The first known people to have lived in the Everglades were known as the Calusa Indians. They lived in this area for more than three hundred years before us. Even though the Indians lived here first, the first permanent residents were the families of William Smith Allen and John Weeks. These two families settled down there not to long after the Civil War. Both were farmers that had to live off of the land. The Everglades was remote and not many people lived there until Barron G. Collier. He made the Everglades the headquarters for the Tamiami Trail road building company in 1923. Barron Collier built a railroad, and it was the town’s first transportation link to the outside world. It was fourteen miles from Deep Lake in the north. Somewhere
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It is now half the size it was hundred years ago. Whereas the Everglades used to cover 11 thousand square miles, it now covers more than five thousand square miles but less than six thousand square miles. This happened in 1905 because of a governor named Napoleon Bonaparte Broward. He began to drain the Everglades so that the land can have bigger towns and buildings and more suitable food to grow. Many swamps, some of which that are now Miami and Fort Lauderdale, were built into cities and used for farmland. Later on, in 1948, the US Congress decided to create one of the most effective water systems because of the population growth and the need for flood control. It might have been one of the most effective systems and worked great for the people, but it did not work so great for the Everglades and the animals in it. This system that the Congress had made took 1.7 billion gallons of water each day from the Everglades and it took it out to the ocean. Since the US decided to do this, the natural habitats changed. Much of the water gradually diminished in the marshes, and much of the saltwater went further and deeper into the marsh, not toward the ocean but away from it. Much pollution came from the cities and farms near the marshes, making much of the land unsuitable for plants and animals. The native plants started to not grow as well as they used and started to die, letting the exotic plants, most of which were bad,
It is now half the size it was hundred years ago. Whereas the Everglades used to cover 11 thousand square miles, it now covers more than five thousand square miles but less than six thousand square miles. This happened in 1905 because of a governor named Napoleon Bonaparte Broward. He began to drain the Everglades so that the land can have bigger towns and buildings and more suitable food to grow. Many swamps, some of which that are now Miami and Fort Lauderdale, were built into cities and used for farmland. Later on, in 1948, the US Congress decided to create one of the most effective water systems because of the population growth and the need for flood control. It might have been one of the most effective systems and worked great for the people, but it did not work so great for the Everglades and the animals in it. This system that the Congress had made took 1.7 billion gallons of water each day from the Everglades and it took it out to the ocean. Since the US decided to do this, the natural habitats changed. Much of the water gradually diminished in the marshes, and much of the saltwater went further and deeper into the marsh, not toward the ocean but away from it. Much pollution came from the cities and farms near the marshes, making much of the land unsuitable for plants and animals. The native plants started to not grow as well as they used and started to die, letting the exotic plants, most of which were bad,