Ernest F. Coe

He was enormously impressed with the Everglades and became one of several South Florida-based naturalists who grew concerned for the wanton destruction of plants, animals, and natural water flow in the name of progress and prosperity.

However, Oscar L. Chapman, former Secretary of the Interior, stated "Ernest Coe's many years of effective and unselfish efforts to save the Everglades earned him a place among the immortals of the National Park movement.

[8] Coe began to venture into the Everglades to see the flora and fauna for himself, driving deep into the wilderness and hiking on his own, often sleeping on the ground with his head covered with a pillowcase to save himself from the mosquitoes.

When a neighbor suggested a trek to Cape Sable to gather as many orchids as possible, Coe was appalled and began to work for the idea of a protected area.

[9] The Everglades Tropical National Park Association was established by Coe in 1928 with Fairchild, University of Miami president Bowman Foster Ashe, and journalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas on the committee.

One of the association's primary selling points was to portray the proposed area that would receive protection as worthless for human habitation and commercial enterprise; so far controlling the natural floods in the region had met with no success and a tourist attraction such as the park would be favorable.

[14] Coe gave speeches at civic, garden and rotary clubs, and held informal meetings with Seminoles and white squatters living in the Everglades, who saw him as an interloper and often threatened him.

[16] While the concept of what landscapes were worth protecting were developing in the minds of scientists and politicians, Coe used any tactic he could think of to advance the idea of Everglades National Park, even equating its powers with the mythical Fountain of Youth.

Newly elected governor Fred P. Cone fired Coe and left the Everglades Tropic National Park Commission without any guidance.

Executive secretary of the National Parks Association and wilderness advocate Robert Sterling Yard was among several skeptics who doubted that business endeavors in Florida and a protected area could coexist.

Originally, Coe envisioned 2,500 square miles (6,500 km2) of protected land, spanning from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Keys, including marine coral reefs, and the Big Cypress Swamp.

[22] In The Everglades: River of Grass, Marjory Stoneman Douglas alludes to "all sorts of fraudulent schemes" to solidify the land included in the park, of which Coe was one of many working for this goal.