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Handbook
1900-1930
1900Congress passes the Lacey Act, the first federal wildlife law. The act authorizes federal enforcement of state wildlife laws. Systematic drainage south of Lake Okeechobee begins, opening the area to agricultural and residential development.
Florida human population reaches 968,470, again almost doubling in twenty years since 1900 census.
1905
"Miami was a small town still. Miss Hattie Carpenter, who taught the few high school students in the single grammar school, bicycling home to Brickell hammock with a beefsteak in her basket, was chased by a panther." Majory Stoneman Douglas Everglades: River of Grass
1907
Systematic drainage south of Lake Okeechobee begins, opening the area to agricultural and residential development.
1911
Big Cypress federal Indian reservation established. (see map)
1913
First Department of Game and Fish established in Florida.
1914
Second annual report of the Department of Game and Fish notes the abundance of big game such as panthers.
1920
Florida human population reaches 968,470, again almost doubling in twenty years since 1900 census.
1923
Tamiami Trail connects Tampa and Miami (see map)
State Road 29 connects Immokalee and Everglades City. Shown above are the first people to cross the trail, using a Ford Model T.
mid-1920's
Nationally known environmentalist Marjorie Carr describes seeing a panther on the way to the beach as a
child. (audio file here)
She is best known as founder of the Florida Defenders of the Environment and successfully leading the effort to stop the construction of the Cross Florida Barge Canal and to restore the
Ocklawaha River. Inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame 1966.
1927-28
Department of Game and Fish reports indicate that licensed trappers killed 10 panthers: 3 in Collier County, 3 in Palm Beach County, and 1 each in Highlands, Levy, Sumter, and Jackson counties (Alvarez, 1993).
Watt Lawler and his wife shot a panther on their ranch 7 miles south and several miles east of Immokalee. View the letter he wrote telling of his panther sitings on and around his property during the early 1900's (page 1, page 2). Also, view the pictures he took of a panther he shot (pic 1, pic 2).
1935
Florida hunter David Newell and experienced mountain lion hunters and their hounds from Arizona kill 8 panthers from their camp about 9 miles east of the Tamiami Trail on the edge of the Big Cypress. Newell reports "a plethora of panthers" and that "nowhere in the United States have I seen so much game sign in a similar area" (Newell, 1935).
- THOUGHT QUESTIONWhat effects do you think the deer eradication program had on the Florida panther? How do you think panthers were able to survive during this period?
1939
"The panther still occurs in wilder parts of Lee, Collier, and Hendry counties." A 145-pound panther was killed by Mill McSwain 1 mile from Bonita Springs and an individual weighing slightly less than 200 pounds was shot near Estero. (Hamilton,1941).
1930's-40's
Logging of old-growth cypress in Fakahatchee and other strands; regrowth of vegetation results in abundant forage for deer over the next two decades.
Above: Osceola Cypress Company logging train going into the Big Gum Cypress Swamp, 1937
1937
The Florida legislature passes a bill to eradicate the white-tailed deer because they were thought to harbor the Texas cattle fever tick. An estimated 10,000 deer were killed between 1939-41 (Harlow and Jones, 1965) by hunters paid by the state.
The Seminole Indians refused to allow killing of deer on their lands arguing that they needed deer for food, a decision supported by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes.