Eight years after Hurricane Irma left it in ruins, a new visitor center capable of withstanding 175-mph winds and a 15-foot storm surge is welcoming nature lovers to Everglades National Park's untamed Gulf Coast.
At a ribbon-cutting Friday, dignitaries wielding giant scissors celebrated the end of construction started nearly two years ago.
"We reaffirm the commitment… to ensure that the American people will have safe and enjoyable access to the Everglades for decades to come," Deputy Interior Secretary Kate MacGregor said in a statement of the new Marjory Stoneman Douglas visitor center.
READ MORE: Government shutdown hits short-staffed national parks and refuges in South Florida
Located not far from where President Harry S. Truman dedicated the 1.5-million acre park in 1947 — the same year Douglas published River of Grass — the center serves as the outpost for the park's Ten Thousand Islands. Its maze of mangroves, oyster bars and nesting islands once drew plume hunters and outlaws and now provides access to some of the last undisturbed wilderness in Florida.
But since 2017, visitors have been greeted by a trailer after Irma slammed into Marco Island with 115 mph winds. Pushing a 6-foot muddy storm surge ashore in Everglades City, Irma demolished the center and carved a path of destruction across the small, low-lying town. Just south of the center, water reached eight feet at the historic Smallwood Store in Chokoloskee.
While the National Park Service aimed to rebuild — fulfilling a 1989 promise to create a new visitor center that Congress voted to name in Douglas' honor in 1997 — a massive backlog documented by Pew Charitable Trusts postponed plans. As of 2020, when Pew updated its report, the park backlog had shrunk, but remained unwieldy at about $75 million. Construction finally started in 2023, with the site elevated and bulwarks of new concrete seawalls and steps put in place to fortify the center.
After a government shutdown and park service layoffs earlier this year again left parks in disarray, the opening of the visitor center could be rare good news for park lovers.
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