Page 14 - 2024-2025 Travel Guide to Florida

HISTORY
SUNSHINE STATE CHRONICLES
Florida’s history is an intriguing one, filled with swashbuckling tales of Spanish adventurers, legendary Civil War battles and U.S. astronauts’ pioneering ventures into space. American, African American and Hispanic cultural sites bring Florida’s past to life while coastal forts, lighthouses, museums, mansions and vintage hotels showcase historic treasures for all to view.
SOUTHEAST
Thousands of years before the first European explorers arrived, Florida was populated by Native Americans such as the Tequesta people who lived near the mouth of the
Miami River. The Miami Circle is an archae- ological site in downtown Miami believed to have been a structure built by these people.
Other Native American cultures survived the incursion of northern settlers in the 1800s by moving into the Everglades, where they gradually rebuilt their societies. Now, visitors can learn about the Seminole and Miccosukee Peoples, sample Indigenous cuisine, take a ride on an airboat or watch alligator wrestling at attractions along U.S. 41 (Tamiami Trail) and I-75 (Alligator Alley). Clewiston’s Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum is a living village of early Seminole culture.
To help mariners avoid rocks and reefs, several lighthouses were erected in this
region in the 1800s. For a fascinating glimpse into Florida’s past, tour the Garden Key Lighthouse at Fort Jefferson and nearby Loggerhead Key Lighthouse (both in Dry Tortugas National Park); the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne near Miami; and the 164-year-old Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum in The Palm Beaches.
Built in 1891, the Museum of Art & History at the Custom House in Key West houses exhibitions exposing visitors to a Florida they may have never known. Clinton Square Market, now a two-story shopping mall, is housed in an 1800s building that was once a U.S. Navy coal depot. Historic Key West also offers the Harry S. Truman Little White House presidential museum and the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum.
Miami’s historic Lyric Theater was a major entertainment center for African Americans in one of the city's first Black neighborhoods when the theatre opened in 1913. A few blocks to the south, Little Havana reflects Miami’s Cuban heritage, with restaurants, clubs and shops.
Pioneer homes and historical hotels are found in Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach. Two examples are Historic Stranahan House Museum on the New River in Fort Lauderdale and the Bonnet House Museum & Gardens near the Intracoastal Waterway. In The Palm Beaches, the Boca Raton, the Colony Hotel & Cabaña Club in Delray Beach and the world-famous Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach are examples of Florida architecture from the 1920s.
SOUTHWEST
Inventor Thomas Edison and his friend Henry Ford built their Florida homes in Fort Myers. The compound is known today as the Edison & Ford Winter Estates and features a museum, laboratory and gardens.
To the north, not far from the historic Boca Grande Lighthouse in Gasparilla Island State Park, the Gasparilla Inn & Club has attracted visitors since 1913.
Koreshan State Historic Site in Estero was the scene of one of the most unusual chapters in Florida history. In 1894, Cyrus
12 2024-25 TRAVEL GUIDE TO FLORIDA
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