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States Edition
2014
Florida
The Sunshine State
Established 1845
27th State
The Tampa Bay area has more lightning strikes per capita than any other place in the nation.
Gatorade was originally developed by researchers at the University of Florida and named after the university’s
athletics teams.
More than 70 species of mosquitoes live in Florida.
The biggest bald eagle nest in the United States was found in Florida. It was 10 feet (3 m) wide and more than 20
feet (6 m) deep!
Florida is the only state east of the Mississippi River where a large cat—the Florida panther—still exists in the
wild.
Florida has more than 40 plant species that can’t be found anywhere else in the world.
In 1981, a sinkhole in Winter Park grew to more than 1,000 feet (305 m) wide. When it sunk, it took a house, part
of the neighborhood pool, and several cars with it.
The Biltmore Hotel’s swimming pool is the largest hotel pool in the United States. Located in Coral Gables, the
pool holds 600,000 gallons of water.
In Everglades National Park, a 13-foot (3.9 m) Burmese python swallowed a 6-foot (1.8 m) alligator whole and
then exploded!
Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city in the United
States.
The "five flags of Florida" refers to the five different governments that have claimed Florida and flown their flags
over the state: Spain, France, Great Britain, the United States, and the Confederate States of America.
Climate
Florida’s warm climate and sunny skies draw people to the state year-round. Although
the temperature sometimes reaches below freezing in a few areas, winter usually stays
at about 60 to 70°F (16–21°C). Summer temperatures are hot, but breezes from the
ocean cool things down. The weather can be classified as subtropical. It’s usually
sunny, but it can also be wet. Rain typically comes in the summer, when heavy
thunderstorms, floods, and hurricanes can strike and cause great damage.
Average Seasonal High and Low Temperatures
Spring: 81/61°F
Summer: 90/73°F
Fall: 83/65°F
Winter: 70/51°F
Geography
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With Florida’s miles of beaches, warm coastal waters, and thousands of islands, it’s no
wonder that millions of people visit Florida every year. Florida has one of the longest
coastlines in the country, second only to Alaska. However, Florida is much more than
just surf and sand. It is green and lush. Thick forests provide homes to animals like
bobcat, deer, and black bear. You can also find swamps, rivers, and thousands of lakes
across the state. Alligators, crocodiles, Florida panthers, and four kinds of poisonous
snakes live within the state’s borders. Offshore, you can find coral reefs, playful
dolphins, and gentle manatees (sea cows). The north has rolling hills and sinkholes,
which cave in without warning when the limestone under the dirt collapses. The south is
quite flat. Florida ties with Louisiana as the second lowest state. Florida’s total area is
about 65,578 square miles (170,312 sq km).
Resources and Economy
Weather is considered one of Florida’s chief resources. Warm weather draws tourists,
who help the state’s economy. When people visit, they spend money in stores, at
restaurants, and in hotels and resorts. The warm climate also allows farmers to grow
their crops most of the year. On the southern tip of the peninsula, crops can grow 365
days a year! Citrus fruits, especially oranges, are the most important crops. Most of the
oranges grown are made into juice, and the rest are shipped all over the country. In
fact, only Brazil produces more oranges and orange juice than Florida. No other place
in the world produces as many grapefruits. Other important agricultural products include
sugarcane, vegetables, and cattle. All along the coast, fish, shrimp, crab, lobster, and
oysters are plentiful.
Time Line
Thousands of years ago, native tribes, including the ancestors of the
Apalachee, Calusa, and Timucua, roam the land as hunters and
gatherers
AD 1500
AD 1513
Ponce de León is one of the first Europeans to explore Florida; he calls
the land La Florida (flowery land)
1539
Hernando de Soto explores central and northern Florida
1559
Pensacola is settled and then later abandoned
1560s
The Spanish establish religious missions throughout the region,
primarily in northern Florida
1564
The French attempt to settle at Fort Caroline
1565
Spain establishes the region’s first permanent European settlement, at
Saint Augustine
1672
Spaniards begin construction on Castillo de San Marcos in St.
Augustine, the oldest masonry building in the United States
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1700
1763
England takes possession of Florida
1783
England gives Florida back to Spain
1800
1814
The Patriot War occurs when United States citizens attempt to conquer
Florida
1816
The First Seminole War occurs
1823
Tallahassee becomes the capital of the Territory of Florida
1835–42
The Second Seminole War occurs
1845
Florida becomes the 27th state
1855–58
The Third Seminole War occurs
1861
Florida secedes (withdraws) from the Union
1865
Florida is back under federal control
1880s
The drainage of the Everglades begins
1888
Henry Morrison Flagler opens his first hotel in Florida; he later builds
more hotels and the famous East Coast Railroad
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1900
1912
Flagler completes the “overseas railroad” to Key West, a major feat of
engineering
1920
The Florida land boom begins
1926
Florida’s economy crashes
1928
The Tamiami Trail highway is completed, connecting Tampa with
Miami; a hurricane hits, and more than 2,500 people are killed when
the waters of Lake Okeechobee flood hundreds of square miles
1947
The Everglades becomes a national park
1950
Frozen orange juice becomes an important product
1958
Cape Canaveral launches the first satellite to orbit the earth from the
United States
1959
The Cuban Revolution kicks off mass migrations to Florida
1969
After launching from the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island,
American Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the
moon
1971
Walt Disney World resort opens near Orlando
1986
The space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after its launch
from the Kennedy Space Center, killing all seven astronauts aboard
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1992
Florida
Hurricane Andrew rips through south Florida
2000
2000
Though he failed to win the popular vote, George W. Bush becomes
president of the United States following controversial election results in
Florida
2004
Mel Martinez becomes the first Cuban American elected to the U.S.
Senate; Florida experiences one of the worst hurricane seasons in its
history as four hurricanes in a row cause billions of dollars in damage
2011
The space shuttle Atlantis returns home to the Kennedy Space Center,
completing the shuttle's final mission for NASA
PRESENT
Early Inhabitants
Early Florida inhabitants roamed the land as hunters and gatherers. Over thousands of
years, they developed into farmers and began to settle into communities. They grew
corn, beans, and other crops and made pottery. When the Spanish explorers came,
they found out that the Native Americans were also fierce, skilled warriors. However,
many natives lived peacefully with the Spanish. Sickness eventually killed many of the
natives, who had little or no resistance to European diseases.
Colonization
Juan Ponce de León first landed on the Atlantic Coast in 1513. He decided to name the
land La Florida, because he found it during Easter (called Pascua Florida in Spanish).
Spain began to colonize the area, building forts and missions. St. Augustine, founded in
1565, became the first permanent European settlement in what is now the United
States. The French disputed Spain’s right to Florida, so they began to settle the area,
too. Both sides attacked the other’s settlements. Farther north, the English became
worried that the Spanish and French would threaten their colonies of the Carolinas and
Georgia. After the French and Indian War ended in 1763, Spain traded Florida to
England. After the Revolutionary War, England gave Florida back to Spain. Finally, in
1821, Spain gave Florida to the United States in exchange for the United States giving
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up any claims on Texas.
Seminole Wars
Before Spain gave Florida to the United States, the Seminoles (a Native American
society) and U.S. settlers in Georgia fought with each other across the border. The First
Seminole War began in 1816 when Andrew Jackson invaded Spanish Florida in an
attempt to end border skirmishes with Indians and end the migrations of escaped
African American slaves into Florida.
The Second Seminole War began in 1835 and lasted for seven years. It was primarily
about the desires of white slaveholding Floridians and Southerners to expand their
homesteads onto Indian hunting and farming grounds and to protect their cotton
plantations. Settlers began pushing the Seminoles out of the area, so Osceola, a
Seminole leader, helped his people fight back. The Seminoles took in runaway slaves
and the descendants of free blacks, known as Black Seminoles, and the United States
Army arrived to enforce the Indian Removal Act and force the Seminoles to leave
Florida for Indian Territory. The Second War ended in a stalemate, after the United
States concluded that the war was too costly to continue.
The Third Seminole War (1855–58) was another attempt to remove the Seminoles from
Florida, leaving only about three hundred Seminoles in the state. They lived near Lake
Okeechobee and the high grounds of the Everglades.
Statehood and Civil War
As Florida considered becoming a state, slavery presented an obstacle. Congress
allowed the sparsely populated Florida to enter the Union as a slave state to balance
Iowa’s entrance as a free state. Fifteen years later, South Carolina seceded from the
Union, and Mississippi and Florida quickly followed. Around 15,000 Floridians served in
the Confederate army, and the state also contributed meat, salt, turpentine, and cotton.
In the end, the war meant emancipation for the state’s 61,000 African Americans, who
made up almost half of the state’s population.
Reconstruction
Florida (according to the United States government) had never left the Union. It did not
have its full rights restored until 1868. In order for this restoration to occur, the state had
to adjust its constitution to allow African Americans to vote, which it did in 1868.
However, like other Southern states, Florida created restrictive Black Codes and poll
taxes to keep power in the hands of whites. These codes were not immediately
enacted, and African Americans enjoyed tremendous gains during reconstruction. After
reconstruction, however, these codes and later Jim Crow laws (laws keeping African
Americans from voting or having equal rights) and regulations resulted in African
Americans being deprived of more and more rights. For many decades, African
Americans struggled to receive the same rights whites enjoyed.
The 20th Century
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Following the Civil War, Florida began developing its economy once again. Before the
war, the state’s main products were fish, cotton, and other agricultural goods. After the
war, prices of cotton declined, encouraging planters and former slaves to turn to other,
more lucrative crops. Instead, Floridians started to plant citrus groves and other crops.
Railroads were built, allowing the crops to be moved and sold in other places. Tourism
also began to develop by the 1880s. The economy flourished until 1926, when the state
hit a deep depression as a result of the end of the real estate boom. Then came the
Great Depression of the 1930s. It wasn’t until World War II began in the 1940s that
Florida’s economy started to recover, and people flooded into the state once more.
Many important air bases were built in Florida during the war because of the state’s
consistently good weather. The growing economy is one reason Florida’s population
increased steadily throughout the 20th century.
Population
Just like the birds that migrate south every year, many older people (called snowbirds) migrate to Florida’s warmer
climate in winter. These snowbirds aren’t the only ones moving to Florida. The many visitors who have decided to stay
in Florida, including many Europeans, have made it one of the fastest-growing states in the country. Right now, it is the
fourth most populous state. Most of these people live in cities, especially along the coast. Florida’s population includes
many immigrants, a large majority of them from Latin America.
Government
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Florida
Capital: Tallahassee
State Abbreviation: FL
Governor: Rick Scott (Republican)
U.S. Senators: 2
Marco Rubio (Republican)
Bill Nelson (Democrat)
U.S. Representatives: 27
Republicans: 17
Democrats: 10
State Senators: 40
State Representatives: 120
Counties: 67
With 27 electoral votes, Florida is one of the most important states in presidential
elections.
Unlike any other state, Florida reviews its constitution every 20 years, just to make
sure that it is always current.
Famous People
Mandy Moore
Blanche Armwood — Educator
Mary McLeod Bethune — Educator
Marjory Stoneman Douglas — Environmentalist
Clara Frye — Nurse
Mandy Moore — Singer
Jim Morrison — Singer
Osceola — Seminole leader
Sidney Poitier — Actor
Janet Reno — First female attorney general
Burt Reynolds — Actor
Little Richard — Singer
Mary Littlejohn Singleton — Politician
Emmitt Smith — National Football League player
Clarence Thomas — Supreme Court justice
David Levy Yulee — First Jewish U.S. senator
Janet Reno
Emmitt Smith
Clarence Thomas
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Native America
As the hunter-gatherer tribes that inhabited what is now Florida thousands of years ago
began building more established communities and villages, they formed into five main
groups: the Ais, the Apalachee, the Calusa, the Tequesta, and the Timucua. The Ais
lived in eastern central Florida, on the coast. The Apalachee made their home in the
northwest (around what is now Tallahassee) and the Timucua in the northeast. The
Apalachee and Timucua were primarily farmers who grew squash, pumpkins, and corn.
The Calusa settled on the southwest coast, while the Tequesta were found in the
southeastern part of the state. Many people lived together in large houses. The Calusa
and Tequesta were expert fishermen and hunted marine life with bows and arrows. The
Tequesta caught swordfish and marlin from their canoes, and both groups lived well off
the fish from the Gulf of Mexico. Other groups included the Mayaimi around Lake
Okeechobee, the Jaega along the Atlantic coast, and the Tocobaga at Tampa Bay.
These chiefdoms collapsed after the arrival of Europeans and were largely destroyed
by disease and warfare.
By 1819, the Seminoles had become a powerful society. The Seminoles were a
combination of Creek Native Americans and escaped African American slaves. For
many years, the Seminoles fought battles against United States soldiers and settlers to
keep their land and to stop the escaped slaves from being re-enslaved. Osceola, a
Seminole leader, was eventually captured under a white flag of peace and died in
prison.
Today’s Seminoles are descendants of the few determined Seminoles who hid in the
Everglades and refused to leave Florida. Tourism, casinos, citrus fruits, and beef are
the main money-making industries on Florida’s six Seminole reservations. The three
largest reservations are Brighton, Big Cypress, and Hollywood in southern Florida. The
majority of the more than three thousand Seminoles live on reservations. When the
Seminoles gathered together to form the Seminole Tribe of Florida, a smaller group
known as the Miccosukee did not want to be part of the Seminole Nation. The
Miccosukee formed their own federally recognized tribe. Close to seven hundred live
mainly on the reservations west of Ft. Lauderdale and the Tamiami Trail west of Miami.
The Seminole Tribe of Florida owns the Hard Rock Café chain of restaurants.
Kennedy Space Center
In 1969, Neil Armstrong took the first steps on the moon. Many watched as the
Challenger exploded in 1986, tragically killing all seven people on board. Both missions
were launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. Located on Merritt
Island, this space center launched more spacecraft than any other place in the world.
Someday, technology developed there may let ordinary people take a tour in space or
travel to a hotel orbiting the earth. Though the space shuttle program ended in 2011,
NASA continues to work on new vehicles for human spaceflight. It’s no wonder that
tourists come from all over the world to visit. In fact, more people visit Orlando each
year than just about any other place in the world.
Walt Disney World
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Shortly after Walt Disney’s death, construction began just outside Orlando on Walt
Disney World. It was intended to be similar to Disneyland in California but grander in
scale. In 1971, the Magic Kingdom opened its doors. Now a major resort, Disney World
includes four major theme parks: the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood
Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. All four parks are linked by a monorail system.
The largest theme park in the world, the resort covers 20,000 acres (81 sq km). Disney
World also operates a college intern program. College students audition to become
Disney “cast members” and then live and work at the Disney World resort. Available
jobs range from impersonating a Disney princess to operating a concession stand.
More than 30 years after its opening, Walt Disney World remains the most popular
theme park in the world, with more than 16 million visitors every year.
State Symbols
State Bird
Mockingbird—The mockingbird’s name comes from its ability to mimic the songs of
other birds.
State Tree
Sabal palm—Palm trees can be seen throughout the state.
State Flower
Orange blossom—Since Florida oranges are famous throughout the country, it’s no
wonder the state chose the orange blossom as its flower.
State Animal
Florida panther—This powerful cat is on both the state and federal endangered species
list.
Other Symbols
Beverage: Orange juice
Butterfly: Zebra longwing
Fresh Water Fish: Largemouth bass
Salt Water Fish: Atlantic sailfish
Wild Flower: Coreopsis
Marine Mammal: Manatee
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Salt Water Mammal: Porpoise
Reptile: American alligator
Shell: Horse conch
Song: “Swanee River”
Stone: Agatized coral
Gem: Moonstone
State Motto
In God We Trust—This familiar motto can be found on U.S. coins and bills.
Pro Sports Teams
• Florida Marlins (MLB)
• Florida Panthers (NHL)
• Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL)
• Miami Dolphins (NFL)
• Miami Heat (NBA)
• Orlando Magic (NBA)
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL)
• Tampa Bay Rays (MLB)
• Tampa Bay Lightning (NHL)
• Orlando Predators (AFL)
• Tampa Bay Storm (AFL)
• Jacksonville Sharks (AFL)
For More Information
See www.myflorida.com or contact Visit Florida, 2540 West Executive Center Circle, Suite 200, Tallahassee, FL,
32301; phone (866) 972-5280; web site www.visitflorida.com.
© 2014 ProQuest LLC and Brigham Young University. It is against the law to
copy, reprint, store, or transmit any part of this publication in any form by any
means without strict written permission from ProQuest.
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