It was on this day in 1947 that President Harry S. Truman dedicated the Everglades National Park, the most famous of Floridas wetlands. Standing on a palmetto-thatched platform, he addressed the crowd of 10,000: Here is land, tranquil in its quiet beauty, serving not as the source of water, but as the last receiver of it. To its natural abundance we owe the spectacular plant and animal life that distinguishes this place from all others in our country. The Everglades was the first national park dedicated solely for its biological diversity, hosting 400 species of birds alongside panthers, pompano, and such remarkable creatures as the Florida applesnail mollusk, lake chubsucker fish, and eastern pondhawks, an unusual species of dragonfly. It is home to the strangler fig, pond apple, and gumbo-limbo trees. The Everglades is the countrys third-largest national park, behind Yellowstone and Death Valley, and encompasses a million and a half acres between Miami, Key Largo, and Naples. In his address, President Truman declared, For conservation of the human spirit, we need places such as Everglades National Park ... here we may draw strength and peace of mind from our surroundings. ~ The Writers Almanac
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:57:50 +0000
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