The History Press

The Florida Keys have witnessed all kinds of historical events, from the dramatic and the outrageous to the tragic and the comic.

In the nineteenth century, uncompromising individuals fought duels and plotted political upsets. During the Civil War, a company of "Key West Avengers" escaped their Union-occupied city to join the Confederacy by sailing through the Bahamas. In the early twentieth century, black Bahamians founded a town of their own, while railway engineers went up against the U.S. Navy in a bid to complete the Overseas Railroad. When Prohibition came to the Keys, one defiant woman established a rum running empire that dominated South Florida. Join Laura Albritton and Jerry Wilkinson as they delve into tales of treasure hunters, developers, exotic dancers, determined preservationists and more from the colorful history of the Florida Keys.

Visit ""the island where time stands still"" and explore the romantic, almost forgotten history of old Florida in this visual history.

Rich in small town atmosphere and old Florida history, Cedar Key is a quiet island community nestled among many tiny keys on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Refuge for birds and wildlife, Florida's oldest port, and home to artists and writers, the island has long been admired for its tranquility and natural beauty.

Florida's swamps and sands hide a rich history and strange stories abound. Whether you live in the state or just have a fascination with its unique background these are stories to surprise and fascinate.

Florida has a history as diverse as its residents. And much of that is still hidden. Since the arrival of the Spanish in 1513, the state has played host to strange stories. A heartbroken senator entered a mental institution over unrequited love for an heiress. Thousands of British pilots trained in flight schools across the state. And the true, and darker, story of Pocahontas is linked with the "first barbecue." Author and historian James C. Clark unearths a history hidden beneath swamps and sand for years.

Does the restless ghost of a murder victim haunt a Gulfport home? Does a doomed pirate search for his lost treasure at John's Pass? Are sea captains and Civil War soldiers still combing the area, years after their deaths?

With wit and style, the Queen of Haunts, Deborah Frethem, calls upon years of experience as the general manager and guide of Tampa Bay Ghost Tours to present legends of sinister deeds and whispers of the past from Florida's haunted peninsula.

Chronicling Indians and aviators, stock cars and sand traps, Florida's First Coast is a delightful collection of vintage images and local lore, sure to enchant newcomers and residents alike.

p>A well-loved local, retired U. S. Navy Captain Jack Pate decided to tell others the story of the First Coast Beaches after falling in love with the area himself. Using the extensive collections of the Beaches Area Historical Society, Captain Jack introduces the history of the people who settled the Beaches area and their love-hate relationship with the two bodies of water that define it: the St. Johns River and the Atlantic Ocean.

Boasting over 15 million tourists visiting every year, this Florida city is one of America's oldest and one of its most popular.

The Making of St. Petersburg captures the character of this bay city through its past, from the Spanish clash with indigenous peoples to the creation of the downtown waterfront parks and grand hotels. Take a journey with local historian Will Michaels as he chronicles St. Petersburg's storied history, including the world's first airline, the birth of Pinellas County and the good old American pastime, Major League Baseball. The people and events in this work paint a beautiful portrait of a coastal Florida city and reveal St. Petersburg's sense of place.

Florida is largely influenced by the illicit and fascinating activites of pirates. Authors James and Sarah Kaserman recount the stories, legends, and myths of piracy in Florida.

The coast of southwest Florida, with its shallow waters, inlets, and mangrove islands provides the setting and backdrop for a variety of pirates, privateers, and independents. Piracy has a long and rich tradition in this area dating from before the formation of America through the infamous prohibition era. Telling the tales of Anne Bonny, Calico Jack Rackham, Civil War smugglers and prohibition rum runners, the authors provide a compelling narrative of the historically dangerous waters around Southwest Florida and beyond.

In 1880, there was a brutal murder in sunny paradise. This is the story of greed, violence, and a sensational trial that still captures the public's imagination even well after 100 years have passed.

Archie Newton stepped off the river steamer in 1880 with a letter of introduction and a secret, the young man hoping for a new life on the Florida frontier. Samuel McMillan was a miserly Sanford bachelor who carried large sums of "greenbacks" and trusted no one. One would think that since the ambitious Newton had his eye on purchasing McMillan's profitable orange grove, he wouldn't be foolish enough to do something reckless, but on his way back from Newton's home one evening, McMillan disappeared, and he wasn't seen again until his headless, mutilated corpse was pulled from a nearby lake. Newton's trial was sensational and the evidence gruesome, and local legends grew of a headless ghost rising from the lake, but was the young man in the courtroom innocent or guilty? Author Andrew Fink chronicles the twists and turns of this shocking story.

Once considered just an insect-ridden swampland, Florida is now a top destination for tourism, business, agriculture and innovation thanks to these 25 individuals.

Florida is in many ways both the oldest and newest of the megastates. The ideas and actions of a colorful cast of characters - from beloved cultural icons to political heroes and even a socialist dictator - transformed the peninsula. A Barbados native rescued Florida's orange industry after the catastrophic 1835 freeze. Known as the "Grande Dame of the Everglades," Marjory Stoneman Douglas worked tirelessly to save the state's vast, incomparable wetlands from annihilation in the early twentieth century. In the mid-1800s, a Florida doctor developed a precursor to modern air conditioning. Join former U.S. senator George LeMieux and journalist Laura Mize as they profile and rank, according to impact, the 25 trailblazers who have changed the Sunshine State forever.

Florida native Zora Neale Hurston's early twentieth-century ethnographic research and writing emphasizes the essentials of food in Florida through simple dishes and recipes.

It considers foods prepared for everyday meals as well as special occasions and looks at what shaped people's eating traditions in early twentieth-century Florida. Hurston did for Florida what William Faulkner did for Mississippi - provided insight into a state's history and culture through various styles of writing. Her collected food stories, folklore and remedies, and the related recipes food professor Fred Opie pairs with them, are essential reading for those who love to cook and eat.

Tampa's Davis Islands has long been among the most desirable places to live on Florida's west coast.

Built from mud dredged from the bottom of the Tampa Bay, it's possible few thought the project would amount to very much, with the exception of its creator, David P. Davis. The developer and Tampa native Davis purchased the dredged land in the 1920s during the Florida land boom; the gamble paid off in dividends, as the Davis Islands made him wildly rich and nationally famous. He followed the Islands up with a subdivision twice its size in St. Augustine, which he named Davis Shores. Davis sold his Tampa development in August 1926, but he slipped into debt and died under mysterious circumstances while en route to Europe aboard a luxury liner only months later. Though their creator did not live to see it, work on Davis Islands continued, and the development ultimately became an unmitigated success. Join author Rodney Kite-Powell as he examines the history of one of Florida's most famous neighborhoods.

In Remembering Fort Myers: The City of Palms, author Prudy Taylor Board has compiled a collection of historical articles about the intriguing, but little known, people and events in the city's history. Board traces the development of the city's prestigious neighborhoods and parks, while introducing readers to some of the most captivating and eccentric characters.

Jacksonville during the '50s and '60s was a wonderful and energetic place for the children who called it home

The northeast corner of the Sunshine State was the perfect and picturesque backdrop for some of America's timeless traditions. Mothers belonged to garden clubs and fathers played the golf links, while the children who grew up in Jacksonville frolicked on the warm beaches and fed peanuts to Miss Chic, the first elephant at the Jacksonville Zoo. They strapped on skates and held hands as they circled the rink of the famous Skateland, wandered down the stacks at Haydon Burns Library and crossed the many bridges that traversed Jacksonville's waterways. Join Dorothy Fletcher, former columnist for the Florida Times-Union, as she recounts the memories and adventures of the people who grew up Jacksonville.

33154: The zip code for paradise.

One of the most affluent zip codes in the United States, 33154 encompasses Bal Harbour, Bay Harbor Islands, Indian Creek Village, and Surfside, just north of Miami Beach. Part of the Miami-Dade miracle settlements that sprang from mangrove marshes into exclusive havens in little more than a generation, it's by far one of the most beautiful areas in all of Florida, and millions of visitors from around the world agree. Each community has an extraordinary history of dreamers, daredevils, and entrepreneurs who transformed open fields and tangled undergrowth into four of the country's most desirable destinations.

Although best known as the winter home of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, Fort Myers has one of the most engaging and extraordinary histories of any city in Florida.

The spawn of a hurricane, Fort Myers began as a U.S. Army post during Florida's Seminole Wars. During the Civil War, it became a battleground between Confederates and Yankees for cattle and, after the war, a gun-slinging cowboy town. New York cartoonist Walt McDougall blew into the area on a fishing trip, and his glowing description lured down other wealthy Yankee sportsmen who helped turn this isolated frontier town into a modern tourist destination. Historian and author Cynthia Williams explores the hidden stories behind the growth of this beautiful city.

Sarasota, Florida, is one city that has always possessed all of the elements--beaches, sport, sun and fun--that draw so many to the Sunshine State every year. As with other popular tourist destinations, there are the year-round inhabitants who, while always ready to share the beauty of their surroundings with visitors, remember their hometown with a much simpler and relaxed fondness.

Sarasota in Vintage Images by longtime resident, historian and columnist Jeff LaHurd is a visual stroll through the Sarasota of yesteryear. With a feel for the nostalgic, Jeff offers readers a pictorial glimpse of Sarasota from the roaring 1920s through the transforming 1960s.

Not long ago, though, St. Petersburg was little more than a quiet, fledgling village—a smaller, quainter Sunshine City with seemingly limitless potential.  Through a fascinating series of events, driven by a cast of colorful and ambitious characters, St. Petersburg grew into a first-rate Florida city, and it continues to flourish today.

Remembering St. Petersburg, Florida: Sunshine City Stories provides an intriguing look at St. Petersburg's past, and highlights the contributions of a bevy of extraordinary individuals whose efforts and exploits shaped the city's history.  Included are the stories of founder J. C. Williams and developer Hamilton Disston, who overcame their differences and worked with other visionaries like Edwin H. Tomlinson to lay a foundation for the city's success; C. A. Harvey, a man with a fierce determination to make St. Petersburg a true port city; Henry Hibbs, champion of the effort to bring world-class fishing to the area; and many more.  In this unique collection of historical vignettes, local resident and historian Scott Taylor Hartzell provides a captivating account of St. Petersburg's history, sure to interest and entertain residents and visitors alike.

Alva Hunt and Hugh Gant began their infamous "careers" fencing automobile parts as the Florida land boom became a bust. After doing hard time in state jails, they emerged as bank robbers and embarked on a crime spree across the Deep South. In the end they were captured and served time in Leavenworth, Alcatraz and other penitentiaries. Their reign was one of terror for Florida and many Southern states. Their story reflects an intriguing period in Florida's own history--the Depression era and the desperate days when Southern gangsters were armed, notorious and deadly.