Specifically relating to Everglades National Park in Florida, this stamp is part of the group of stamps honoring the National Park Service Centennial.

On 30 May 1934, an Act was passed authorizing a park to be acquired through public donations. Everglades National Park was to be “…wilderness, (where) no development … or plan for the entertainment of visitors shall be undertaken which will interfere with the preservation intact of the unique flora and fauna of historic values the essential primitive natural conditions now prevailing in this area.” This mandate to preserve wilderness and its biota is one of the strongest in the legislative history of the National Park System. Thirteen years later, through a combination of federal, state and private lands, a vast wetland teeming with life was dedicated as a national park. Everglades was the first national park preserved primarily for its abundance and variety of life, rather than for scenic or historic values.

Boundary changes since 1947 have substantially increased the size of the park from the original 460,000 acres (186,159 hectares). In 1950, the Secretary of the Interior increased the size of the park to 1,228,500 acres (497,167 hectares), including the former wildlife refuge. Two additional boundary changes increased the park to 1,400,533 acres (566,788 hectares) by 1958. In 1989, Congress passed legislation that expanded the eastern boundary of the national park by 109,000 acres (44,112 hectares), primarily for the purposes of ecosystem restoration and protection.

At the end of the nineteenth century the south Florida coast was still largely wilderness, one of the last coastal regions east of the Mississippi to be settled. Only three small communities, Chokoloskee, Cape Sable and Flamingo, existed along the coast of what is now Everglades National Park.

Early mariners knew about Cape Sable, located west of Flamingo as it appeared on their maps. It was here in 1838 that Dr. Henry Perrine was given a grant of land. Unfortunately his plans for a settlement did not materialize due to his untimely death at the hands of Indians. Another plan for settlement was proposed by Surgeon General Thomas Lawson who explored the Cape in 1838 for the U.S. government. He built Fort Poinsett on Cape Sable. In 1856 during the Third Seminole War, Fort Cross was established at Middle Cape.

The town of Flamingo was established in 1893; its citizens had to choose a name in order to obtain a post office. According to records from the National Archives, Howell C. Low was the first postmaster. He was appointed on December 13, 1893. Cape Sable had its own post office and Jay L. Watrons was appointed postmaster on February 23, 1904.

The 1910 federal census record shows 49 people living in Flamingo and Cape Sable. Most listed their profession as farming. There were ten heads of households, with 18 children and seven servants. Five people were cane farmers and one worked in charcoal making. (Charcoal was sold in 100 pound sacks at Key West.) Jobs that other individuals held were boatmen, farmer, hauling cane, cane farming (13) and one was retired. Many, if not all, fished for cash and food. Most also hunted. At the turn of the century plume hunting was a major source of cash income.