A little history

[Keith W]

Miami101's post about Snake Bight and Crocodile Pt put me in mind of an old park brochure I have, dated 1952. The map that comes with the brochure shows the original park boundaries and the location of the old patrol stations. The original Park boundary along the Gulf Coast only came as far north as Hog Key just north of Lostman's River. You can see the Hole-In-The-Donut area around the old Madiera Farms complex near Taylor Slough. This was privately owned farmland up until the mid-1970's. The Park Road as we now know it had not yet been built and you had to travel the unpaved Ingraham Hwy to get to Flamingo. The old road followed the line of the Homestead Canal and crossed Buttonwood Canal and turned south at the north end of what we now call the Bear Lake road. There was no Visitors Center at Flamingo, and the Ranger Station was located near Coot Bay Pond. The spot marked as SEVEN MILE FIRE TOWER is about where the Shark Valley observation tower is now. Sandy Key at the western edge of Florida Bay hadn't yet been cut in half by hurricanes to make Carl Ross Key.

I've attached the map as a PDF file for those who want to download.