The Kissimmee River one gently meandered for 98 miles fro Lake Kissimmee to Lake Okeechobee in Central Florida. In 1961, at the request of the State of Florida, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began to channelize the river. Today, it is commonly known as the "Kissimmee Ditch" or C-38 - a 30-foot-deep, 48-mile-long canal, with an average width of 200 feet. Even before the Canal 38 excavation was completed in 1971, government agencies and the public began raising major concerns about the project's adverse environmental effects and started calling for dechannelization.
After much study by the State of Florida and the Corps, the state decided in 1983 to pursue restoration of the Kissimmee River. In August 1983, Governor Graham initiated the Save Our Everglades program to rejuvenate the Kissimmee Rover, the Everglades, and other disturbed areas of the South Florida environment. In response to the state's desire to dechannelize the Kissimmee, the South Florida Water Management District began a restoration demonstration project in 1984 to field test methods of reestablishing a more natural water regime in the Kissemmee River.