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How Marjory Stoneman Douglas Helped Readers See a River

Sometimes protecting a place starts with changing how people describe it. For much of the early twentieth century, many people treated the Everglades as a swamp to be drained and developed. In 1947, Marjory Stoneman Douglas offered readers another way to see it, as a river of grass. The National Women’s Hall of Fame credits her bestseller with helping move public opinion away from that “useless swamp” view and toward the idea of a resource worth protecting.

That shift in perception still shapes how visitors understand South Florida’s wetlands, including the open sawgrass of the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area, where Miami Airboat operates.

A Writer Before an Advocate

Douglas was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 7, 1890, according to Friends of the Everglades. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1912 and came to Miami in 1915 to live with her father, Frank Stoneman, whom the State Archives of Florida identifies as the Miami Herald’s first editor.

At the paper she started as society editor and soon moved on to editorials and other writing. Between 1920 and 1923 she wrote for the editorial page, including a column called “The Galley.” The National Women’s Hall of Fame notes that she also served with the American Red Cross during World War I. Later, as a freelance writer, she published more than 100 articles, mostly fiction, according to the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Forty of her stories ran in the Saturday Evening Post, many of them with environmental themes set in the Everglades.

Her involvement with the national park idea began well before her book. The National Park Service lists her as a member of the 1930 inspection party that toured South Florida while the park was under consideration. Friends of the Everglades says she served on the park committee in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Book: The Everglades: River of Grass

The book came out of a series. Friends of the Everglades says Hervey Allen, an editor at Rinehart and Company, asked Douglas to write about the Miami River for the Rivers of America books. She asked to write about the Everglades instead, and he agreed.

The Florida Artists Hall of Fame says she spent five years on research, and that the book sold out its first printing within a month of its 1947 publication. A revised edition followed in 1987. The National Park Service describes the book as setting out the importance and beauty of South Florida’s natural ecosystems and the need to protect them. The State Archives of Florida notes that it is often credited as a pioneering work of the emerging environmental movement.

The book appeared in the same year that Everglades National Park was dedicated, and Douglas attended the December 1947 ceremony, according to a Park Service anniversary release. The Park Service says her advocacy played a significant role in establishing the park. That role sat alongside the work of many others, including Ernest F. Coe, David Fairchild, members of Congress, the Florida Legislature and the Florida Federation of Women’s Clubs.

A Second Career in Advocacy

Douglas’s best-known organizing came decades later. Friends of the Everglades says she founded the group in 1969, at age 79, to stop a large jetport planned for the wetlands. According to that account, the project was halted after one runway was built. The Florida Artists Hall of Fame places the proposed jetport in the Big Cypress region. She went on to lead the organization, which remains active today.

Her work drew national recognition:

In 1993, President Bill Clinton awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That same year she was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.
On April 4, 1985, a Florida Department of Natural Resources administration building was named for her, according to the State Archives of Florida.
The Florida Artists Hall of Fame notes that a 1.3-million-acre wilderness area in Everglades National Park bears her name.
The National Women’s Hall of Fame inducted her in 2000.

Douglas died in 1998 at age 108.

Her legacy offers visitors a different kind of landmark: an idea that changes what they notice.

Learning the history adds another dimension to the landscape. If you would like to experience part of South Florida’s wider Everglades for yourself, you can explore Miami Airboat’s tour options within the Everglades and Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area.