge taken from a beach with broken and uprooted trees recently damaged by a hurricane
Remains of a bridge damaged during the 1926 Miami Hurricane .
Two black and white images of Okeechobee, Florida, immediately following the 1928 hurricane; both pictures show the town in ruins
Pictures of the destruction in the town of Okeechobee in 1928
A color advertisement created by the Army Corps of Engineers for the Herbert Hoover Dike with text reading: "1926 and 1928 Devastating hurricanes, Loss of 2,500 lives, Hoover Dike authorized 1930, Completed 1937"
A sign advertising the completion of the Herbert Hoover Dike
A black and white photograph of President Harry Truman standing at a podium bearing the presidential seal on a stage with people behind him applauding
President Harry Truman dedicating Everglades National Park on December 6, 1947
A color photograph taken from the air showing the Everglades bisected by a highway; at the bottom is a sawgrass field flooded with water bordered by a full canal; at the top are some homes and a dry sawgrass field
A 2003 U.S. Geological Survey photo showing the border between Water Conservation Area 3 (bottom) with water, and Everglades National Park , dry (top)