Palm Beach County’s story cannot be told without its real beginning – the early days of Florida.
…….. Ponce de Leon discovers the State of Florida …..
Florida’s history is rich with tales of Indians and Spanish conquerors, British loyalists – and a natural wilderness so treacherous and unknown that white settlers didn’t begin to tame its southern half until 1838, when Jupiter came into being as a fort and became the first settlement in what is now Palm Beach County. The famous Jupiter Lighthouse was built in 1860 and still stands today as a beacon to seafarers.
Nearly 500 years ago, in spring 1513, Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon stepped ashore on Florida’s coast near present-day St. Augustine. Nearly all of the state’s history traces from that year. Searching for the legendary “fountain of youth,” he discovered instead a land of warm sunshine, gentle weather and pristine beauty. The explorer, noting the area’s “many cool woodlands” and that he had landed during his nation’s Feast of Flowers, called his discovery La Florida, which means “Feast of Flowers.”
Before 1513 and the arrival of Ponce de Leon, hundreds of thousands of Indians lived on Florida’s peninsula. Through the early 1800’s the Indian tribes were substantially wiped out by massacres, battles, slave trades and European diseases, with the Seminoles and Miccosukees forced out of Florida or deep into the Everglades. The Spaniards flew their flag for two-and-a-half centuries. Florida was admitted to the Union as the 27th state in 1845.
Rapid population growth in the late 19th century encouraged a new vast railroad system down the length of the peninsula. Henry Morrison Flagler brought the railroad to Florida and the railroad brought the world. When he arrived in St. Augustine in 1883 there was no rail service south, and only a narrow link north to Jacksonville. Ever the visionary – and at heart a railroad man – he formed the Florida East Coast Railway. He bought more and more right-of-way and his track layers moved on south, literally taking civilization with them. He built magnificent hotels, hospitals, entire communities. But it was railroads for which Florida was most grateful. He threw himself into this endeavor with the same concentration he had used when he and John D. Rockefeller built Standard Oil.