Flamingo Mission 66 Developed Area: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Everglades National Park, National Park Service

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.; John Milner Associates, Inc.

The Flamingo Developed Area is the largest developed area within Everglades National Park. Flamingo is located at the southernmost mainland point of the park, on the eastern point of Cape Sable, a peninsula that projects from the Florida mainland. Flamingo is the terminus of a thirty-eight-mile paved road that extends southwest from the main park visitor center near Homestead, Florida. While the entrance to the park is in Miami-Dade County, Flamingo is located farther west in Monroe County. Flamingo was developed in the late 1950s to the east of the site of a small former fishing and farming village. The village, also called Flamingo, began to develop after the end of the Seminole Wars as just one of many scattered fishing villages on Cape Sable. Residents of the village earned their living making charcoal, raising vegetables, hunting bird plumes, and catching fish, all to be sold in Key West. Their economic success ebbed and flowed during the town’s history, but when Everglades National Park was established in 1947, the remaining landowners left Flamingo, some reluctantly forced out when the federal government acquired the site. The initial period of construction also included utility infrastructure and support buildings: a power house, waterworks, one employee housing building, a warehouse, maintenance office, boat shop, and boat shelter. The building sites and parking areas were graded and filled, and a variety of ornamental plantings were placed around the completed buildings. The site was severely affected by Hurricane Donna in September 1960, requiring repairs to, or reconstruction of, a number of the buildings as well as changes to the visitor center. Many trees and plantings were destroyed by the hurricane and had to be replaced. A second period of Mission 66 era construction at the Flamingo site began in 1963, with the expansion of the campground, expansion of the lodge with two new buildings, and construction of a complex of rental duplexes and a total of seven new housing buildings for NPS and concessionaire staff. In the following decades, maintenance and alteration of the Flamingo site was ongoing, including building repairs and remodeling, replacement of dead or diseased plants, and upgrades to infrastructure. Major new construction was confined to the housing area, where new buildings were gradually added. In the 1980s, a plug was added to separate Buttonwood Canal from Florida Bay, necessitating a new boat ramp in basin 2. Hurricane Andrew affected the site in 1992. Starting in the late 1990s, the comfort stations of the group camping and picnic area and the campground loops were gradually demolished and replaced by new buildings. Development of the Flamingo Developed Area began in the late 1950s as part of the National Park Service’s Mission 66 program. As a new park, Everglades lacked many visitor facilities, and in the 1950s the park was included as one of the national pilot projects at the start of the NPS Mission 66 effort. Preparation of the Flamingo site began in 1955 with the dredging of the marina basins and the construction of concrete bulkheads and piers. Construction of the visitor center, as well as the service station and marina store, began in early 1957. These buildings were followed by construction of a five-building hotel complex, a group camping and picnic area, and a campground with comfort stations. The Flamingo Developed Area was severely affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma in 2005. These storms completely destroyed a number of structures, including the rental duplexes and several employee housing buildings. The seven-building lodge complex was severely damaged and was ultimately demolished in 2009. Since these storms, the concessionaire component of the visitor center has been vacant and unused.

Flamingo Mission 66 Developed Area: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Everglades National Park, National Park Service

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