Big Cypress National Preserve

Big Cypress National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in South Florida, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Miami on the Atlantic coastal plain. The 720,000-acre (2,900 km2) Big Cypress, along with Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, became the first national preserves in the United States National Park System when they were established on October 11, 1974. In 2008, Florida film producer Elam Stoltzfus featured the preserve in a PBS documentary.

Big Cypress borders the wet freshwater marl prairies of Everglades National Park to the south, and other state and federally protected cypress country in the west, with water from the Big Cypress flowing south and west into the coastal Ten Thousand Islands region of Everglades National Park.

History

Archaeology at Platt Island in the preserve shows humans settled there more than two thousand years ago. The Calusa people had an extensive presence in the area when Europeans arrived. Big Cypress was historically occupied by various cultures of Native Americans; the last were the Seminole of the nineteenth century. Their descendants include the federally recognized Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Early European-American settlers hunted herons and egrets, whose feathers were popular with 19th and 20th century hat-makers in New York and Paris. Poachers hunted American alligators and American crocodiles to near extinction. When the timber industry began to operate in the area, it built railroads, and cut and hauled out most of the cypress ecosystem's old growth trees. Portions of the Big Cypress, which is slightly more elevated than the western Everglades, were farmed for winter vegetables.

The search for oil in Florida began in 1901 with no success. After almost 80 dry holes had been drilled throughout the state, on September 26, 1943, Humble Oil Company (later to become Exxon) discovered Florida's first producing oil well in the northwest portion of what is now Big Cypress National Preserve. When Everglades National Park was established in 1947, Big Cypress was originally intended to be included; however, because the land had not been purchased from its private owners, Big Cypress was ultimately released from the park system.

In the 1960s, the site was proposed to become the Miami Jetport, a massive new airport intended to replace Miami International Airport. Construction began in 1968, but due to efforts of Native Americans, hunters, and conservationists, construction was halted in 1970 after only one of the proposed six runways was completed. They followed up with a campaign to have Big Cypress included in the National Park System. The single completed runway is now known as the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.

Big Cypress National Preserve differs from Everglades National Park in that, when it was established by law in 1974, the Miccosukee, Seminole and Traditional people were provided with permanent rights to occupy and use the land in traditional ways; in addition, they have first rights to develop income-producing businesses related to the resources and use of the preserve, such as guided tours. They and other hunters[8] may use off-road vehicles, and home and business owners have been permitted to keep their properties in the preserve. As in Everglades National Park, petroleum exploration was permitted within Big Cypress in the authorizing legislation, but plans are under way for the government to buy out the remaining petroleum leases in order to shut down non-governmental commercial access to the environment.

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