49 Fun Facts About Everglades National Park

Much of the northern Everglades was drained in the 20th century to grow which crop?

Sugarcane now dominates the drained farmland at the wetland's northern end, one reason the national park protects only about a fifth of the original Everglades.

The Everglades are fed by a very slow river flowing out of which body of water?

Lake Okeechobee once spilled over its southern rim every wet season; after deadly hurricane floods in 1926 and 1928 it was ringed with levees, so water managers now decide how much flows south.

Whose 1947 book gave the Everglades the nickname 'River of Grass'?

Marjory Stoneman Douglas's book recast what developers had called a worthless swamp as a slow, living river, and it shifted public opinion toward protecting the Everglades.

Everglades was the first US national park created to protect what?

A fragile ecosystem, not scenery, was the point: earlier parks guarded peaks, geysers and canyons, while this one was set aside for the life in a flat, shifting wetland.

Which president dedicated Everglades National Park soon after World War II?

Harry Truman dedicated the park in 1947, 13 years after Congress authorised it: supporters needed that long to acquire the land and secure the funding.

Everglades holds which three international designations?

Biosphere reserve, World Heritage Site and Ramsar wetland are all titles the park holds, yet UNESCO has twice put it on its World Heritage in Danger list, the second time in 2010 over shrinking water flows and rising pollution.

Only Death Valley and which other national park in the lower 48 states are larger than Everglades?

Yellowstone and Death Valley are the only bigger parks in the lower 48, yet about a third of Everglades is not land at all but shallow sea and estuary.

The Everglades hold the largest ecosystem of which kind in the Western Hemisphere?

Mangrove forest fringes the coast where fresh water meets salt; its tangled roots are a nursery for fish and the first line of defence against hurricane winds and storm surge.

Boat strikes are the leading human-related killer of which Everglades animal?

The manatee feeds slowly in the shallows and may not hear the low churn of an approaching boat in time, which is why Florida restricts boat speeds where manatees gather.

South Florida is the only place in the world where which two reptiles live side by side?

Alligators and crocodiles overlap only here: alligators reach the southern end of their range and keep to fresh water, while the cold-shy American crocodile, at its northern limit, stays in salty coastal water.

Eight female cougars from which state were released in 1995 to rescue the Everglades' inbred Florida panthers?

Texas cougars did the job: five of the eight had kittens, and a panther population that had sunk to 20 or 30 animals has since grown several times over.

Which hurricane is widely blamed for freeing Burmese pythons from a breeding centre near the Everglades?

Hurricane Andrew wrecked a python-breeding facility in 1992, but released pets were already loose in South Florida and breeding in the wild was confirmed only in 2000, so how much the storm mattered is debated.

One 2012 study reported sightings of which Everglades mammal down 99 percent where Burmese pythons had spread?

Raccoon sightings on the study's night road surveys fell 99.3 percent from their 1990s level, and no rabbits were seen at all; in a later experiment, pythons caused most deaths among marsh rabbits released there.

Why do Everglades python hunts catch so few of the giant snakes?

Their camouflage and secretive habits hide them: despite their size, the snakes blend into the marsh so well that the park says visitors are unlikely ever to see one in the wild.

Which two Native peoples lived on Florida's southern tip when the Spanish arrived, separated by the Everglades?

Tequesta and Calusa held the east and west coasts, the Calusa dominant; by the time Spain ceded Florida in 1763 only a few hundred remained, and they are reported to have left for Cuba with the Spanish.

What did Florida's coastal Native peoples pile up to build the mounds that still stand in Everglades National Park?

Discarded shells piled up over some 2,000 years grew into mounds and whole islands: Chokoloskee, beside the park's Gulf coast, is a shell midden about 20 feet high.

Which landscape architect, called the Father of the Everglades, began campaigning for the park in 1928?

Ernest F. Coe wrote to the first Park Service director in 1928 and pushed the idea almost single-handedly; the park he won was smaller than he wanted, but its main visitor centre now bears his name.

Which Florida governor campaigned in 1904 on draining the Everglades?

Napoleon Bonaparte Broward won on the promise, and the canals dredged between 1905 and 1910 turned wetland into farmland and set off the first South Florida land boom.

Why were whole rookeries of Everglades wading birds shot around 1900?

For plumes to decorate women's hats: the trade paid so well that Guy Bradley, the warden hired to guard the rookeries, was shot dead in 1905 by a hunter whose son he had arrested.

Florida's first state park, now part of Everglades National Park, was named for which tree?

Royal palm: the Florida Federation of Women's Clubs campaigned for the state park at Paradise Key and ran it until it became part of the national park in 1947.

What was the Everglades' 'Hole in the Donut'?

A farming tract left out of the original park because its land was too valuable; once the fields were abandoned, Brazilian pepper took over, and restoring them has meant scraping the soil down to bedrock.

The Cold War Nike site HM-69 in Everglades National Park was built in response to what?

The Cuban Missile Crisis exposed South Florida as the nation's 'Achilles heel': soldiers camped in tents outside the park in October 1962, and the permanent base they moved into was finished in 1964.

Some of the Cold War weapons kept on alert inside Everglades National Park carried what?

Nuclear warheads tipped some of the park's Nike Hercules interceptors: a single blast was meant to wipe out a whole formation of bombers before it reached Miami.

The 15-mile loop road from Everglades National Park's Shark Valley Visitor Center leads to what?

An observation tower stands halfway round the loop; private cars are banned from the road, so visitors reach it only on foot, by bicycle or on the tram.

Which short boardwalk trail is one of Everglades National Park's most popular wildlife walks?

Anhinga Trail is named for a bird that spears fish underwater; its feathers soak through, which helps it dive, so it is often seen perched with wings spread in the sun.

The Guy Bradley Visitor Center and marina stand at which old settlement at the Everglades' southern tip?

Flamingo could be reached only by boat until a rough road arrived in 1922; today it sits at the end of the main park road, 38 miles from the entrance.

What became of Everglades National Park's original lodge in 2009?

It was demolished after hurricane damage: a 2005 storm surge left the lodge, which had opened in 1959, beyond repair, and it stood wrecked for four years before it was razed.

What did Hurricane Donna leave of the Everglades' coastal forest in 1960?

Nothing but standing dead snags remained across miles of coast, and the storm killed more than a third of the great herons nesting in the park.

Where Everglades limestone has dissolved into a hollow, cypress trees grow in which shape?

Dome: the tallest cypresses stand in the wet centre with smaller ones toward the rim, and these conifers, unusually, go bare every winter.

How do alligators help other Everglades wildlife survive the dry season?

They dig water-holding holes: as the marsh dries, fish and frogs crowd into these 'alligator holes' along with the animals that hunt them, and the survivors restock the prairie when the rains return.

Why do the Everglades' tree islands, or hammocks, often look like teardrops from above?

Slowly moving water shapes them, and because they rise only inches above the marsh, these islands are often the only ground dry enough for hardwood trees to grow.

What do the Everglades' pine rocklands need every few years to stop hardwood trees taking over?

Regular fires clear out the faster-growing hardwoods that would shade the pine seedlings, so rangers now set burns on purpose to copy the natural pattern.

Many Everglades orchids are epiphytes, growing where?

On trees: these orchids take water and food from air, rain and debris without harming their host, and their roots and stems are built to soak up and store water for the dry spells between showers.

Which two soils are found in the Everglades?

Peat and marl record how long the ground stays wet: peat builds where it is flooded most of the year, while marl, a pale mud left by algae, forms where the flooding lasts only months.

The endangered Everglade kite has a slender curved bill for pulling which prey from its shell?

Apple snails are almost all it eats, so the bird's fate follows the water: where marshes are drained or choked with weeds it cannot find them and must move on.

Most of Everglades National Park carries which strict federal land designation?

Wilderness area status covers most of the park, the largest such tract in the eastern United States, so beyond a few roads visitors travel by canoe, kayak, motorboat or on foot.

Which programme, approved by Congress in 2000, aims to return natural water flows to the Everglades?

The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan set out to undo fifty years of drainage works, storing fresh water that was being flushed out to sea and sending it back through the marsh.

Which federal agency built the canals and levees that diverted the Everglades' water after 1948?

The Army Corps of Engineers built the flood-control network so thoroughly that the national park downstream was cut off from its water; the same agency now helps run the effort to undo the damage.

The author of River of Grass founded Friends of the Everglades to fight what?

A proposed jetport in Big Cypress, planned as the world's largest airport, was halted in 1970 with one runway built; she was 79 when she took up the fight, and the swamp became a national preserve.

Which honour did River of Grass's author receive?

The Presidential Medal of Freedom came at 103, for a crusade she began leading only at 79; she worked for the Everglades almost until her death in 1998, aged 108.

Which two Native peoples, pushed south by 19th-century wars, still live in the Everglades today?

Miccosukee and Seminole are descended from the small band that escaped removal to Oklahoma by retreating into the marsh; many now live on reservations along the road that crosses the Everglades.

Native peoples called the Everglades Pa-Hay-Okee, which translates as what?

Grassy water was no figure of speech: Native people crossed the open sawgrass by dugout canoe, using it as a highway and as hunting and fishing ground.

Why is December to March the busiest season at Everglades National Park?

It is cooler with fewer mosquitoes, and the dry season does visitors a second favour: as the water shrinks, wildlife gathers where it can still be seen, then scatters again when the summer rains return.

Which craft are banned from all of Everglades National Park's waters?

Jet skis and other personal watercraft are barred from the whole park; ordinary motorboats are allowed, but over the shallowest flats they must cut their engines and pole, paddle or use an electric trolling motor, to spare the seagrass.

Roughly how many acres does Everglades National Park cover?

1.5 million acres is more than the park began with: its boundary has been pushed out several times, and one addition alone brought in over 100,000 acres on the eastern side.

What is the largest body of water in Everglades National Park, stretching from the mainland to the Keys?

Florida Bay is a maze of shallow basins walled off by mud banks; with so little circulation its water can turn far saltier than the sea, which has helped kill off great beds of seagrass.

Which president signed the act that enlarged Everglades National Park by over 100,000 acres at the end of the 1980s?

George H. W. Bush signed the expansion act in December 1989, having promised his support that January; the land on the park's eastern side was to be bought and restored to natural wetland.

Which pink Everglades wading bird do visitors often mistake for a far more famous pink bird?

Roseate spoonbill: feather hunters cut its numbers so badly that nesting sites stood empty for decades, until the birds began reusing them after the park was created in 1947.

What is the leading recorded cause of death for the Everglades' Florida panthers?

Vehicle collisions kill more panthers than anything else on record, a symptom of the cat's real problem: roads and development have carved up the huge territories each animal needs.