The Everglades are the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in North America and have increased in size from the original 460,000 acres to 109,493.10 acres in just sixty six years. They stretch southward from Lake Okeechobee to the Bay of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico and are consumed with mystery and beauty. Inside lie a succession of plant and animal wildlife found nowhere else in the world (Doner 1). It is one of the country's richest biological preserves and through hard work will remain to exist. The Everglades have produced many needs to be met along with the plants and animals that inhabit them.
To fully understand the diversity of the Everglades, a general knowledge of how they came to be is essential. Surprisingly young, the Everglades were only formed within the last 5,000 years (2). The movement of tectonic plates first formed the base while the expansion and contraction of ice sheets slowly accumulated to form the aquatic system. Only after the end of the Wisconsin glacier did the birth of the peninsula come to be; it was then the interrelationship between the organic rock of the ancient seafloor and the waters of today's modern ocean begin to form the Everglades. There are three elements that created the Everglades and they are rock, water and fire (McCally 1-2). .
One important element is rock because it is the foundation on which the Everglades rest. It can be divided into three categories: 1) basement rock 2) marine sediments and 3) Ice Age Strata. Each of these categories played an important role in the formation of the Everglades (Molloy 1). The basement rock was at one-time piece of Africa that provided the base for the westerly direction of drainage. However the second allowed numerous generations of marine animals to give their bodies to the limestone and finally the third rose the level of the sea and provided both the sandy formations and the limestone bedrock (McCally 2-4).