Ernest F. Coe was nearly sixty when he arrived in Miami. He would spend the rest of his life on a single idea: that the lower Everglades should belong to the nation.
At a glance
- Born: March 21, 1866, New Haven, Connecticut
- Education: Yale University School of Fine Arts, 1885–1887
- Profession: Landscape architect
- Came to Miami: 1925, settling in Coconut Grove with his wife, Anna
- Died: January 1, 1951, aged 84
What he saw
Exploring the Everglades after his move south, Coe saw rare birds being killed and orchids stripped from their habitat. The National Park Service records that he feared animals would be driven to extinction without protection.
The campaign
In 1928 Coe wrote to National Park Service Director Stephen T. Mather proposing a national park in the lower Everglades, and that same year he organized the Tropical Everglades National Park Association (later the Everglades National Park Association). Senator Duncan U. Fletcher introduced park legislation in December 1928. A congressional inspection party came to Miami in 1930 to study what the park should include; Marjory Stoneman Douglas was among those who took part.
Congress approved the park bill on May 25, 1934, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it on May 30, 1934. Acquiring land and settling boundaries took another thirteen years. President Harry S Truman dedicated Everglades National Park on December 6, 1947.
Legacy
When Coe died, Secretary of the Interior Oscar Chapman said his “many years of effective and unselfish efforts to save the Everglades earned him a place among the immortals.” The park’s main visitor center, the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center, was christened in his honor on December 6, 1996 — the park’s 49th anniversary. His papers are part of the park’s museum collection. The National Park Service titles its profile of him “Father of the Everglades.”