Although discovered for Europeans by Juan Ponce de León in 1513, isolated and swampy South Florida remained inaccessible through much of the great era of naturalist discovery. The coming of the railroads in the late 1800s finally opened the southern part of the peninsula to naturalists, as well as to drainers and developers. Seeking the American Tropics tells the stories of those who ventured into South Florida to discover the character of its nature through the mid-1920s, by which time its natural environment had been compromised. Naturalists and scientists, residents and visitors, conservationists and not, South Florida’s naturalist explorers are revealed in this ground-breaking book on South Florida’s history.