Indholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2025 i Cobblestone American History and Current Events for Kids and Children

A shallow, slow-moving river, the Everglades once covered about 18,000 square miles of southern Florida. Until the 1900s, few people understood the unique balance of nature that existed there, where plants, creatures, and water had formed a remarkable ecosystem. Historically, South Florida enjoyed a wet season from May to October, when rain saturated the land. Rain also filled Lake Okeechobee in central Florida. When the lake overflowed its southern banks, it created sheet flow. Sheet flow is a thin layer of water flowing over the landscape. In this case, the water traveled slowly southward to Florida Bay. By the early 1900s, Florida’s pleasant winters attracted permanent residents. They built homes and roads and grew large agricultural crops. Developers attempted to address South Florida’s natural cycle of flooding by draining the…

As the United States began to establish large national parks, a young naturalist took notice. George Meléndez Wright worried that park managers were upsetting nature’s balance. He traveled around the nation’s western parks to gather information in the 1930s. He proposed a new way of managing the parks: Allow the creatures that lived in them to exist without human interference. Wright saw the Everglades as a place in which the environment and the living things within it were tied closely together. He worried that without an effort to save the Everglades, its many creatures and plants were headed toward extinction. The National Park Service (NPS)’s mission was to protect natural spaces for people to enjoy. Wright worked to make sure that the parks’ wildlife was protected as well.…

More than 50 native species of reptiles can be found in Everglades National Park. The list includes alligators, snakes, lizards, and many types of turtles. American alligators often are found in freshwater swamps and marshes, where they can remain hidden underwater. They also find refuge in deep freshwater pools of cypress tree clusters during the dry season of the winter months. They create gator holes by digging into the ground at the base of the cypress trees or in the marsh. In the early spring, the gator holes and their ability to hold water help sustain a wide range of wildlife. In March and April, alligators call out to each other in search of a mate. Although crocodiles look fierce, they are shy by nature. They feed primarily on fish.…

People have made huge changes to South Florida’s landscape over the last 100 years. Those changes made life easier for farmers. The changes also helped people build cities and towns, as well as roads connecting them. That was progress—for people. But the changes altered how water flows through the Everglades. As a result, the vast wetlands that once covered about 4,000 square miles of South Florida has been greatly reduced. Habitats in the Everglades changed. That put stresses on the plants and animals there. And too much stress could change the whole ecosystem. Climate change adds to the problems, with more severe weather and rising sea levels. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan aims to fix some of the problems regarding water flow through South Florida. The 40-year plan won’t turn…

The best way to truly understand the Everglades is to visit Everglades National Park. The park has three different visitor centers. The Shark Valley Visitor Center has a tower for sightseeing, a tram for getting around, and miles of paths for walking or bicycling. Helpful information and displays can be found at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center. At the Guy Bradley Visitor Center, visitors can camp, hike, and canoe in the area. You also can visit virtually by checking out photo galleries, a webcam, and information about the area’s plants, animals, habitats, and ecosystem at nps.gov/ever/index.htm.…

Thank you for all your funny captions for the photos that have appeared on this page over the years. Colonel Crow, the squirrels, and I have enjoyed your wonderful sense of humor and creativity. YOU made this page fun! February Winners! Answer to Dr. D’s Mystery Hero from page 31: May Mann Jennings…

There are more than 40 native species of mammals in the Everglades, including bobcats, gray foxes, river otters, squirrels, opossums, bats, and mice. Finding the tracks of a Florida panther in the Everglades is exciting and rare. The big cats are not often seen. They roam the pinelands at night and stay out of sight. Among all the animals in the Everglades, the panther is the most endangered. There are only about 200 left, and their numbers are steadily decreasing. In the 19th century, a bounty was established allowing hunters to profit by capturing and killing the animals. Although the panther is at the top of the food chain, its shrinking habitat and the decreasing populations of small mammals to hunt contribute to its endangered status. Marsh rabbits once were…

Marjory Stoneman Douglas was 25 years old when she stepped off a train and into the Miami sun in 1915. Douglas was moving to South Florida to work for her father, who was the editor of the Miami Herald newspaper. The job marked the start of a prolific writing career for Douglas. Douglas was initially put in charge of the society page at the Herald. She left the paper during World War I (1914–1918) but returned after the war as an assistant editor. She used her column to support causes she believed in, including women’s rights, public health, and child welfare. A number of her editorials were devoted to the unique character of the Everglades and their significance to South Florida’s identity. Douglas took a much different view of things…

More than 360 native species of birds live in Everglades National Park. The park is an important breeding ground for birds in North America. The populations of wading birds are particularly spectacular. But many other birds make their homes there, including owls, gulls, doves, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, and warblers. The wood stork is one of 16 different wading bird species in the Everglades. Like most wading birds, its long legs are suited for standing in the water. The wood stork has a particular way of catching fish. With its beak in the water, it shuffles its feet. The shuffling movement scares the fish. Within a fraction of a second, the stork’s waiting beak nabs its fish. This bird was on the endangered species list but was changed to threatened status in…

Unique places can be found around the world. Here are a few distinct destinations that emphasize natural surroundings. Great Barrier Reef Located along the coast of Queensland, Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. It’s made from billions of tiny organisms called coral polyps, which have grown on top of one another for nearly 500,000 years. It’s the world’s largest collection of coral and the only living thing that can be seen from outer space. The reef is a popular place for SCUBA diving. Visitors can see a colorful assortment of corals, sponges, and tropical fish. The reef also is home to mollusks, dolphins, rays, birds, sea turtles, and giant clams. Some of those clams are more than 120 years old.…

This month’s mystery hero was born in 1872 in New Jersey. Her parents relocated to Florida two years later. At that time, Florida was not the major tourist state it is today. Our hero’s childhood had elements of sadness and of purpose. Her mother died when she was nine years old. She and her sister were educated at St. Joseph Academy, a private boarding school in St. Augustine. Their father was a state senator, and he lived in the state capital, Tallahassee. The girls lived with their father during school vacations, and our young hero quickly learned how to interact with politicians. After graduating as valedictorian from the academy, she returned home and helped in her father’s political campaigns. At age 19, she fell in love and was married. Her…

Florida’s state animal also is the state’s most endangered symbol and one of the most endangered mammals in the world. Florida panthers once roamed throughout the southeastern United States. As settlers arrived in North America in increasing numbers, they cleared the land to settle it. Today, panthers inhabit a space that is less than five percent of the area in which they once roamed. In addition, increased modern highway traffic causes accidents that injure and kill panthers. Most panther sightings occur in southern Florida. It is estimated that less than 200 Florida panthers remain. Males average about seven feet from nose to tail. They can weigh about 130 pounds. Females average six feet in length and can weigh about 70 pounds. Their diet mostly consists of white-tailed deer and wild…

Ernest F. “Tom” Coe was 60 years old when he and his wife, Anna, moved from Connecticut to Florida in 1925. Coe had spent his life as a landscape architect designing gardens in New England. The chance to work with new types of plants and flowers in South Florida appealed to him. The Coes moved into a house in Coconut Grove, not far from Miami. It didn’t take long for Coe to start exploring the Everglades. He was horrified to learn that hunters routinely killed birds for their feathers and removed rare orchids from the wild. He realized that many of the state’s native plants and animals risked extinction. They needed protection. Coe decided that a national park was the solution. In 1928, Coe established the Tropical Everglades National Park…

Nineteen feet. That’s the length of the longest snake snagged in the Everglades. Caught in 2023, the huge Burmese python is just the latest sign of a big problem in the Everglades: invasive species. Burmese pythons naturally live in Southeast Asia—roughly 8,800 miles from South Florida. The snakes and some other problem species “are not here through any action of their own,” says Carli Segelson at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. People are to blame. Many people got Burmese pythons as pets in the 1980s. As 20-inch youngsters, the snakes look cute. But now hunters are catching pythons that are more than 10 times that long. Not only do pythons grow to be quite large, they also eat a lot. Some owners underestimated their abilities to care for their…

An ecosystem is an “ecological community together with its environment, functioning as a unit.” Ecology is the “science of the relationships between organisms and their environments.” The term derives from the German okologie, which comes from the Greek words oikos, meaning “house,” and logia, meaning “study.” An aquifer is an “underground bed or layer of earth, gravel, or porous stone that yields water.” The prefix “aqui-” comes from the Latin aqua, which means “water.” A canal is an “artificial waterway or a man-made improved river.” The word derives from the French word for “channel” and the Middle English word for “tube.” Both those words originated from the Latin canalis. A habitat is the “area or type of environment in which an organism or ecological community normally lives or occurs.” It…

Dear COBBLESTONE readers, For more than 45 years, this magazine has been bringing U.S. history to life. Together, we have explored the stories of remarkable people, pivotal events, and fascinating places that have shaped our world. It has been a fantastically fun journey for us. And now COBBLESTONE is making a little history of its own! Beginning with your next issue, you’ll receive a new, expanded CRICKET magazine. You’ll still find history stories in its pages, but you’ll also discover science, literature, art, and global ideas. As part of this exciting change, COBBLESTONE will no longer be a stand-alone magazine. Historian David McCullough once noted, “History is who we are and why we are the way we are.” Thank you for exploring the whos, whys, whens, and whats of U.S.…