Guy Bradley
Guy Morrell Bradley was an American game warden and deputy sheriff for Monroe County, Florida. He was shot and killed in the line of duty, after confronting a man and his two sons who were hunting egrets in the Everglades. His much-publicized death at the age of 35 galvanized conservationists, and served as inspiration for future legislation to protect Florida’s bird populations.
About Guy Bradley in brief
Guy Morrell Bradley was an American game warden and deputy sheriff for Monroe County, Florida. He was shot and killed in the line of duty, after confronting a man and his two sons who were hunting egrets in the Everglades. His much-publicized death at the age of 35 galvanized conservationists, and served as inspiration for future legislation to protect Florida’s bird populations. Several national awards and places have been named in his honor. Bradley was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1870. His father, Edwin Ruthven Bradley, was born there in 1840, and two members of the family held high positions in Chicago’s law enforcement. Bradley and his older brother Louis served as scouts for noted French plume hunter Jean Chevalier on his trip to the EverGlades. At the time, plume feathers—selling for more than USD 20 an ounce —were reportedly more valuable than gold. The fashion craze, which began in the 1870s, became so prominent that by 1886 birds were being killed for the millinery trade at a rate of five million a year; many species faced extinction as a result. In the mid-1890s, Edwin became head of the Florida Coast Line and Canal and then the Florida Model Land Company, both of which sold for the railroads. In 1900, after twenty years living in Lake Worth, the family moved to Flamingo in Monroe County near the Ever glades, near the then primitive city of Floamingo. Edwin later changed his mind, deciding to build a railroad through the primitive land instead, and moved to Key West instead.
He, with the help of his oldest son, later received national attention for being one of several barefoot mailmen, who operated until a road was constructed in 1892. The family then relocated to Miami, where Edwin served as superintendent of the Dade County school district. In 1902, Bradley was hired by the American Ornithologists’ Union to become one of the country’s first game wardens. Tasked with protecting the area’s wading birds from hunters, he patrolled the area stretching from Florida’s west coast, through the everglades, to KeyWest. He later denounced poaching after legislation was passed to protect the dwindling number of birds. The most popular plumes came from various species of wading bird, known as “little snowies” for their snowy-white feathers. Even more prized were the “nuptial plumes”, grown during mating season and displayed by birds during courtship. Poachers often stole into the densely populated rookeries, where they would shoot and then pluck the roosting birds clean, leaving their carcasses to rot. By the late 1880s, there were no longer any large numbers of plume birds within reach of Florida’s most settled cities. In Florida, plumes were first driven away from the most populated areas in the northern part of the state, and forced to nest further south.
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This page is based on the article Guy Bradley published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 01, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
