The Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition the Okaloacoochee Slough, across the Caloosahatchee River, over to Babcock Ranch, and west along Fisheating Creek toward Lake Okeechobee. From Lake Okeechobee, the heart of the Greater Everglades system, the Expedition traveled up the Kissimmee River with excursions toward the Lake Wales Ridge, up the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, east around Orlando, and into Ocala National Forest. Once in the existing Ocala to Osceola corridor, the trip continued north in Georgia and into the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The vision for the second Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition is to connect natural lands and waters throughout the northwest region of Florida,
Lake Okeechobee muck. By the 1960s, all of these settlements were abandoned. In 1926 the Great Miami Hurricane hit the Lake Okeechobee area, killing approximately 300 people. Two years later in 1928, the Okeechobee Hurricane crossed over the lake, killing thousands. The Red Cross reported 1,836 deaths which the National Weather Service initially accepted, but in 2003, the number was revised to "at least 2,500". In both cases the catastrophe was caused by flooding from a storm surge when strong winds drove water over the mud dike that circled the lake at the time. After the two hurricanes, the Florida State Legislature