A State Park and a Privite Preserve WWFF-16

The genesis of the Archbold Biological Station, and its longstanding  success in ecological research and education, is based on a remarkable confluence of philanthropy by two of America’s major business families; the Roebling and the Archbold.

The Catwalk Boardwalk inside Highland Hammock State Park (Florida)

The Roebling family excelled in construction and manufacturing engineering; building enduring suspension bridges, manufacturing plants, and even estates. The Archbold family had a strong tendency for the support of science. Both families donated land for parks, conservation, and science.

These family traditions influenced science several times, as in the founding of the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography  and the Archbold Tropical Research Center, and enhanced parks and conservation, as in the creation of the Glover-Archbold Park, Washington, DC, Highlands Hammock State Park, Highlands County, Florida, and the Middleham Estate addition to the Trois Pitons National Park, Dominica, West Indies.

At the Archbold Biological Station, just east of Sebring and Highlands Hammock, all three family traditions; construction of enduring buildings, creation of parks and preserves, and generous support of science, came together in continuing perfection.

When the state park system was created in 1935 Highlands Hammock, located a few miles west of Sebring in south central Florida (Highlands County), was already a park, due in large part to the largesse of Mrs. Margaret Roebling. 

Mrs. Roebling's husband, John A. Roebling II, was the son of Washington Augustus Roebling, who built the Brooklyn Bridge after the design of his father, John Augustus Roebling. The bridge was completed in 1883.

 She is memorialized by a modest plaque that was placed deep within the park when it was first opened to the public in 1931.

Mrs. Roebling was flying into Red Hill, the estate that would become the Archbold Biological Research Station, when she looked down into a pristine green wilderness. She fell in love with that swamp and hammock, and thought it should become a National Park. The funding for such a park was not available at that time. But she had means, and others had already started a project to make it a park....of some sort.

The land where the park stands today was purchased by the Roeblings, then donated to the Florida Park Service, and it became Florida's first state park. 

Owing to the financial stress that existed,  it was soon obvious that the Trustees of the Tropical Florida Parks Association cold not raise sufficient funds to carry out the necessary work in opening up the Hammock, nor to maintain it.

 At this point Mr. and Mrs. John A Roebling volunteered their assistance. They made funds available as required for opening up and making accessible the important points of interest in the Hammock proper, by the construction of roads and trails. 


 "En las sombras de verdes Esmeraldas "      

Click a link  below, or copy and paste to your browser,  to go there!

A little bit of prose, some poetry, and a song- all about the environment.

http://billyholcoutdoors.blogspot.com/2012/05/whose-garden-was-this.html

A frank discussion about wilderness and nature.

http://wmgcenter.blogspot.com/2012/05/can-you-find-wilderness.html

Facebook pages about the outdoors.

http://www.facebook.com/WmGCenter

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Backwoods-Institute-for-Wilderness-Safety/152396741437530

Hiking Trails, Boardwalks, and outdoor recreation construction topics

http://willwalkforfun.blogspot.com/