FOREWORD



 John F. Eisenberg' and Richard Franz2




 The Katharine Ordway Preserve-Carl Swisher Memorial Sanctuary is
located in western Putnam County, Florida, roughly north latitude 29041' and west
longitude 820. The entire area includes approximately 3800 ha. Approximately 30
percent of the area, including the Mill Creek drainage, Ashley Prairie, and Putnam
Prairie, was donated to The Nature Conservancy by the Swisher-Wilcox family as a
memorial to Carl S. Swisher. The remaining tract, including uplands and sandhill
lakes, was purchased by the University of Florida Foundation from the Swisher-
Wilcox family by means of a donation from the Goodhill Foundation. Smaller
areas have been added since 1980 (Fig. 1). In the year 1980, The Nature
Conservancy and the University of Florida Foundation agreed to jointly manage the
tract as a single unit.
 Amer-Indians clearly utilized this site for a very long period of time. Two
Indian mounds are identifiable. The presence of chert, worked into various
projectile points, suggests long-term seasonal occupancy, and the working of
materials transported through trade or other means are from Georgia. The
presence of dugout canoes dating to pre-Columbian times again attests to long-
term human occupancy. Settlement by immigrants began on a large scale after the
Armed Settlement Act of 1848, when people of European origin moved in and
began to develop agriculture. Mixed farming was practiced, and initially, cotton
was grown as a cash crop. Soil depletion was rapid, and the cotton boom was


SThe senior author holds the Katharine Ordway Chair of Ecosystem Conservation through the Florida Museum of Natural History and the
School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida, P. O. Box 117800, Gainesville FL 32611-7800, U.S.A.
2 The junior author is a Research Associate at the Ordway Preserve, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, P. O. Box
117800, Gainesville FL 32611-7800, U.S.A.


EISENBERG, J. F. and R. FRANZ. 1995. Forward. Pp. i-v in The Katharine Ordway-Carl Swisher
Memorial Sanctuary Volume: Herpetology and Mammalogy. Bull. Florida Mus. Nat. Hist. 38:00-00.