Everglades National Park

The Everglades National Park is the second largest in the country after Yellowstone and the largest subtropical wilderness in the continental U.S. It is a 1.5 million-acre tract of marshy land and swamp and an important and fragile ecosystem.

The first inhabitants of this region were Calusa Indians who lived mainly along the estuaries, fishing and collecting shellfish. During the Seminole Wars of the 1830's, Seminole Indians also retreated here to avoid capture by the army. The Indians called the everglades "Pa-hay-okee", or grassy water. Later, environmentalist Marjory Stone Douglas gave it the moniker "River of Grass." The later is an appropriate name because it reflects the true nature of the Everglades.

The whole area is composed of a wide, shallow river that flows from Lake Okeechobee to the Bay of Florida. The bottom of this river is porous limestone over top of a bedrock base called the Tamiani Formation.