South Florida History: The First in a Series

How many times have you heard someone say, "there's no history in South Florida"? Perhaps you've uttered that phrase yourself.

Well, that's just plain incorrect. Sure, we don't have the 400+ year history of New England and other parts of the eastern U.S. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that there's "no history", nor does it mean that our relatively short history is insignificant or not worthy of study.

One of our duties as responsible residents of South Florida is to be at least reasonably knowledgeable of our local history. Too many of us haven't been here long enough and/or don't care enough to stop and consider what this place was like 50,100, 200, 300 years ago. Also, South Florida hasn't always been good stewards of our history, but there are lots of historical places out there if you look long and hard enough. Schools don't do a good job of teaching local history, either.

Why is it important to know. First of all, history can teach us lots of things about the times we live in now. Secondly, it helps us establish roots and relate ourselves to the past. In other words, history puts us in perspective.

It is with this spirit that I am going to kick off the first official 26th Parallel series: South Florida History. I will attempt to make this a weekly feature, with occasionally more frequent postings on historical items of note.

I will also ask for reader participation. If I post something that's not 100% accurate or missing detail, please leave a comment.

I will kick off the series with a logical start, the first known inhabitants of South Florida.

I present to you the Tequesta Indians, the creators of the well-known Miami Circle. Wikipedia (that's right, Wikipedia) also has some good information here.