Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge - 1950

This is where it all began (although in this 1950 view, sign craftsmen were off by a day) – Florida’s Pelican Island, the first of more than 538 national wildlife refuges, which grew from a tiny, 4 -acre island on the Atlantic Coast used as a pelican rookery to more than 93 million acres – the world’s largest system of public lands specifically dedicated to wildlife conservation. The National Wildlife Refuge System has been called “the finest expression a society has ever made in behalf of fellow species.” President Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919) started it on March 14, 1903. “Is there any law that will prevent me from declaring Pelican Island a Federal Bird Reservation?” he asked an aide. Told there was not, Roosevelt replied, “Very well, then I so declare it.” Roosevelt went on to establish wildlife refuges in 17 states and territories – the nucleus of today’s National Wildlife Refuge System, which marks its 100th anniversary on the date of Pelican Island’s designation.