The People Who Shaped the Everglades

Pioneers, tribal nations, conservationists, guides, hunters and airboat builders — the people of the River of Grass.

Some of the people who shaped the Everglades are in the history books. Most are not. This is where we gather both — the documented and the remembered — and label each honestly.

Oral histories: the working Glades

Guides, hunters, fishermen, frog-giggers, airboat builders and drivers, wildlife officers and families who lived at the edge of the marsh — their knowledge was rarely written down. We are recording it now, with names, dates and consent. If you or someone in your family has a story, we would like to hear it.

A note on titles: we use the titles history actually gave people. We do not hand out “Godfather of the Everglades” — or any other honorific — to historical figures who were not known by it.