Big Cypress or Big Thicket? A Quiz on America's First National Preserves

NPS graphic by Scott Sharaga.

Two preserves, one anniversary

America's first national preserves — Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida and Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas — were both established by President Gerald Ford on October 11, 1974, and celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2024.

What's a national preserve? It's one of the many kinds of park in the National Park System. Like other parks it protects important natural and cultural resources, but activities such as hunting and mineral and fuel extraction may be allowed in a preserve where they wouldn't be in a national park. Park staff monitor them so they don't harm the resources the preserve was created to protect.

Both are big in size as well as name, and both protect vital wetland and forest habitat. Despite lying more than 800 miles apart, their scenery is remarkably alike. Can you tell which is which? (Answers follow each photo.)

The quiz

1. Home to four of North America's five kinds of carnivorous plants. Answer: Big Thicket — pitcher plants, sundews, butterworts and bladderworts. Look for them on the Pitcher Plant Trail.

2. Forests of slash pine and saw palmetto. Answer: Big Cypress. Its pinelands stay open and sunny thanks to periodic fire, which keeps shrubs and grasses from building up.

3. Rangers lead "wet walks" through cypress swamps. Answer: Big Cypress — wade with a ranger into a cypress dome.

4. Where might you meet a nine-banded armadillo? Answer: Big Thicket — it's the state small mammal of Texas. (NPS photo by Cory Cravatta.)

5. Still water among bald cypress and tupelo trees. Answer: Big Thicket. Sloughs fill when nearby creeks flood and stay full after the creeks drop.

6. Critical habitat for an endangered big cat. Answer: Big Cypress, home to a small population — 20–30 — of Florida panthers, Florida's state animal and a subspecies of mountain lion.

7. Both preserves have a trail named "Kirby." Which is this? Answer: Big Cypress — the Kirby Storter Boardwalk, into a scenic cypress strand. (NPS photo by Gustave Pellerin.)

8. Both offer free ranger-led canoe and kayak trips. Which is this? Answer: Big Thicket — the Cooks Lake to Scatterman Paddling Trail, through the bayou.

9. Forests of longleaf pine, which once covered much of the Southeast. Answer: Big Thicket, which uses prescribed fire to clear brush and help seedlings grow.

10. Airplants called bromeliads grow on the cypress trees. Answer: Big Cypress. Bromeliads such as giant and cardinal airplants need no soil, drawing nutrients from rain and moist air.

Plan a visit

Celebrate the anniversary at Big Thicket in Texas or Big Cypress in Florida.

Sources

Based on "Preserve Trivia: Big Cypress or Big Thicket?," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. Photographs are NPS photos.