Pelican Island Centennial of 2003 in Sebastian, Florida

From March 13 to 16, 2003, Sebastian hosted the national kickoff of the National Wildlife Refuge System's 100th anniversary, because Pelican Island in the Indian River Lagoon was the system's first refuge, created March 14, 1903 (USFWS events notice).

On March 14, 2003, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton was joined by thousands of wildlife enthusiasts, members of Congress and notable conservationists in Sebastian, which the Service called home to Pelican Island, the first National Wildlife Refuge, created by President Theodore Roosevelt on March 14, 1903 (USFWS, March 14, 2003). Roosevelt had acted on the urging of Frank Chapman and the Florida Audubon Society, and Audubon hired Paul Kroegel as the first warden of Pelican Island (USFWS refuge history).

The four days moved between three places: the Indian River Mall in Vero Beach, the refuge, and Riverview Park in Sebastian (USFWS events notice). The system being celebrated had grown from that one island to 540 national wildlife refuges by 2003 (USFWS events notice), up from 524 refuges when Congress took up the centennial bill in 2000 (House Report 106-715).

The program ran from a time capsule unveiling at the Indian River Mall on March 13 to a public ceremony and Arlo Guthrie concert at Sebastian's Riverview Park on March 14 and a two-day wildlife festival on March 15 and 16 (USFWS events notice).

The Service's notice dated February 25, 2003 set the times. On Thursday, March 13 the National Wildlife Refuge System Time Capsule Display Dedication began at 1:00 pm at the Indian River Mall in Vero Beach. A March 2003 media advisory adds that Service Director Steve Williams would unveil the capsule, with entertainment by the Peabody Orlando Ducks and Challenger the bald eagle (USFWS media advisory).

Friday was the centerpiece. The public Centennial Celebration Ceremony opened at 10:00 am at Riverview Park in Sebastian, with gates at 9 am and a note to arrive early to avoid traffic delays. That evening at 7:00 pm the park hosted live music by Pete Harris and Sebastian's own Arlo Guthrie, followed by fireworks, sponsored by the City of Sebastian and the Sebastian River Area Chamber (USFWS events notice).

On Saturday and Sunday the 11th Annual Pelican Wildlife Festival ran at Riverview Park from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm, with a Postal Service Pelican stamp booth, live wildlife shows by Jack Hanna and Jim Fowler, boat tours to view Pelican Island and the first day opening of the Centennial Trail and Observation Tower at the refuge. All events were free and open to the public (USFWS events notice).

Secretary Norton installed the final plank in the Centennial Boardwalk at Pelican Island, rededicated the refuge as a national historic landmark, and federal agencies used the Sebastian event to issue a stamp and announce a medal series (Department of the Interior).

At Pelican Island, each plank in the Boardwalk is inscribed with the name of a wildlife refuge created in the past 100 years, 540 in all, and the boardwalk led to a new viewing tower over the island (Department of the Interior). The Service noted that the new observation tower offered, for the first time, views of the pelicans for which the island was named (USFWS, March 14, 2003).

At the public celebration the United States Postal Service issued a new commemorative postage stamp for the Pelican Island refuge, and the U.S. Mint announced a five medal series featuring Theodore Roosevelt, with sale proceeds going to refuge conservation programs. Walt Disney Company Vice-Chairman Roy Disney presented a $100,000 gift to establish the Centennial Commission Scholarship Fund for Conservation, and Centennial Commission Chairman William Horn spoke for the commission Congress had created (USFWS, March 14, 2003).

Local schoolchildren were on the program as well: the media advisory scheduled Pelican Elementary School students to plant trees as part of habitat restoration at Pelican Island and listed Voices of Liberty from the Walt Disney World Resort to perform (USFWS media advisory).

Congress began in 2000 with the National Wildlife Refuge System Centennial Act, which passed the House on July 11, 2000 and created the commission whose chairman, William Horn, spoke at the Sebastian kickoff (Congress.gov).

House Report 106-715 stated that the bill, H.R. 4442, would establish a commission to promote awareness of the National Wildlife Refuge System among the American public as the System celebrates its centennial anniversary in 2003. It traced that anniversary to the Executive Order of 1903 at Pelican Island, issued to protect egrets, herons and other birds being killed for the feather trade (House Report 106-715). The Congressional Research Service summary on Congress.gov describes the commission's job as preparing a plan to commemorate the 100th anniversary and coordinating federal, state, local and nongovernmental partners.

On March 14, 2003, President George W. Bush issued a statement: One hundred years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an Executive order that established America's first wildlife refuge in Pelican Island, Florida (Public Papers of the Presidents). The statement tied the refuge volunteers of 2003 to Sebastian's pioneer warden, saying they carry on the service inspired by Paul Kroegel, the volunteer who encouraged the 1903 order, and it mentioned a requested $26 million increase in the refuge system budget for fiscal 2004.

Yes: the Centennial Trail, boardwalk and observation tower dedicated on March 14, 2003 remain open at 11455 Jungle Trail, about 3.3 miles south of Sebastian Inlet off A1A (USFWS visit page).

The Service lists the three-quarter-mile Americans with Disabilities Act accessible Centennial Trail with more than 569 engraved planks, one for each refuge established between 1903 and the present (USFWS trails page). The planks run from the newest refuge at the bottom to Pelican Island at the top of the observation platform (USFWS refuge history). The 18-foot-tall observation tower stands in the mangrove and cabbage palm fringe of the Indian River Lagoon, gives the closest land-based view of Pelican Island, and has two mounted spotting scopes (USFWS trails page).

Getting there from Sebastian follows the Service's directions: take I-95 exit 156 to County Road 512, Sebastian Boulevard, follow 90th Avenue and 85th Street to County Road 510, turn north on A1A, and turn left onto Jungle Trail after 3.8 miles. The refuge office number is (772) 581-5557 (USFWS visit page).

The Service's own pages disagree on two details, as checked October 14, 2026. The trails page calls the Centennial Trail three-quarters of a mile but its trail table lists 0.35 miles. The visit page says public use areas open daily from 7:30 am until sunset, while its hours block reads sunrise to sunset. The plank count has also moved on from the 540 laid in 2003 to more than 569, so the boardwalk is a running record of the system's growth since the Sebastian kickoff (USFWS trails page).

The island itself has changed too. Pelican Island covered 5.5 acres in 1903, began shrinking around 1943, and a 2001 project placed a 165-foot oyster shell wave break and planted cordgrass and mangroves to rebuild it before the centennial; the refuge page now gives Pelican Island Proper as roughly 3 acres (USFWS refuge history).

The refuge's friends group, the Pelican Island Conservation Society, hosts the yearly anniversary celebration, which began in 1993 as the 90th Anniversary Celebration and first Pelican Island Wildlife Festival (Pelican Island Conservation Society).

Local citizens organized that 1993 event with Merritt Island NWR and Paul Tritaik, then the Pelican Island refuge manager, and formed the Pelican Island Preservation Society late that year; the group changed its name to the Pelican Island Conservation Society in 2019 (Pelican Island Conservation Society). The 2003 centennial festival at Riverview Park was the 11th in that series (USFWS events notice).

The 2025 anniversary events were listed at Vero Beach addresses rather than in Sebastian. For the 122nd anniversary, the society invited the public to a weekend of events on March 14 to 16, 2025, with a fireside chat by a Theodore Roosevelt portrayer at the Heritage Center in Vero Beach on March 14 from 7 to 9 pm (society fireside chat listing) and a Saturday celebration on March 15 from 10 am to 3 pm at the Environmental Learning Center on Live Oak Drive (society event listing). The refuge office at (772) 581-5557 can confirm what is open on the Centennial Trail that weekend (USFWS visit page).