Everglades Part 2: Anhinga and Nike Missiles
May 03, 2017
If you read our previous post on the Everglades, called Part 1: Flamingo and Shark Valley, you might be dissuaded from visiting. We were a little down on the heat, humidity, bugs, and general decay of some parts of the park. But the truth is we really did like the Everglades. It's like no other place on earth, and in this installment, we'll focus on a couple aspects of the park, one popular and one really off-beat.
First, the popular. The Anhinga trail is located about 5 miles into the park from the main (east) entrance. If you have limited time and want to get a good feel for the park, this is the place to go. Drive out from Miami (about an hour), enter the park, and drive another 5 miles to Anhinga. Here you will see an amazing concentration of birds and reptiles in a very short (0.8 mile round trip) paved path and boardwalk. This location also has some amazing history. That Everglades National Park exists at all can probably be traced to a group of women who made it their business to preserve this natural wonder over 100 years ago by lobbying the state of Florida to create Royal Palm State Park, the predecessor of Everglades National Park.
This is an Anhinga. This water bird likes to swim underwater, hunting for fish. But when he comes out, he needs to dry off, and so he usually flies into a nearby tree and assumes this pose for about 10 minutes until dry. This is a very common bird to see in the Everglades and often makes for a good picture. This one is on the Anhinga trail.
I think this is another one; this one's dry.
We also saw our largest concentration of alligators on the Anhinga trail. In one single spot there were 13 of them basking in the sun. I could not get them all into one picture (they don't move when you ask), but here is part of the group. I think you can see parts of 6 alligators.
But one of the coolest things that we saw nearby was the Nike Missile Base. At the height of the cold war, during the Cuban missile crisis, the Everglades were home to a US military Nike missile base. Now that the base is no longer operational (closed in 1979), you can tour it most days at 2:00 pm.
The base is largely intact, pretty much unchanged from when it was last used. The missiles are gone, of course, but there is still much in the way of equipment and buildings. But what made this tour so interesting was the tour guide. Our volunteer guide knew a lot of the history of the base and included lots of stories that kept us both interested and amused.
During the Cuban missile crisis, there were Russian missiles located in Cuba, just 90 miles away from the US. In terms of time, this is only about 15 minutes. So in order to have the ability to intercept and destroy an incoming missile, any base would have to be in far south Florida, and the Everglades were chosen as the best location. The base was mostly operated by kids. The average age of the missile men was about 19, so except for a few officers, the safety of our nation depended on the judgement of 19-year-old kids. The missile site was staffed at all times and ready to launch missiles within 15 minutes. You can learn more about it here.
The idea was that these missiles would be launched in front of any incoming missiles, and that the explosion would destroy the incoming ones before they reached their targets. For this to work, a US missiles with a conventional warhead would have to be pretty close to the incoming missile; the alternative was to use missiles with nuclear warheads. Some but not all of the missiles at this site did have nuclear warheads, but to this day the Army will not say how many. Fortunately we never needed to find out, as a nuclear blast from one of these would have wiped out most of South Florida, including all of Miami. Washington DC, however, would have been safe.
If you want to see the Everglades, you may want to hurry. Much of the park is at or below 2 feet above sea level, and with sea levels rising, its days are numbered. You also have to be willing to drive over Rock Reef pass to get there.
You gotta love the Park Service. Despite all the challenges that they face, they haven't lost their sense of humor.
by Steve
1 comments
As always, I so enjoy your posts. Thanks for taking your readers along on these fun and educational trips!
ReplyDelete