Florida History

                                                                          Lesser-Known Historical Facts

•   The tiny island town of Cedar Key (right) was once the western rail head of
 Florida's first cross-state rail line in the late 19th century. Its cedar trees were used in the manufacture of pencils. Cedar Key is now the  number one producer of little neck clams in the U.S., farmed in the salt water estuary, ideal growth conditions.

•   Barefoot mail carriers delivered the U.S. mail from 1886 -1896 on Florida's east coast walking the beached between Miami and Lake Worth. They were immortalized in a 1946 novel, The Barefoot Mailman.

• The first professional baseball team to hold spring training in Florida
   was the Philadelphia Athletics, in Jacksonville, in 1901

•  The world's first scheduled international airline with a Pan American Airways  flight took off from Key West for Havana, Cuba on Oct, 28th 1927.  The office building still stands, now a restaurant.

• Wind speeds reached more than 155 mph in the hurricane of 1928 that occurred on September 16th.This caused the dike on Lake Okeechobee to break, drowning more than 2000 people.


• Pelican Island, near Sebastian Florida,  was  America's first  National   Wildlife Refuge. It was
established by President Theodore Roosevelt on March 14, 1903.

• St. Augustine was founded in 1565, forty-two years before the English
colony at Jamestown,  Virginia  and fifty-five years  before the Pilgrims
landed on Plymouth Rock.   It's the oldest permanent
European settlement in North America.

•   Early "Tarzan" films starring Johnny Weissmuller were filmed in the shimmering waters of Wakulla Springs, Florida, south of Tallahassee.

•  In 1837, while under a flag of truce,  Seminole warrior Osceola (right)  was captured by  the U.S. Army, jailed in St.Augustine and died in captivity 4 months later. The unjust  capture outraged American citizens. The Seminoles remain in Florida and never signed a peace treaty with the U.S. but were paid 16 million dollars in 1976 as reparations for 29 million acres of land.

• From the year 1500 to 1960, hurricanes have sunk their quota of treasure-laden
ships. These wrecked ships represent all nations, but the majority of them are Spanish galleons ( right). They carried gold and silver from the New World to the Old, only to have their contents deposited on some jagged reef off Florida.    

•  In 1715 a severe hurricane sunk a Spanish fleet of 10 galleons returning to 
Spain loaded with treasure. More than 1000 lives were lost just off the coast
of Florida's Treasure Coast Near Vero Beach. McClardy Treasure Museum,
in Vero Beach is a National Historic Site.

                                                                                                                                           

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