Everglades, Florida
Encyclopedia
Everglades is a city in Collier County
, Florida
, United States
. The population was 479 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 513.http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2004-04-12.xls It is part of the Naples
–Marco Island
Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Gulf Coast Visitor Center for Everglades National Park
is in Everglades City.
It is at the mouth of the Barron River, on Chokoloskee Bay. Chokoloskee Bay is about ten miles (16 km) long and 2 miles (3.2 km) wide, and runs southeast to northwest along the mainland
of Collier County. It is separated from the Gulf of Mexico
by the northern end of the Ten Thousand Islands
.
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the city has a total area of 1.2 square miles (3.1 km²). 0.9 square miles (2.3 km²) of it is land and 0.2 square mile (0.517997622 km²) of it (21.01%) is water.
of 2000, there were 479 people, 230 households, and 154 families residing in the city. The population density
was 513.2 inhabitants per square mile (198.9/km²). There were 345 housing units at an average density of 369.6 per square mile (143.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.45% White, 0.84% African American, 0.63% Native American, 0.42% Asian, 1.46% from other races
, and 0.21% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.97% of the population.
There were 230 households out of which 13.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.0% were married couples
living together, 3.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.0% were non-families. 27.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.08 and the average family size was 2.50.
In the city the population was spread out with 11.9% under the age of 18, 4.2% from 18 to 24, 19.0% from 25 to 44, 30.5% from 45 to 64, and 34.4% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 25 years. For every 100 females there were 104.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 111.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $36,667, and the median income for a family was $38,929. Males had a median income of $32,083 versus $22,222 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $20,535. About 6.1% of families and 6.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.5% of those under age 18 and 1.6% of those age 65 or older.
, who were absorbed by the Calusa
shortly before the arrival of Europeans in the New World, but by the time Florida was transferred from Spain to the United States in 1821, the area was uninhabited. A legend says that Seminole
s planted potatoes along what is now the Barron River during the Seminole Wars
, in the vicinity of the present Everglades City.
American settlement began after the Civil War
, when Union
sympathizers who had farmed on Cape Sable
to supply Key West
during the war, moved up the west coast of the peninsula. The first permanent settler was William Smith Allen, who arrived on the banks of Potato Creek (later renamed the Allen River) in 1873. After Allen retired to Key West in 1889, George W. Storter, Jr. became the principal landowner in the area. Storter gained fame for his sugar cane crops. He opened a trading post in 1892, and gained a post office, called "Everglade", in 1895. Storter also began entertaining northern tourists who came to Everglade by yacht in the winter to hunt and fish. His house eventually grew into the Rod and Gun Club, visited by United States Presidents and other notables.
The first school in Everglade was organized in 1893. The school moved into a new building in 1895, but the building was destroyed by a tornado
later in the year. The next school building was washed away by the 1910 hurricane. A Methodist
circuit rider
began visiting Everglade in 1888, and a Methodist minister became resident the next year, but he left after four years. After that Everglade was occasionally visited by itinerant preachers of various denominations.
In 1922 Barron Collier
began buying large areas of land in what was then southern Lee County
. In 1923 the Florida legislature created Collier County
from Lee County, with the county seat at Everglade. The town was incorporated the same year as "Everglades" (adding the "s"). The town consisted of only a dozen families at the time, but some northern sportsmen had established winter homes there.
The Tamiami Trail
, which crossed Collier's domain, passed five miles north of Everglades City. While construction was proceeding on the Trail (it was completed in 1929), Collier pushed construction of what became State Road 29 from Everglades City to Immokalee
, providing the town with its first land connection to the rest of the state.
in the mid-late 1980s, part of the War on Drugs
.
, Bank of Everglades Building
and Everglades Laundry
(now the Museum of the Everglades).
Collier County, Florida
Collier County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 251,377. The U.S. Census Bureau 2007 estimate for the county is 315,839...
, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 479 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 513.http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2004-04-12.xls It is part of the Naples
Naples, Florida
Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of July 1, 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 21,653. Naples is a principal city of the Naples–Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated total population of 315,839 on July 1, 2007...
–Marco Island
Marco Island, Florida
Marco Island is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States, located on an island by the same name in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Southwest Florida. It is a principal city of the Naples–Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area...
Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Gulf Coast Visitor Center for 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...
is in Everglades City.
Geography
Everglades is located at 25.858768°N 81.384715°W.It is at the mouth of the Barron River, on Chokoloskee Bay. Chokoloskee Bay is about ten miles (16 km) long and 2 miles (3.2 km) wide, and runs southeast to northwest along the mainland
Mainland
Mainland is a name given to a large landmass in a region , or to the largest of a group of islands in an archipelago. Sometimes its residents are called "Mainlanders"...
of Collier County. It is separated from the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
by the northern end of the Ten Thousand Islands
Ten Thousand Islands (Florida)
The Ten Thousand Islands are a chain of islands and mangrove islets off the coast of southwest Florida, between Cape Romano and the mouth of Lostman's River. Some of the islands are high spots on a drowned shoreline. Others were produced by mangroves growing on oyster bars...
.
According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 1.2 square miles (3.1 km²). 0.9 square miles (2.3 km²) of it is land and 0.2 square mile (0.517997622 km²) of it (21.01%) is water.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 479 people, 230 households, and 154 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 513.2 inhabitants per square mile (198.9/km²). There were 345 housing units at an average density of 369.6 per square mile (143.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 96.45% White, 0.84% African American, 0.63% Native American, 0.42% Asian, 1.46% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 0.21% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.97% of the population.
There were 230 households out of which 13.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.0% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 3.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.0% were non-families. 27.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.08 and the average family size was 2.50.
In the city the population was spread out with 11.9% under the age of 18, 4.2% from 18 to 24, 19.0% from 25 to 44, 30.5% from 45 to 64, and 34.4% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 25 years. For every 100 females there were 104.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 111.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $36,667, and the median income for a family was $38,929. Males had a median income of $32,083 versus $22,222 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $20,535. About 6.1% of families and 6.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 9.5% of those under age 18 and 1.6% of those age 65 or older.
History
The area around Chokoloskee Bay, including the site of Everglades City, was occupied for thousands of years by Native Americans of the Glades cultureGlades culture
The Glades culture is an archaeological culture in southernmost Florida that lasted from about 500 BCE until shortly after European contact. Its area included the Everglades, the Florida Keys, the Atlantic coast of Florida north through present-day Martin County and the Gulf coast north to Marco...
, who were absorbed by the Calusa
Calusa
The Calusa were a Native American people who lived on the coast and along the inner waterways of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region; at the time of European contact, the Calusa were the people of the Caloosahatchee culture...
shortly before the arrival of Europeans in the New World, but by the time Florida was transferred from Spain to the United States in 1821, the area was uninhabited. A legend says that 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 planted potatoes along what is now the Barron River during 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...
, in the vicinity of the present Everglades City.
American settlement began after the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, when Union
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sympathizers who had farmed on 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 supply Key West
Key West, Florida
Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 , Sigsbee Park , Fleming Key , and Sunset Key...
during the war, moved up the west coast of the peninsula. The first permanent settler was William Smith Allen, who arrived on the banks of Potato Creek (later renamed the Allen River) in 1873. After Allen retired to Key West in 1889, George W. Storter, Jr. became the principal landowner in the area. Storter gained fame for his sugar cane crops. He opened a trading post in 1892, and gained a post office, called "Everglade", in 1895. Storter also began entertaining northern tourists who came to Everglade by yacht in the winter to hunt and fish. His house eventually grew into the Rod and Gun Club, visited by United States Presidents and other notables.
The first school in Everglade was organized in 1893. The school moved into a new building in 1895, but the building was destroyed by a tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
later in the year. The next school building was washed away by the 1910 hurricane. A Methodist
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
circuit rider
Circuit rider (Religious)
Circuit rider is a popular term referring to clergy in the earliest years of the United States who were assigned to travel around specific geographic territories to minister to settlers and organize congregations...
began visiting Everglade in 1888, and a Methodist minister became resident the next year, but he left after four years. After that Everglade was occasionally visited by itinerant preachers of various denominations.
In 1922 Barron Collier
Barron Collier
Barron Gift Collier was an American advertising entrepreneur, who became the largest landowner and developer in the U.S. state of Florida, as well as, the owner of a chain of hotels, bus lines, several banks, and newspapers. He also owned a telephone company and a steamship line.Collier was born...
began buying large areas of land in what was then southern Lee County
Lee County, Florida
Lee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. Located in southwest Florida, the principal cities in the county are Fort Myers and Cape Coral...
. In 1923 the Florida legislature created Collier County
Collier County, Florida
Collier County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 251,377. The U.S. Census Bureau 2007 estimate for the county is 315,839...
from Lee County, with the county seat at Everglade. The town was incorporated the same year as "Everglades" (adding the "s"). The town consisted of only a dozen families at the time, but some northern sportsmen had established winter homes there.
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....
, which crossed Collier's domain, passed five miles north of Everglades City. While construction was proceeding on the Trail (it was completed in 1929), Collier pushed construction of what became State Road 29 from Everglades City to Immokalee
Immokalee, Florida
Immokalee is a census-designated place in Collier County, Florida, United States. The population was 19,763 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Naples–Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area. The settlement was originally known as Gopher Ridge...
, providing the town with its first land connection to the rest of the state.
Drug history
During the 1970s and 1980s, Everglades City and its adjoining island, Chokoloskee, were centers of marijuana smuggling. The dense mangroves that surrounded the area and its remote location provided a perfect environment for marijuana drug smugglers to drop their bales. The cargo was delivered from boats and airplanes to be picked up by drug dealers on the ground and distributed throughout the United States. It also helped that there was an isolated airstrip available to the drug dealers. Many of the local residents became involved in these operations. It was abruptly halted during the administration of President Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
in the mid-late 1980s, part of the War on Drugs
War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...
.
Historic buildings
Historic buildings in Everglades include the Old Collier County CourthouseOld Collier County Courthouse
The Old Collier County Courthouse is an historic two-story concrete and stucco courthouse building located in Everglades, Florida. Designed in the Classical Revival style, it was built in 1926 by Barron Collier, who developed Collier County and for whom the county was named. In 1962 the county...
, Bank of Everglades Building
Bank of Everglades Building
The Bank of Everglades Building was a bank in Everglades City, Florida, United States. It is located at 201 West Broadway. On July 15, 1999, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places....
and Everglades Laundry
Everglades Laundry
The Everglades Laundry is a historic site at 105 West Broadway in Everglades City, Florida.On September 22, 2001, the site was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places....
(now the Museum of the Everglades).
Further reading
- Carter, Luther J. (1974) The Florida Experience: Land and water policy in a growth state. The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-1646-7
- Leifermann, Henry. (1988) "Billiards and Redfish In the Everglades." New York Times. March 13, 1988. Found at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE2DE173CF930A25750C0A96E948260 - Accessed December 10, 2007
- Tebeau, Charlton W.Charlton W. TebeauCharlton W. Tebeau was a prominent American historian of Florida. Tebeau was born in Springfield, Georgia. He took a teaching job at the University of Miami in 1939, where he remained for 37 years, ultimately serving as chairman of the University of Miami's History Department for 23 years.Tebeau...
(1955) The Story of the Chokoloskee Bay Country. University of Miami Press.