Miami History

Miami was first inhabited around 1466 by the Tequesta Indian tribe. The Tequesta tribe also occupied the Florida Keys at times and may have had a village on Cape Sable. Spain later laid claim to Miami in 1566 led by Spanish admiral and pirate hunter Pedro Menendez de Aviles. Wasting no time in this new land, a Spanish Mission was built in 1567 to administer colonies and spread Christianity.

In 1836, Fort Dallas was built as a military post and would stay mainly occupied by troops until 1857. Out of all the buildings erected at Fort Dallas, only two remain intact.

Things would change a lot for Miami during the 1860's and 1870's, and a woman by the name of Julia Tuttle had much to do with that. She first visited the Biscayne Bay region of southern Florida in 1875 with her husband, visiting a 40 acre orange grove her father had purchased. She loved the land and climate, but returned to Cleveland, Ohio with her family. After her husband passed away in 1886, she sold his iron foundry business and purchased another 640 acres of prime orange groves. The only problem for the future city was there was no railroad. This changed during the freeze of February 1895 in which frost destroyed most crops in Miami except for hers. She sent some citrus fruits to railroad baron Henry Flagler as proof, and he immediately agreed to extend his railroad to the fertile land.

Miami was then officially incorporated as a city on July 28th, 1896 with a population of just over 300. The city prospered greatly during the 1920's, but property values were falsely driven up by massive speculation on the part of outside buyers and developers. When the Miami real estate bubble burst, it was on of many hits the city would take soon after. Housing prices dropped fast, followed by the 1926 Miami Hurricane, and the Great Depression in the 1930's. The future of Miami looked very bleak as their main export citrus fruits were devastated by the Mediterranean fruit fly.

When World War II began, Miami was very well situated geographically to aid in the battle against German submarines. Navy personnel and their families flocked to Miami and by 1940 the population was a booming 172,000+. Miami continued to grow tremendously after the war and had become a major international, financial, and cultural hub.

Miami earned the nickname "The Magic City" for its unprecedented growth year after year.