| Hugh Taylor Birch State Park | |
|---|---|
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape) | |
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| Location | Broward County, Florida, USA |
| Nearest city | Fort Lauderdale, Florida |
| Coordinates | 26°08′42″N80°06′18″W / 26.14500°N 80.10500°W |
| Established | 1941 |
| Governing body | Florida Department of Environmental Protection |
Hugh Taylor Birch State Park is a Florida State Park located in Fort Lauderdale, on East Sunrise Boulevard (SR 838), between the Intracoastal Waterway and SR A1A.
Birch State park's roots began in 1893 when Chicago attorney Hugh Taylor Birch visited South Florida in search of a secluded area to build a home. Ultimately, he chose a small village in Fort Lauderdale, Florida that included just a few homes, old army posts, and a store. [1]
He purchased the oceanfront property for approximately a dollar an acre, ultimately owning a 3.5 mile stretch of beachfront. At age 90, in 1940, he built an Art Deco home on his 180-acre estate naming it "Terramar" or "land to the sea" and maintaining it until his death in 1943. [2] This is now home to the park's visitor center.
Among the wildlife of the park are the gopher tortoise, eastern indigo snake, butterflies, and turtles. Visitors also can see gray squirrels, marsh rabbits, and opossums, as well as more than 200 species of wading birds, hawks, and ducks.
In 2015, gray foxes had returned to the area after being absent in the area for almost a decade. [3]
Activities include canoeing, bicycling, fishing, swimming, Segway tours and group camping. Visitors can also enjoy inline skating, hiking, picnicing, and wildlife viewing.
Amenities include kayak and jet ski rental, a mile-long freshwater lagoon, two short trails, a beach, picnic areas, and a group/youth campground. In recent years, an outdoor restaurant and bar joint, Park & Ocean, was built on the outskirts of the park overlooking the ocean. [4]
The Terramar Visitor Center is located in the Mediterranean and Art Deco style home of Hugh Taylor Birch, an attorney for Standard Oil who built his home in 1940. [5] The visitor center is open from 9:00am until 4:00pm, Monday through Friday. Terramar features exhibits about Hugh Taylor Birch, the history of Fort Lauderdale, Florida ecology and wildlife of the park's ecosystem.
Florida state parks are open between 8 a.m. and sundown every day of the year (including holidays).
Fort Lauderdale is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, 30 miles (48 km) north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth largest city in Florida. After Miami and Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale is the third largest principal city in the Miami metropolitan area, which had a population of 6,166,488 in 2019.
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Anastasia State Park is a 1,600-acre (6.5 km2) state park in Florida, United States. Its location is on a peninsula on Anastasia Island across Matanzas Bay from downtown St. Augustine along the Atlantic coastal plain. This park has a variety of wildlife, birds and plants in a setting of beaches, tidal salt marsh, and marine and upland hammock.
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Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park is a Florida State Park located in Dania Beach, Florida off Florida State Road A1A. The park is named for late civil rights activists Von Mizell and Eula Johnson, who first pressured Broward County to have at least one beach for African Americans, then led wade-ins in Ft. Lauderdale in 1961 that led to desegregation of the county's beaches the following year. The park's former namesake, John U. Lloyd, served as Broward County Attorney for over 30 years and was instrumental in obtaining the land for the park.
Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area is a 144-acre (0.58 km2) Florida State Park in Flagler Beach, Florida, United States, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intra-Coastal Waterway on State Route A1A. It is about 18 miles (29 km) north of Daytona Beach and about 30 miles (48 km) south of St. Augustine.
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Rainbow Springs State Park is a Florida state park located on U.S. 41, 3 miles (5 km) north of Dunnellon, Florida. It comprises 1,459.07 acres (5.9046 km2) upland and 12.83 acres (51,900 m2) submerged. The most significant natural feature is the first-magnitude headspring basin, which produces up to 600,000,000 US gallons (2,300,000 m3) of fresh water per day, forming the Rainbow River. The looking-glass waters of Rainbow Springs come from several vents, not one large bubbling spring. The river itself supports a wide variety of fish, wildlife, and plants, many within easy viewing by visitors. In total, the park contains 11 distinct natural communities, including sandhills, flatwoods, upland mixed forests, and hydric hammocks.
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Terramar may refer to:
Sunrise Boulevard is a 15.6 miles (25.1 km) long east–west highway serving central Broward County mostly designated State Road 838. The road begins at an interchange with the Sawgrass Expressway in Sunrise and continues east to North Ocean Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, next to Hugh Taylor Birch State Park. For 0.91 miles (1.46 km) in downtown Fort Lauderdale, SR 838 overlaps U.S. Route 1.
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William Randolph Hearst Memorial State Beach is located near the historic town of San Simeon along California State Route 1, in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. It is named for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951), whose family is closely associated with the area.
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