PAUL MARION/FORMER RESIDENT: Now this is a remarkable place to me, because you have,
on one side over here, modern science.
This is the new world.
That is primitive, the way it was thousands of years ago.
This has not been touched.
BILL NELSON/U.S. SENATOR, FLORIDA: Well, indeed, it is Old Florida.
And it's Old Florida preserved,
which is unique.
It's an exceptional place.
BOB CABANA/DIRECTOR, KENNEDY SPACE CENTER: It is just awesome to be able to come over
the
bridge at sunrise onto Merritt Island and into this refuge.
And the greenery, the flora and fauna,
the wildlife, it's just -- it's spectacular.
NARRATOR: On a narrow stretch of barrier island, along Florida's eastern shore, is an oasis.
Here at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, marshes and scrub land are broken
only by towering
launch structures, and birds share the skies with rockets.
NASA LAUNCH COMMENTATOR: Three, two, one, and liftoff of the Atlas V.
NARRATOR: Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Indian River Lagoon to the
west,
the refuge shares boundaries with NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
To the north lies the unspoiled beauty
of the Canaveral National Seashore.
Within these borders, a variety of natural habitats provide sanctuary to more than 500
animal species,
including 14 that are considered endangered or threatened.
The stories of the wildlife refuge and the space program have been inseparably linked
since the refuge was established in 1963 to manage the lands surrounding the launch complex.
Today, these 140,000 acres at the northern end of Merritt Island provide a safe haven
for hundreds of
species of wildlife -- and offer visitors a trip back in time to "Old Florida."
NATHANIEL REED/FORMER U.S. UNDERSECRETARY, DEPT.
OF THE INTERIOR: The combination of a great
national wildlife refuge, the space center, and the national park -- there's no other
place in the United
States or in the world that something as magical as this exists.
NARRATOR: Humans have been drawn to life along these shores for thousands of years.
The island boasted plentiful fishing and hunting, the perfect climate for growing citrus,
and a quiet life of relative isolation.
By the late 1800s, small communities with names like Shiloh, Allenhurst,
Wilson and Orsino formed around these industries.
From then until the early 1960s,
generations of families made this wild paradise their home.
U.S. Senator Bill Nelson is a fifth-generation Floridian.
In 1986, as an astronaut,
he flew into space aboard space shuttle Columbia -- launching just miles away from the place
where his
grandparents' home once stood.
NASA LAUNCH COMMENTATOR: We have liftoff, liftoff of Columbia on mission 61C.
NELSON: My grandparents, Charles Hart Nelson and Jane Ellen Nelson homesteaded under the
Homestead Act on 160 acres of land that today is at the north end of the space shuttle runway.
NARRATOR: For the children who visited or grew up on the island, it was a magical place
-- filled with
animals, woods and waterways, where they could play, learn, and have their own adventures.
Decade after decade, generations of families enjoyed the serenity of their own piece of
paradise on
Florida's east coast.
But things began to change as the nation's space program started to get off the ground.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- NASA -- was formed in 1958.
And in 1961,
Project Mercury began with the launch of Alan Shepard, the first American in space.
ASTRONAUT ALAN SHEPARD: One-point-two Gs, cabin at 14 PSI, oxygen is go.
NARRATOR: Shortly thereafter, the nation set its sights on the moon.
The space agency needed land.
And it intended to buy it from property owners on north Merritt Island.
In 1962, NASA purchased more than 80,000 acres of land previously owned by residents.
It also negotiated with the state of Florida for nearly 56,000 more, for a total of almost
140,000 acres.
Families packed up their belongings, and left the homes and land they'd loved.
In August 1963, NASA and the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife worked out a deal establishing
the
Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
At the time, Nathaniel Reed was the U.S. Undersecretary of the Department of the Interior.
REED: The administrator and I sat down and he passed me a map.
I looked at the map and I put my hand
across the table and I said, "Administrator, from the standpoint of the Assistant Secretary,
it's a deal!"
NARRATOR: In addition to the wildlife refuge, in 1975, the stretch of Atlantic beach to
the north of
Kennedy Space Center was designated the Canaveral National Seashore -- making it a national
park.
Today, after decades of working side-by-side, officials with NASA, the Fish and Wildlife
Service,
and National Park Service still maintain that partnering spirit, proving each day that technology
and a
healthy environment can coexist in harmony.
CABANA: This is a 144,000 acre wildlife refuge, and that's way more than we, the NASA Kennedy
Space
Center, can handle.
Having the Fish and Wildlife Service take care of it for us -- I mean, that is an
outstanding partnership.
REED: Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge is such a fascinating place because of the
multiple
ecological systems, from flatwoods, pinewoods, the home of really an extraordinary number
of scrub jay
families, highly endangered.
Then you go into hammocks and into saltwater territory.
You have the lagoon, which is the home, the winter home of thousands of duck, the uplands
both in the
hammocks and basically on the seashore territories.
Plus, the pinewoods are the home of hundreds of
thousands of migratory birds.
NARRATOR: One bird frequently spotted in the refuge is the majestic bald eagle.
There are several active nests in and around Kennedy Space Center, but one in particular
has been in
use for decades.
This large, well-known aerie is nestled high in a pine tree off a busy roadway at the heart
of the
spaceport, where tour bus drivers point it out to visitors.
CABANA: It's been there for 20, 30 years; very strong, withstood hurricanes.
But the eagle -- I mean,
it's symbolic of what we do.
It's symbolic of our nation.
The perseverance, strength, beauty, of a soaring
eagle -- you know, that's kind of the Kennedy Space Center.
NARRATOR: While delicate ecosystems across Florida have been lost to development, the
Merritt Island
National Wildlife Refuge has remained a natural oasis -- not only for the flora and fauna
that call it
home, but for the visitors who flock here for birding, boating, photography or just
serenity.
And for many of those who left long ago, this is a legacy they're proud to be a part of.
MARION: We do like the fact that when we've got a group of people in our living room and
they show
the countdown clock, I'm the first one to point out the fact that our house was just
on the other side of
the countdown clock.
NARRATOR: For years to come, generation after generation will be able to experience "Old
Florida" in all
of its majesty at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.