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The winter of 1894–1895 produced a bitter frost that killed citrus trees as far south as Palm Beach. Miami resident Julia Tuttle sent Flagler a pristine orange blossom and an invitation to visit Miami, to persuade him to build the railroad farther south. Although he had earlier turned her down several times, Flagler fi... |
Broward's "Empire of the Everglades" |
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 |
Further information: Geography and ecology of the Everglades |
Despite the sale of 4,000,000 acres (16,000 km2) to Disston and the skyrocketing price of land, by the turn of the 20th century the IIF was bankrupt due to mismanagement.[27] Legal battles ensued between the State of Florida and the railroad owners about who owned the rights to sell reclaimed land in the Everglades. In... |
Broward asked James O. Wright—an engineer on loan to the State of Florida from the USDA's Bureau of Drainage Investigations—to draw up plans for drainage in 1906. Two dredges were built by 1908, but had cut only 6 miles (9.7 km) of canals. The project quickly ran out of money, so Broward sold real estate developer Rich... |
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 |
Wright's initial report concluded that drainage would not be difficult. Building canals would be more cost effective than constructing a dike around Lake Okeechobee. The soil would be fertile after drainage, the climate would not be adversely affected, and the enormous lake would be able to irrigate farmland in the dry... |
Though a few voices expressed skepticism of the report's conclusions—notably Frank Stoneman, editor of the Miami Evening Record and the later Miami Morning News-Record (predecessors of the Miami Herald)—the report was hailed as impeccable, coming from a branch of the U.S. government.[33] In 1912 Florida appointed Wrigh... |
Governor Broward ran for the U.S. Senate in 1908 but lost. Broward and his predecessor, William Jennings, were paid by Richard Bolles to tour the state to promote drainage. Broward was elected to the Senate in 1910, but died before he could take office. He was eulogized across Florida for his leadership and progressive... |
Boom and plume harvesting |
Further information: Florida land boom of the 1920s |
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 |
Real estate companies continued to advertise and sell land along newly dug canals. In April 1912—the end of the dry season—reporters from all over the U.S. were given a tour of what had recently been drained, and they returned to their papers and raved about the progress.[36] Land developers sold 20,000 lots in a few m... |
With the increasing population in towns near the Everglades came hunting opportunities. 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... |
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 |
Wading birds were a particular target. Their feathers were used in women's hats from the late 19th century until the 1920s. In 1886, five million birds were estimated to have been killed for their feathers.[43] They were usually shot in the spring, when their feathers were colored for mating and nesting. Aigrettes, as ... |
Plume harvesting became a dangerous business. The Audubon Society became concerned with the amount of hunting being done in rookeries in the mangrove forests. In 1902, they hired a warden, Guy Bradley, to watch the rookeries around Cuthbert Lake. Bradley had lived in Flamingo within the Everglades, and was murdered in ... |
In the 1920s, after birds were protected and alligators hunted nearly to extinction, Prohibition created a living for those willing to smuggle alcohol into the U.S. from Cuba. Rum-runners used the vast Everglades as a hiding spot: there were never enough law enforcement officers to patrol it.[48] The advent of the fish... |
Hurricanes |
See also: List of Florida hurricanes |
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. The winter of 1922 was unseasonably wet and the region was underwater. The town of Moore Haven received 46 inches (1,200 mm) of rain in six weeks in 1924.[52... |
1926 Miami Hurricane |
Main article: 1926 Miami Hurricane |
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. |
The 1920s brought several favorable conditions that helped the land and population boom, one of which was an absence of any severe storms. The last severe hurricane, in 1906, had struck the Florida Keys. Many homes were constructed hastily and poorly as a result of this lull in storms.[54] However, on September 18, 192... |
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 |
The City of Miami responded to the hurricane by downplaying its effects and turning down aid. The Miami Herald declared two weeks after the storm that almost everything in the city had returned to normal. The governor supported the efforts to minimize the appearance of the destruction by refusing to call a special legi... |
1928 Okeechobee Hurricane |
Main article: 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane |
The weather was unremarkable for two years. In 1928, construction was completed on the Tamiami Trail, named because it was the only road spanning between Tampa and Miami. The builders attempted to construct the road several times before they blasted the muck down to the limestone, filled it with rock and paved over it.... |
Herbert Hoover Dike |
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 |
The focus of government agencies quickly shifted to the control of floods rather than drainage. The Okeechobee Flood Control District, financed by both state and federal funds, was created in 1929. President Herbert Hoover toured the towns affected by the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane and, an engineer himself, ordered the ... |
A massive canal 80 feet (24 m) wide and 6 feet (1.8 m) deep was also dug through the Caloosahatchee River; when the lake rose too high, the excess water left through the canal to the Gulf of Mexico. Exotic trees were planted along the north shore levee: Australian pines, Australian oaks, willows, and bamboo.[12] More t... |
Drought |
The effects of the Hoover Dike were seen immediately. An extended drought occurred in the 1930s, and with the wall preventing water leaving Lake Okeechobee and canals and ditches removing other water, the Everglades became parched. Peat turned to dust, and salty ocean water entered Miami's wells. When the city brought ... |
Conservation attempts |
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 |
Main article: Everglades National Park |
Conservationists concerned about the Everglades have been a vocal minority ever since Miami was a young city. South Florida's first and perhaps most enthusiastic naturalist was Charles Torrey Simpson, who retired from the Smithsonian Institution to Miami in 1905 when he was 53. Nicknamed "the Sage of Biscayne Bay", Sim... |
Although the idea of protecting a portion of the Everglades arose in 1905, a crystallized effort was formed in 1928 when Miami landscape designer Ernest F. Coe established the Everglades Tropical National Park Association. It had enough support to be declared a national park by Congress in 1934, but there was not enoug... |
Flood control |
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. Although there were no human casualties, cattle and deer were drowned and standing water was left in suburban areas for month... |
Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project |
In 1948 Congress approved the Central and Southern Florida Project for Flood Control and Other Purposes (C&SF) and consolidated the Everglades Drainage District and the Okeechobee Flood Control District under this.[76] The C&SF used four methods in flood management: levees, water storage areas, canal improvements, and ... |
During the 1950s and 1960s the South Florida 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.[79] Urban development between the mid-1950s and the late 1960s quadrupled. Much of the water reclaimed... |
The C&SF constructed over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of canals, and hundreds of pumping stations and levees within three decades. It produced a film, Waters of Destiny, characterized by author Michael Grunwald as propaganda, that likened nature to a villainous, shrieking force of rage and declared the C&SF's mission was to... |
Establishment of the C&SF made Everglades National Park completely dependent upon another political entity for its survival.[84] One of the C&SF's projects was Levee 29, laid along the Tamiami Trail on the northern border of the park. Levee 29 featured four flood control gates that controlled all the water entering Eve... |
Everglades Agricultural Area |
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) |
The C&SF established 470,000 acres (1,900 km2) for the Everglades Agricultural Area—27 percent of the Everglades before development.[87] In the late 1920s, agricultural experiments indicated that adding large amounts of manganese sulfate to Everglades muck produced profitable vegetable harvests. Adding 100 pounds (45 k... |
Fields in the EAA are typically 40 acres (16 ha), on two sides bordered by canals that are connected to larger ones by which water is pumped in or out depending on the needs of the crops. The water level for sugarcane is ideally maintained at 20 inches (51 cm) below the surface soil, and after the cane is harvested, th... |
Turning point |
A turning point for development in the Everglades came in 1969 when a replacement airport was proposed as Miami International Airport outgrew its capacities. 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 ... |
The C&SF brought the jetport proposal to national attention by mailing letters about it to 100 conservation groups in the U.S.[84] Initial local press reaction condemned conservation groups who immediately opposed the project. Business Week reported real estate prices jumped from $200 to $800 an acre surrounding the pl... |
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. Science magazine wrote, in a series on environmental protection highlighting the jetport project, "En... |
An ongoing effort to remedy damage inflicted during the 20th century on the Everglades, a region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida, is the most expensive and comprehensive environmental repair attempt in history.[1][2] The degradation of the Everglades became an issue in the United States in the early 1970s afte... |
In response to floods caused by hurricanes in 1947, the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project (C&SF) was established to construct flood control devices in the Everglades. The C&SF built 1,400 miles (2,300 km) of canals and levees between the 1950s and 1971 throughout South Florida. Their last venture was t... |
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