The squawk of a disturbed egret echoes across the marsh. A raccoon hurries away. But here it's quiet and it will stay that way. That's the gift that Browne gave to us. But Browne knew that riches weren't found in money.
Riches are in the song of a bird, in the whisper of wind across a golden marsh.
The Timucuan Indians had lived on the property 4,000 years before Browne. Men don't really own the land. They are but stewards. Browne donated the land as a nature preserve and the 361 acres now form the heart of the Theodore Roosevelt Area of the U.S. Park Service's Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. Browne wanted the preserve named for Roosevelt because he admired the president's stand on conservation.