EVERGLADES

subtropical saw-grass marsh region covering about 4,000 square miles (10,000 square km) of southern Florida, U.S. Through it, water moves slowly from the lip of Lake Okeechobee to mangrove swamps bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Bay on the west. On the east the marsh reaches near the narrow, sandy belt that includes the Greater Miami metropolitan area, while on the south it borders Florida Bay at the bottom of the peninsula. Everglades National Park encompasses the entire southwestern portion of the marsh, covering 2,354 square miles (6,097 square km). It is the largest subtropical wilderness left in the continental United States. Additional reading Marjory Stoneman Douglas, The Everglades: River of Grass, rev. ed. (1988), is a well-written and well-documented volume. Alfred Jackson Hanna and Kathryn Abbey Hanna, Lake Okeechobee: Wellspring of the Everglades (1948, reprinted 1973), provides a regional history.