If you look at a map of Florida from the mid-1800s, the bottom third of the state is basically a giant question mark labeled "The Unknown." Most people today think of the Everglades as a swamp. It’s not. It is a river. A shallow, slow-moving sheet of water fifty miles wide and only a few inches deep, creeping south from Lake Okeechobee toward the Florida Bay. Marjory Stoneman Douglas famously called it the "River of Grass," and she wasn't just being poetic. She was trying to save a landscape that the rest of the world was actively trying to murder.
History of the Everglades is essentially a story of people trying to "fix" something that wasn't broken. For a century, the goal was simple: drain it. Kill it. Turn the muck into money. It’s a miracle any of it is left.
The First People and the "Watery Wilderness"
Long before developers showed up with steam shovels, the Calusa and Tequesta tribes lived here. They weren't just surviving; they were thriving. They built massive shell mounds that acted like high-ground islands. They traveled by dugout canoe through an intricate web of sawgrass marshes and mangrove forests. They understood the seasonal rhythm of the flood and the drought.
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Then came the Spanish. Then the British. Then the Americans.
By the early 1800s, the Seminole people were pushed into these wetlands during the Seminole Wars. It was a brutal time. The U.S. military hated it here. Soldiers died of yellow fever and malaria more often than from combat. They described the Everglades as a "God-forsaken" place. To them, it was a barrier to progress. They didn't see a complex ecosystem; they saw a wasteland that needed to be conquered.
The Great Drainage Disaster
Around 1881, a guy named Hamilton Disston decided he was the one to tame the beast. He bought four million acres of Florida land for 25 cents an acre. Think about that. 25 cents. He started digging canals to lower the water level. He wanted to farm the "black gold"—the rich, organic peat soil at the bottom of the marshes.
It worked, sort of. But he also started a chain reaction of ecological destruction that we are still paying for today.
By the early 20th century, "Everglades History" became a saga of engineering hubris. Napoleon Bonaparte Broward—a man who actually became Governor—campaigned on the promise to "drain that abominable, pestilence-ridden swamp." He wasn't subtle. People thought the soil was bottomless. They thought they could grow enough sugar and vegetables to feed the world. They didn't realize that once you drain the water, the peat soil actually evaporates. It shrinks. The land literally sinks.
The 1928 Hurricane and the Turning Point
In 1928, the Great Okeechobee Hurricane hit. It wasn't just a storm; it was a massacre. The mud dikes around Lake Okeechobee failed, and a wall of water swept through the newly built towns of Belle Glade and Pahokee. Thousands died. The government realized they couldn't just "drain" the water; they had to control it with massive, terrifying precision.
The Army Corps of Engineers arrived. They built the Herbert Hoover Dike. They straightened the Kissimmee River into a ditch. They turned a wild, pulsing river into a plumbing system.
The Woman Who Saved the Grass
Enter Marjory Stoneman Douglas. In 1947, she published The Everglades: River of Grass. Same year, Everglades National Park was dedicated by President Harry Truman.
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Marjory was a force of nature. She was nearly 80 before she really started her biggest activist battles, and she lived to be 108. She understood that if the Everglades died, Florida's fresh water supply died with it. The Biscayne Aquifer, which provides water for millions in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, depends on the pressure of the Everglades' fresh water to keep the salt water from the ocean out.
It’s a fragile balance. We almost blew it.
Restoration: The $10 Billion Gamble
Today, we are in the middle of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). It is the largest environmental restoration project in human history. Basically, we are trying to undo everything we did in the 1950s. We’re un-straightening rivers. We’re building massive reservoirs to hold water so it doesn't have to be dumped out to sea during rainy seasons.
Why does this matter to you?
Because the Everglades is the only place on Earth where alligators and crocodiles coexist. It’s a massive carbon sink. It’s the reason South Florida doesn't run out of drinking water during a dry spell.
But it’s also a mess. Invasive species like the Burmese python have wiped out 90% of the small mammals in certain areas. Think about that. Almost every raccoon, opossum, and rabbit—gone. The history of the Everglades is now a race against time and biology.
Realities Most People Miss
- The Soil is Disappearing: In some farming areas, the ground has subsided by more than 10 feet.
- The Water is Dirty: Runoff from sugar farms and suburban lawns loads the water with phosphorus, which kills the native sawgrass and lets cattails take over.
- It’s Not All Swamp: It’s a mosaic. Cypress domes, pine rocklands, hardwood hammocks, and mangrove fringes.
Honestly, the history of this place is a lesson in humility. We tried to play God with the water, and the water won. Every time we try to constrain it, it finds a way to remind us who is actually in charge of the Florida peninsula.
Actionable Steps for the Curious
If you actually want to understand the Everglades, don't just stay in Miami. You have to get your feet wet.
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- Visit Shark Valley: It’s a 15-mile loop. Rent a bike. You will see more gators than you can count, and it gives you a sense of the sheer scale of the "River of Grass."
- Read the Original: Get a copy of Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s book. It’s thick, but the first 50 pages alone will change how you see the landscape.
- Support the "Send It South" Movement: Research the organizations like the Everglades Foundation. They are the ones lobbying to ensure water flows south through the marshes rather than being dumped out of the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries.
- Take a "Slough Walk": Several parks offer guided tours where you actually wade into the water. It’s the only way to realize the water is crystal clear and moving, not stagnant and gross.
- Check the Water Levels: If you're visiting, look at the South Florida Water Management District data. Seeing how they move millions of gallons of water with the flick of a switch is eye-opening.
The Everglades isn't a museum. It’s a living, breathing, dying, and currently recovering organism. Every canal you cross in Florida is a scar from this history. Understanding that helps you realize that "nature" isn't just something in a park—it's the infrastructure that keeps the state habitable.
Go see it before the pythons finish the job or the sea level rise turns the fresh water salty. It's a landscape that shouldn't exist, and yet, somehow, it still does.