12 Massachusetts A u d u b o n Society 



EDWARD W. BOK'S FLORIDA BIRD SANCTUARY. 



How rapidly the bird sanctuary idea goes forward with men of great 

 minds and large means may be inferred from tfye following, abridged from 

 a report in the "Florida Times-Union," of Jacksonville. 



Edward W. Bok, of Philadelphia and Mountain Lake, today in an 

 address before the chamber of commerce and the Woman's club at Babson 

 Park told something publicly for the first time of plans for the great Bok 

 bird reservation, or jungle, as he prefers to call it, located on Tiger creek 

 near Lake Walk-in-the-water, about seven miles from Lake Wales. 



Mr. Bok resolved to emulate the example of an ancestor who made the 

 island of Helder in the Netherlands to blossom and provided it as a bird 

 refuge and sanctuary. 



He expects to restock Florida with the flamingo, the picturesque bird 

 that gave Florida the name of Flamingo State but not a single example of 

 which can now be found in the State. Arrangements have been made through 

 the government with the consul-general at Havana for one hundred flamin- 

 goes which will be placed in the jungle and very carefully protected. As 

 a means of calling attention to this interesting experiment in trying to bring 

 back what is practically an extinct bird in Florida he will call the place 

 Flamingo Jungle. 



He proposes to call the little town that will grow up near the jungle 

 Helder, or Texel, in memory of town and island where his people lived in 

 the Netherlands. 



The project has enlisted Mr. Bok's deepest interest and all of his great 

 energy and resources will be thrown behind the making of what will be 

 Florida's greatest and most unique park when completed. Frederick Law 

 Olmsted, the famous landscape artist, will have charge of the work. He 

 will be instructed to make Flamingo Jungle a place where the native bird 

 life can find a home and where the migratory birds can perhaps be attracted 

 to break their journey to and from the southern hemisphere. 



There are about two thousand two hundred acres along Tiger creek in 

 the jungle proper, and he will have a strip of higher land completely en- 

 closing the jungle on which he proposes to build a highway around the 

 entire tract that will make several hundred acres more. Just how much 

 there will be in the entire tract will not be known until the survey is 

 finished. 



Mr. Bok painted a word picture of the tract that was most attractive. 

 There are still deer, bear and wild turkey to be found here, and it is one of 

 the most picturesquely tropical growths yet to be found in the state. Mr. 

 Bok's plan is to leave it in a state of nature so far as possible. No automo- 

 bile paths will penetrate the jungle, but there will be foot paths from the 

 surrounding highway every five hundred feet or more. Tiger Creek will be 

 cleared so that it will be passable for canoes, and pleasure seekers will be 

 privileged to canoe along the same waters used by the Seminole in years 

 gone. 



