"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why."

Everglades City and nearby Chokoloskee Island give visitors a glimpse into Southwest Florida's past with museums and small-town charm. They are favorite launch locations for boats exploring the Everglades Wilderness Waterway and Paradise Cost Blueway within the extensive Ten Thousand Islands coastal mangrove estuary. Beyond the famous Everglades National Park, preserves in the area include the Ten Thousand Islands National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Picayune Strand State Forest, Collier-Seminole State Park, and nearby Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park.

The Rod and Gun Club is built on the original structure of the first permanent white settler who founded Everglades City in 1864. In 1922 Barron G. Collier, a banker and railroad man bought almost all of Southwest Florida including the Rod and Gun Club which he operated as a private club. He hosted international dignitaries and several United States presidents here.

In 1972, the Bowen family, from Michigan, bought the Club and is still operating the establishment today. Celebrity guests, past and present include Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Hoover, and Nixon. John Wayne and Ernest Hemingway visited in 1942. In 1945, while on location filming "Winds Across the Everglades" Burl Ives and Gypsy Rose Lee visited. In 1983, during the filming of "Cannonball Run," Kate Jackson, Burt Reynolds, and Sally Fields were visitors here. Other guests included David Carradine, Roy Clark, Mel Tillis, Eddie Arnold, and Jack Nicklaus. Location filming of "Just Cause" brought Sean Connery and the shooting of Walt Disney's "Gone Fishing" brought Danny Glover and Joe Pesci, Peter Jennings, Phi Donahue, Marlo Thomas, and the list goes on...

Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge offers a hiking and biking trail, boating opportunities and paddling trails, wildlife observation and photography, waterfowl hunting and fishing in accordance with Florida state regulations, and fall-spring seasonal primitive camping on barrier islands.

A visit to Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge changes with each season! During the summer, thousands of water birds roost on the coastal islands. On summer nights loggerhead sea turtles drag themselves onto refuge beaches to nest. Mangrove cuckoos and black-whiskered vireos can be heard calling from the mangroves as they mark their home territory on the refuge in a flurry of spring activity. Manatees feed within the estuary and find shelter from the cold winter months at nearby Port-of-the-Islands. Wintering waterfowl forage in the drying northern marshes as bald eagles soar over the open water searching for a meal.

Not far from the world-class dining and beautiful beach resorts of Naples and Marco Island, Big Cypress National Preserve beckons hikers, campers, and other nature enthusiasts to come exploring. The freshwater swamp ecosystem next to the Everglades is home to many species of animals as well as tropical and temperate plants. Walk among cypress and mangroves, spot birds, observe American alligators and look for the elusive Florida panther. At 729,000 acres--an area larger than the state of Rhode Island--Big Cypress provides the largest contiguous acreage of habitat for panthers, a critically endangered species, in South Florida.

Established October 11, 1974, Big Cypress, is the United States' first national preserve and welcomes approximately one million visitors each year to explore its largely untouched natural swampland.

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