 After the Civil War , an agency named the Internal <unk> Fund ( IIF ) , charged with using grant money to improve Florida 's infrastructure through canals , rail lines , and roads , was eager to be rid of the debt incurred by the Civil War . IIF trustees found a Pennsylvania real estate developer named Hamilton Disston who was interested in implementing plans to drain the land for agriculture . Disston was persuaded to buy 4 @,@ 000 @,@ 000 acres ( 16 @,@ 000 km2 ) of land for $ 1 million in 1881 . The New York Times declared it the largest purchase of land ever by any individual . Disston began building canals near St. Cloud to lower the basin of the <unk> and Kissimmee Rivers . His workers and engineers faced conditions similar to those of the soldiers during the Seminole Wars ; it was <unk> , <unk> labor in dangerous conditions . The canals seemed at first to work in lowering the water levels in the wetlands surrounding the rivers . Another dredged waterway between the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Okeechobee was built , opening the region to steamboat traffic . 
