The Everglades covered a large part of southern Florida. It was about seven hundred fifty or so square miles in actual area. The water in the Everglades was very shallow, often less than a foot deep. The Everglades were filled with various types of wild life including; 300 different species of birds, turtles, alligators, tadpoles, fish and snakes (Douglas P-9). The Everglades had an extensive ecosystem of its own, but time and people have destroyed much of the land that was once the Florida Everglades. Many changes have been made to the Everglades for many reasons. I have researched how they were formed and how they benefited the people living in Southern Florida. I have also researched the history of the Everglades and how people have destroyed them and how people are trying to restore what is left.
The healthy flow of the water to the Everglades was the key to South Florida's well being. Its flow of water came from the chain of lakes of the upper Kissimmee Valley into Lake Okeechobee, in the rainy season. The water was filtered through to lake and then the slowly descending sheet would flow across the Florida Everglades replenishing South Florida's water supply. The greatest source of this water was the Kissimmee River, Taylor River, Fish-eating Creek and a dozen smaller named and unnamed bodies of water (Burt P-49). .
To understand where the Everglades is today one must know its history. A large tribe of Seminole Indians lived to the south of Lake Okeechobee in the Devils Garden, Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades. This tribe lived on the fish they caught, the alligators skin they sold and the turkey they killed. The water that surrounded this tribe was also a mode of transportation (Covington P-149). In the 1830's, the Everglades was a scene of military operation against the Seminole Indians. .
In 1845, the Everglades was described as "untouched and a perfectly functioning system of water and land" (Gannon p- 425).