Big Cypress National Preserve

Big Cypress National Preserve
Location in Florida Show map of Florida Big Cypress National Preserve (the United States) Show map of the United States
Location	Collier, Monroe, & Miami-Dade counties, Florida, United States
Nearest city	Everglades City, Florida
Coordinates	25°51′32″N 81°02′02″W / 25.85889°N 81.03389°W / 25.85889; -81.03389
Area	720,566 acres (2,916.03 km2)[1]
Established	October 11, 1974 (1974-October-11)
Visitors	2,903,159 (in 2022)[2]
Governing body	National Park Service
Website	Big Cypress National Preserve

Big Cypress National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in South Florida, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Miami on the Atlantic coastal plain. The 720,000-acre (2,900 km²) Big Cypress, along with Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, became the first national preserves in the United States National Park System when they were established on October 11, 1974.^[3] In 2008, Florida film producer Elam Stoltzfus featured the preserve in a PBS documentary.^[4]

Big Cypress borders the wet freshwater marl prairies of Everglades National Park to the south, and other state and federally protected cypress country in the west, with water from the Big Cypress flowing south and west into the coastal Ten Thousand Islands region of Everglades National Park.