HISTORY FAIR

Why did people choose the Everglades to use for Fertile Soil?
Thesis Statement 1. In 1906, Mr. Broward decided to drain the Everglades for an unwise reason: For
Farmland. He made all these assumptions and claims that this project will be successful. If it was not for
the fake report he made, the investors would not have bought the land. They would not have been
deceived into buying the farmland.

Thesis Statement 2. In 1906, Mr. Broward got the government to start draining the Everglades for
farmland. He made a fake report to persuade investors to buy farmland at the Everglades. If not for this,
he would not of made money off of the farmland and would have drained the Everglades for nothing.

Thesis Statement 3. Mr. Broward, the main leader of the project draining the Everglades made very poor
decisions. He falsely advertised farmland from the Everglades by making a fake a report and told the
people of Florida that this project will work. If he did not make these claims, there would not have been
many followers as there were and that project would not have had much support.

Thesis Statement 4. If not for former governor of Florida Napoleon B. Browards fake scientific report of
the legibility of draining the Everglades for farmland, he would not have made any money from the
farmland and some habitats of animals would have been destroyed for nothing.

Thesis Statement 5. Mr. Broward, the governor of Tallahassee decided to do a devastating project. Along
with Governor Jennings, they raised a lot of money and gained a lot of followers for this project. About
over eight million dollars was used for draining and producing farmland. This eight million dollars was
also used to destroy habitats, destroying one of the biggest bodies of waters.

Florida Governor Napoleon Broward was responsible for the most

fake and most successful scientific report legitimizing the draining
of the Everglades to create fertile farmland. However, had it not
been for Governor Browards imagination for disastrous projects,
dry, dreaded, and unusable farmland would never have been
created.

How Its Name Came to Be

The present name came into general use only after the acquisition of Florida
from Spain in 1819 to the United States. The Turner map of 1823 was the first
to use the word Everglades. The fine map of 1856 prints the words
separately, Ever Glades. In the text of the memorial that accompanied the
map the were used without capitals, as ever glades. The word glade is of the
oldest English origin. It meant shining of bright, perhaps as of water.

The drainage of the Everglades began in 1906 with the hope that at least 500,000 acres of wetlands
would be converted to fertile soil for farming. The drainage was begun without any formal study of the
landscape and without any consideration given to the environmental effects it would have. Napoleon
Bonaparte Broward, the governor of Florida at the time, didnt foresee any complications with the draining
of the Everglades. His plan involved simply using gravity combined with the natural elevation and slope of
the landscape between Lake Okeechobee and the coast to achieve drainage.

Many investors were reluctant to buy reclaimed land until some sort of scientific report was conducted to
vouch for the potential success and cost-effectiveness of the project. This led to the writing of several
scientific reports on the feasibility of the current everglades drainage plan. However, many of these
scientific studies, such as the Wright Report, suffered from a mingling of science and politics which led to
questionable if not falsified data. One report, commissioned by the Everglades Land Sales Company in
1912, offered a more realistic view. It attested that, The states canal system could not drain the entire
region, and further, went on to question the economic desirability of such widespread reclamation
(Arsenault, Davis 148). The report also predicted many other faults with the canal system of the time. It
determined that, "drainage from the upper everglades threatened the previously high and dry land of the
Miami Rocklands of the Atlantic Coastal ridge with flooding, and they also knew that dried organic soils
would easily catch fire, destroying the very fertile soil reclamation promised to create (Arsenault, Davis
148). The report also mentioned that the newly exposed soil had the potential to subside due to
compaction and biochemical action of aerobic bacteria.

When the results of this report were released, state officials decided to commission their own report. The
results of this report, titled the Randolph Report, were more along the lines of land developers hopes. The
report found fault with parts of the current drainage plan, but still saw the project as possible and cost-
effective provided changes were made. The Randolph Report served as the basis for Everglades drainage
from 1913 to 1928. However, as predicted by the report commissioned by the Everglades Land Sales
Company, as successful drainage was accomplished, more soil subsidence occurred and fires burned the
newly dried land. (Natural disaster destroys part of their plan) The elevation drops along Lake Okeechobee
became so severe that dikes had to be made to keep water from flowing over onto farmers fields. In
1926, Floridas hurricane season brought storms that caused heavy rain, failure of the dikes and severe
flooding. That year, more than 600 people died as a result of the flooding. In 1928, hurricanes caused the
failure of the dikes once more. This time more than 2,000 people lost their lives.

Draining the Everglades

The notion of draining the vast wetland persisted into the 20th century. Expanded
dredging efforts between 1905 and 1910 transformed large tracts from wetland to
agricultural land. This abundance of "new" land stimulated the first of several south
Florida land booms. Railroads constructed by entrepreneurs like Henry B. Plant and
Henry M. Flagler made the region more accessible and attractive to tourists. By the
1920s visitors and new residents flocked to blossoming towns like Fort Lauderdale,
Miami, and Fort Myers. As they arrived, developers cut more canals and built new
roads. To ensure good ocean views, they removed mangroves from the shorelines and
replaced them with palm trees. Little by little canals, roads, and buildings displaced
native habitats.

The year 1948 marked an even greater change when Congress authorized the Central
and South Florida Project. This involved the construction of an elaborate system of
roads, canals, levees, and water-control structures stretching throughout South Florida.
Constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers, and sponsored by the Central and
Southern Flood Control District (later redesignated the South Florida Water
Management District), the project purposes were to provide water and flood protection
for urban and agricultural lands, a water supply for Everglades National Park, the
preservation of fish and wildlife habitat, facilitate navigation and recreation, and the
prevention of salt water intrusion. While the project still provides many of the intended
benefits, the alteration of regional wetland areas, estuaries, and bays combined with
increasing population pressures and changing land uses has significantly degraded
the natural system.