Everglades National Park is located in the U.S. state of Florida about 20 miles east of Biscayne National Park. It is protecting the largest U.S. wilderness area east of the Mississippi River, the park is the perfect and most significant place for the breeding ground and reproduction of tropical birds that are resided in North America and America Continent, and contains the largest mangrove ecosystem in the western hemisphere.
Currently covering 1,506,499 acres, it is the third largest national park in the contiguous 48 states, smaller only than Death Valley and Yellowstone National Parks.
This is the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in the United States, and its home to a veritable zoo of endangered, rare, and exotic species. More than 350 species of birds, 300 species of fresh and saltwater fish, 40 species of mammals, 700 plant, and 50 species of reptiles live within Everglades National Park.
The park encompasses saw grass marshes, hardwood hammocks, mangrove swamps, lakes, and Florida Bay. Famous animal life including the famous alligators, and 14 threatened or endangered species. The park preserves one of the world's truly unique ecosystems.
In winter time, when the temperatures and swarms of mosquitoes abate somewhat, the park is full of a large numbers of kayak, canoe campers, hikers, anglers, plenty of campers car, seekers of alligators, etc. The park is visited by one million people each year, and it is the third largest national park in the lower 48 states after Death Valley, and Yellowstone National Park.
Many people of Florida are hoping to preserve the Everglades, this way the people proposed to its authorities in 1923 to protect this area in order that the Everglades was turning into a national park. Five years later, the Florida state legislature established the Tropical Everglades National Park Commission to study the formation of a protected area.
The commission was led by a land developer turned conservationist named Ernest F. Coe. His original plan for the park included more than 8,100 km2 including Key Largo and Big Cypress, and his compromise to the park's creation.
On May 30, 1934, an act was passed authorizing that the park was acquired by public donations. Everglade the National Park was created for the intact preservation of the unique flora, fauna, and the historical values of the essential primitive natural conditions, but the park didn’t possess any revenue of money to preserve the project for at least five years.
Thirteen years later, through a combination of federal state, and private lands, a vast wet land teeming with life dedicated as a national park. Everglades was the first national park preserved primarily for its abundance and variety of life, rather than for scenic or historic values.
Coe's passion and U.S. Senator Spessard Holland's politicking helped to fully establish the park, after Holland was able to negotiate 5,300 km2 of the park, leaving out Big Cypress, Key Largo, the Turner River area, and a 89 km2 tract of land called "The Hole in the Donut" that was too highly valued for agriculture.
President Harry S. Truman formally declares Everglades National Park on 06 December 1947 in a ceremony held at Everglades City. This event culminated years of effort by a dedicated group of conservationists to make a national park in the Florida Everglades a reality.
The Visitor Center near the main park entrance is dedicated to one of the foremost of these far-sighted individuals, Ernest "Tom" Coe. And the boundary changes have substantially increased the size of the park from the original in 200 hectares.
In 1950, the Secretary of the Interior increased the size of the park to 497,167 hectares, including the former wildlife refuge. Two additional boundary changes increased the park to 566,788 hectares by 1958.
Everglades National Park was created to protect a fragile ecosystem instead of safeguarding a geographic feature. Thirty-six species designated as threatened or protected live in the park, including the Florida panther, the American crocodile, and the West Indian manatee.
Everglades National Park was designated an International Biosphere Reserve on October 26, 1976. And in November 10, 1978, most of the park was declared a wilderness area. The park was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on October 24, 1979 and as a Wetland of International Importance on June 4, 1987.
In 1989, Congress passed legislation that expanded the eastern boundary of the national park by 44,112 hectares, primarily for the purposes of ecosystem restoration and protection.
Everglades National Park is open year round. Highest visitation is from December through April, and the lowest visitation is May through November. Tours, walking, canoe trails, boat tours, and tram tours, are excellent for viewing wildlife, including alligators and a multitude of tropical birds.