Ernest F. Coe
Encyclopedia
Ernest "Tom" Coe was an American landscape design
Landscape design
Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practised by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice landscape design bridges between landscape architecture and garden design.-Design scope:...

er who envisioned a national park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 dedicated to the preservation of the Everglades
Everglades
The Everglades are subtropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee...

, culminating in the establishment of Everglades National Park
Everglades National Park
Everglades National Park is a national park in the U.S. state of Florida that protects the southern 25 percent of the original Everglades. It is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, and is visited on average by one million people each year. It is the third-largest...

. Coe was born and spent most of his life in Connecticut as a professional gardener, moving to Miami at age 60. He was enormously impressed with the Everglades and became one of several South Florida-based naturalists who grew concerned for the wanton destruction of plants, animals, and natural water flow in the name of progress and prosperity. Coe worked for more than 20 years to get Everglades National Park established, but he viewed the effort as mostly a failure. However, Oscar L. Chapman
Oscar L. Chapman
Oscar Littleton Chapman was the United States Secretary of the Interior during thelast three years of the Truman administration....

, former Secretary of the Interior
United States Secretary of the Interior
The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior.The US Department of the Interior should not be confused with the concept of Ministries of the Interior as used in other countries...

, stated "Ernest Coe's many years of effective and unselfish efforts to save the Everglades earned him a place among the immortals of the National Park movement."

Early life and move to Florida

Coe was born in New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...

, and attended Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 College of Fine Arts from 1885 to 1887. Trained as a landscape architect, he spent his 40-year career designing New England gardens and estates. He and his wife Anna moved to Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

, in 1925 when he was 60 years old, and continued professional gardening in Florida, opening an office in Coral Gables. He became involved in the same intellectual and social circles as Charles Torrey Simpson
Charles Torrey Simpson
Charles Torrey Simpson was an American botanist, malacologist, and conservationist. He retired to Florida where he became known for conservation.- Scientific work :...

 and David Fairchild
David Fairchild
David Grandison Fairchild was an American botanist and plant explorer. Fairchild was responsible for the introduction of more than 200,000 exotic plants and varieties of established crops into the United States, including soybeans, pistachios, mangos, nectarines, dates, bamboos, and flowering...

, who together formed the Florida Society of Natural History.

Experience with the Everglades

South Florida in the 1920s was experiencing an unprecedented population surge
Florida land boom of the 1920s
The Florida land boom of the 1920s was Florida's first real estate bubble, which burst in 1925, leaving behind entire new cities and the remains of failed development projects such as Aladdin City in south Miami-Dade County and Isola di Lolando in north Biscayne Bay...

 that was answered by real estate development and speculation. Coe was one of the victims of such speculation as he lost a significant investment. As a result of the land boom, portions of the Everglades began to be drained and turned into residential and business zones. Wading birds
Wader
Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...

 were slaughtered by the millions for their colorful feathers that were used in women's hats. Rare orchids were plucked from their habitats, and hunting of animals was unchecked. Meetings of the Florida Society of Natural History began to focus on this destruction and how to prevent it and many ideas were floated about how to preserve a portion of the Everglades, resulting in the establishment of Royal Palm State Park in 1921.

Coe began to venture into the Everglades to see the flora and fauna for himself, driving deep into the wilderness and hiking on his own, often sleeping on the ground with his head covered with a pillowcase to save himself from the mosquitoes. When a neighbor suggested a trek to Cape Sable
Cape Sable
Cape Sable, Florida is the southernmost point of the US mainland and mainland Florida. It is located in southwestern Florida, in Monroe County, and is part of the Everglades National Park. The cape is a peninsula issuing from the southeastern part of the Florida mainland, running west and curving...

 to gather as many orchids as possible, Coe was appalled and began to work for the idea of a protected area.

Everglades Tropical National Park Association

The Everglades Tropical National Park Association was established by Coe in 1928 with Fairchild, University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...

 president Bowman Ashe, and journalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Marjory Stoneman Douglas was an American journalist, writer, feminist, and environmentalist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development...

 on the committee. It followed two very destructive hurricanes that caused widespread flooding in Miami and from Lake Okeechobee. One of the association's primary selling points was to portray the proposed area that would receive protection as worthless for human habitation and commercial enterprise; so far controlling the natural floods in the region had met with no success and a tourist attraction such as the park would be favorable. Coe insisted that "tropical" be used in the park name, to allude to the salubrious nature of tropical weather. It invoked a foreign place to most Americans and reminded them that it was, at the time, the only tropical location within U.S. borders.

Coe drafted the proposal for the park and Senator Duncan Fletcher
Duncan Fletcher
Duncan Andrew Gwynne Fletcher OBE is a former Zimbabwean cricketer, formerly captain of the Zimbabwean cricket team and the current coach of the Indian Cricket Team. He has been appointed as coach of the Indian Cricket Team on April 27, 2011...

 and Congreswoman Ruth Bryan Owen
Ruth Bryan Owen
Ruth Bryan Owen was the daughter of William Jennings Bryan and mother of Helen Rudd Brown. A Democrat, in 1929 she became Florida’s first woman representative in the United States Congress, coming from Florida’s 4th district. Representative Owen was also the first woman to earn a spot on the...

 introduced the legislation to create Everglades National Park
Everglades National Park
Everglades National Park is a national park in the U.S. state of Florida that protects the southern 25 percent of the original Everglades. It is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, and is visited on average by one million people each year. It is the third-largest...

. This followed a delegation visit to tour the area in 1930 that took one day by car, another by boat, and another by Goodyear Blimp
Goodyear Blimp
The Goodyear Blimp is the collective name for a fleet of blimps operated by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company for advertising purposes and for use as a television camera platform for aerial views of sporting events...

. Although Coe spent the blimp trip airsick and vomiting into a bucket sitting next to a sympathetic Douglas while they both rode below the blimp in the observer's coop, the visiting delegation was duly impressed and immediately supported the idea after shifting their concepts of the Everglades from a miasmatic swamp to a beautiful paradise.

Coe was so enthusiastic about the park that he won over opponents and the undecided and caused supporters to shy away from him. He "made a nuisance of himself" in his own words, and "was the very figure of a man obsessed" according to Douglas. Coe gave speeches at civic, garden and rotary clubs, and held informal meetings with Seminole
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...

s and white squatters living in the Everglades, who saw him as an interloper and often threatened him. Douglas wrote that Coe visited her father as the editor of The Miami Herald, and Coe read aloud all the letters he received and wrote while Frank Stoneman was forced to sit and listen even though he backed the idea of the park.

The Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 created economic obstacles for the park, and Owen lost her congressional seat. Coe, however, worked tirelessly for the park's establishment in Washington D.C. He sent coconuts to congressmen, President Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...

, and the Secretary of the Interior. While the concept of what landscapes were worth protecting were developing in the minds of scientists and politicians, Coe used any tactic he could think of to advance the idea of Everglades National Park, even equating its powers with the mythical Fountain of Youth
Fountain of Youth
The Fountain of Youth is a legendary spring that reputedly restores the youth of anyone who drinks of its waters. Tales of such a fountain have been recounted across the world for thousands of years, appearing in writings by Herodotus, the Alexander romance, and the stories of Prester John...

. He took Congressional appointees from the Department of the Interior on tours through the Everglades, and though attempts to establish the park failed twice, it finally passed in May 1934. It carried a provision that the federal government would not be responsible for buying lands for the park, but its establishment ensured that no more land would be purchased from the protected area. Removing the prospect of developing lands in South Florida angered many state politicians. Newly elected governor Fred P. Cone
Fred P. Cone
Frederick Preston Cone was the 27th Governor of Florida.He was born in Benton, Florida in Columbia County. In 1892, he was admitted to the Florida bar and began practicing in Lake City, Florida. He served in the Florida Senate from 1907 to 1913, serving as the senate president in 1911. He became...

 fired Coe and left the Everglades Tropic National Park Commission without any guidance.

Park establishment

Everglades National Park was not dedicated until 1947. Coe spent the time between its approval and its dedication attempting to raise funds for lands for the park and assuring park detractors that it would simultaneously attract tourists without destroying the ecosystems it was designed to protect. Executive secretary of the National Parks Association
National Parks Conservation Association
The National Parks Conservation Association is the only independent, membership organization devoted exclusively to advocacy on behalf of the National Parks System...

 and wilderness advocate Robert Sterling Yard
Robert Sterling Yard
Robert Sterling Yard was an American writer, journalist, and wilderness activist. Born in Haverstraw, New York, Yard graduated from Princeton University and spent the first twenty years of his career in the editing and publishing business...

 was among several skeptics who doubted that business endeavors in Florida and a protected area could coexist. Establishment of the park initiated the first U.S. government contact with the Seminoles outside military action in the Seminole wars
Seminole Wars
The Seminole Wars, also known as the Florida Wars, were three conflicts in Florida between the Seminole — the collective name given to the amalgamation of various groups of native Americans and Black people who settled in Florida in the early 18th century — and the United States Army...

 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...

 and Secretary of the Interior were charged with deciding what to do with them. Coe pushed for including considerations for Seminole lands within the structure of the park, although beyond roles as tour guides and park vendors, he thought the Seminoles should be restricted from using the park. In his opinion, the park should have been "free of all human interference".

Anna Coe died in 1941, but as she was ailing, Ernest Coe continued to write to politicians running for governor, as did Miami Herald editor John Pennekamp, urging them not to forget the directive of the park, particularly in the face of continuing poaching and destruction of the natural resources of the area. Originally, Coe envisioned 2500 square miles (6,475 km²) of protected land, spanning from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Keys, including marine coral reefs, and the Big Cypress Swamp. This was an extraordinary amount of land to consider, and the prevailing belief was that only spectacular landforms warranted protection. Many of the park's detractors saw the Everglades as flat and filled with loathsome reptiles. Even the park's supporters had difficulty justifying the inclusion of Coe's vision. May Mann Jennings
May Mann Jennings
May Austin Elizabeth Mann Jennings was the First Lady of Florida as wife of Florida Governor William Sherman Jennings. She was one of Florida's most powerful and influential women.-Early years:...

, who worked to establish Royal Palm State Park and expanded it considerably during the Depression with projects sponsored by the Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...

, thought Coe's insistence on the amount of land was absurd and began to consider Coe a political liability to the park's establishment.

What was eventually approved was 2000 square miles (5,180 km²), much of it parceled out and disconnected. Florida donated 454000 acres (1,837.3 km²), but it was only a quarter of what the park was supposed to encompass. Companies interested in mining rights held large swaths of land and insisted on making deals. Individual landowners continued to hold out for better prices. In The Everglades: River of Grass
The Everglades: River of Grass
The Everglades: River of Grass is a non-fiction book written by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1947. Published the same year as the formal opening of Everglades National Park, the book was a call to attention about the degrading quality of life in the Everglades and continues to remain an influential...

, Marjory Stoneman Douglas alludes to "all sorts of fraudulent schemes" to solidify the land included in the park, of which Coe was one of many working for this goal. When the park was dedicated, Coe was bitterly disappointed in the final product and resigned from the committee in protest. It was considerably smaller than what he designed and he criticized the politicking and short-sightedness of the deals to make it happen. Only lands south of the Tamiami Trail
Tamiami Trail
The Tamiami Trail is the southernmost of U.S. Highway 41 from State Road 60 in Tampa to U.S. Route 1 in Miami. The road also has the hidden designation of State Road 90....

 were considered to be within the park boundaries, and Coe was concerned that the park could not survive if lands were drained or water was diverted north of the road. Although he refused to have anything more to do with the Everglades, when the park was dedicated in a ceremony attended by President Harry Truman, Coe sat on the stage with the president.

Death and honors

Coe died in 1951, at 84 years of age. Decades following his attempts to make the Everglades a whole protected area, his efforts were recognized when John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is a Florida State Park located on Key Largo in Florida, and includes approximately 70 nautical square miles of adjacent Atlantic Ocean waters. It was the first underwater park in the United States. The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places...

 on Key Largo
Key Largo
Key Largo is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and, at long, the largest of the Keys. It is also the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the Keys connected by U.S. Highway 1...

, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary in the Florida Keys. It includes the Florida Reef, the only barrier coral reef in North America and the third-largest coral barrier reef in the world. It also has extensive mangrove forest and seagrass fields...

, and Big Cypress National Preserve
Big Cypress National Preserve
Big Cypress National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in southern Florida, about 45 miles west of Miami. The 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...

 were gradually protected; all had been within Coe's original plans to be included with the Everglades. In 1997, the 105th Congress
105th United States Congress
The One Hundred Fifth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1997 to January 3, 1999, during the fifth and...

 declared that Coe was the primary force behind the creation of Everglades National Park, acknowledged that he is considered the "Father of Everglades National Park", and resolved that the visitors' center closest to Homestead
Homestead, Florida
Homestead is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States nestled between Biscayne National Park to the east and Everglades National Park to the west. Homestead is primarily a Miami suburb and a major agricultural area....

be dedicated in his name.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK