John Lee Williams was one of the first people to explore and write about southern Florida in the years soon after the United States acquired the Spanish colony in 1821. His 1828 journey to the Everglades excited him to the possibilities of draining the vast area for agricultural development:

Could it [the Everglades] be drained by deepening the natural outlets? Would it not open to cultivation immense tracts of rich vegetable soil? Could the waterpower, obtained by draining, be improved to any useful purpose? Would such draining render the country unhealthy?. . . . Many queries like these passed through our minds. They can only be solved by a thorough examination of the whole country. Could the waters be lowered ten feet, it would probably drain six hundred thousand acres ; should this prove to be a rich soil, as would seem probable, what a field it would open for tropical productions! What facilities for commerce!

John Lee Williams, The Territory of Florida or Sketches of the Civil and Natural History of the Country, the Climate, and the Indian Tribes from the First Discovery to the Present Time. (1837).