Welcome to the Everglades!

The Everglades story starts in the 1800s. American Indians and African slaves hid there, even though the environment was wild and sometimes dangerous. And, members from the Seminole Indian tribe hid here from U.S. soldiers, who were walking the "Trail of Tears". But even so, in 1830, a lot of American-Indians were forced to leave the Everglades. This was because the Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, affecting the American Indians in the Eastern United States. So, some members of the Seminole Tribe left, but some brave members stayed, hiding in the Everglades. The Seminoles who decided to hide in the Everglades were relatives of other American Indian tribes in Florida. The Seminoles were joined in hiding by African slaves, who left the South before and during the Civil War. These two groups both learned how to survive in the Everglades, over time, hiding from the U.S. soldiers.

There were many dangers in the Everglades that the slaves and native tribes had to survive against. For example, there were tons of dangerous animals, like mosquitos and flies that want to suck your blood. There are also poisonous snakes, and animals like bears, panthers, crocodiles, alligators, and wild boars that could kill you. Another threat to the people hiding is the weather. If it rained a lot, there was flooding, and everything they were hiding could have been ruined, along with where they were sleeping. And if there was a really bad storm or hurricane, they could get crushed by a falling tree, or blown into muddy water they can't get out of, pushed around by the wind. But somehow, Seminoles and African slaves learned how to survive. And finally, since the soldiers weren't ready to face all these dangers, they gave up looking for the Seminoles, and they were never found.

The Everglades became a national park in the year 1947. It was the president Harry S. Truman who made this happen. A big part of making the Everglades a national park a book that was published in 1947, all about the Everglades. The book was called The Everglades: River of Grass and it was written by Marjory Stoneman Douglass. The book was all about the breathtaking beauty of the wilderness there, and how it keeps the whole environment in a natural balance. And a huge, main point was how the Everglades has to be protected: if we continued to drain water from the Everglades, life inside and outside the park would be destroyed. Most life around the Everglades depends on the evaporation of the water in the Everglades. Without all the rainfall that comes from the evaporation, wetlands would dry up. Not long after the Everglades became a national park, America began the largest water project ever attempted anywhere on Earth.

Overall, the whole United States has helped the Everglades. A lot of money was donated (millions of dollars) to the Everglades, to help it be repaired. Even so, there is still much that has to be done. If you want to make a difference, you can. You can donate money, raise awareness, and educate people all about it. And, you can help within a bigger group of people. For example, the government, and big companies are funding research, to find out more. And last, the most helpful thing that YOU can do is tell other people how they can help, and get them interested, and helping too.