Ernest Francis Coe, also "Tom Coe" (March 20, 1867 – January 1, 1951)[1][2] was an American landscape designer who envisioned a national park dedicated to the preservation of the Everglades, culminating in the establishment of Everglades National Park. Coe was born and spent most of his life in Connecticut as a professional gardener, moving to Miami at age 60. He was enormously impressed with the Everglades and became one of several South Florida-based naturalists who grew concerned for the wanton destruction of plants, animals, and natural water flow in the name of progress and prosperity. Coe worked for more than 20 years to get Everglades National Park established, but he viewed the effort as mostly a failure. However, Oscar L. Chapman, former Secretary of the Interior, stated "Ernest Coe's many years of effective and unselfish efforts to save the Everglades earned him a place among the immortals of the National Park movement."[3]
- ^ Bartlett, J. Gardner (1911). Robert Coe, Puritan. Published for private circulation. ISBN 9780598765826.
- ^ P., W. L. (1951). "ERNEST FRANCIS COE New Haven 1867—Miami 1951: A BIOGRAPHICAL MINUTE". Landscape Architecture. 41 (4): 174–175. ISSN 0023-8031.
- ^ Clement