Big Cypress National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in southern Florida, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Miami. Big Cypress, along with Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, became the first national preserves in the United States National Park System when they were established on October 11, 1974.

Big Cypress borders the wet freshwater prairies of Everglades National Park to the south, and other state and federally protected cypress country on the west, with water from the Big Cypress flowing south and west into the coastal Ten Thousand Islands region of Everglades National Park.
Ecologically, the Preserve is a slightly more elevated part of the western Everglades, was included in the boundaries of Everglades National Park when the Park was established in 1947, but had not yet been purchased from its private owners and at their request in 1954 was removed from Everglades National Park. In the 1960s, efforts by land speculators to stimulate development by having Miami agree to move Miami International Airport's international flights to a new airport in Big Cypress failed when Native Americans, hunters and conservationists forced the airport to be closed to commercial flights, then campaigned to put Big Cypress back into the National Parks System. (Source: Wikipedia)

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