Everglades National Park Commission Papers

Agency History:
The Everglades National Park Commission first came into existence in the late 1920s under the supervision of Ernest F. Coe and other South Floridians who had begun a movement to preserve the Everglades as a national park. The U.S. and state legislatures embraced the idea and made moves to pass the legislation needed for the park, but the economic and war-time concerns of the 1930s and 40s put the project on hold for a number of years. The Commission appeared again in 1946 when, at the urging of environmentalists, Governor Millard F. Caldwell appointed 25 individuals to a new Everglades National Park Commission. It took the Commission less than a year to drum up the needed support for the park and for the state to pass the necessary legislation. In 1947, President Harry S Truman dedicated the Evergaldes National Park.
[Source: Brookfield, Charles M. and Oliver Griswold, "The Founding of Everglades National Park," in They All Called it Tropical: True Tales of the Romantic Everglades, Cape Sable, and the Florida Keys. Miami: Historical Association of Southern Florida, 1985.]

Scope and Content:
The Everglades National Park Commission Papers are comprised of four items dated from June to October in 1946. The first item is a four-page document entitled, "Official Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Everglades National Park Commission at the Lunsford Lodge on Windley Island, June 15, 1946." The second item is a four-page letter, dated July 19, 1946, "To the Property Owners Within the Everglades National Park Area," that gives a good history of the establishing of the park. The third item, dated July 19, 1946, is a list of names and addresses of the twenty-five "Members Appointed to the Everglades National Park Commission by Governor Millard F. Caldwell," which was prepared by Gilbert D. Leach, Managing Director. The final item is a 71-page document entitled "Minutes of the Meeting of Executive Committee Everglades National Park Commission, Jacksonville, Florida, October 21, 1946."
The papers in this collection were sent on September 7, 1971, by Mr. Ronald S. Spencer, Jr., Executive Vice President of the Florida State Chamber of Commerce, Jacksonville, Florida, to Mr. Allen Morris with a photograph of the first meeting of the Commission for the Photographic Archives of the Library. Mr. Morris turned the papers over to Special Collections for preservation.

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