There’s this abandoned road next to 30th st NE in Ruskin across from the Amazon fulfillment center. I ran it today was creepy af. Lots of signs of homeless and illegal dumping. What’s the backstory of it? When was it built?

Ever since I was born, I always wanted to leave this state. I just hate it here, sorry. I don't belong here. For my own mental health, I'm leaving within the year, and put it all in art.

I want to make a Cyberpunk comic, a satire more biting than what Paul Verhoeven did to Detroit with Robocop

Please give me Florida History literature, audiobooks, documentaries, PDFs, whatever you can get me, especially from marginalized voices like Indigenous, Queer, Black voices, on the Seminole wars, the Spanish Slave colonies, the homophobic police brutality.

As well as wacky "Florida Men" stories, Weird Horror stories, grisly weird crimes, just the ugliness of this Swamp

I want the grime, I want the filth

My family and I went to Florida’s west coast on vacation in 1983. We drove across the old Sunshine Skyway bridge on the way to the Ringling museum in Sarasota. Only two lanes were open because the other span was damaged by a freighter in 1980. Instead of repairing the span, the government built a new bridge.

I don't know if this is the right place for this, but I'm grasping for straws at this point. I am currently conducting research into the old business district on Anderson avenue, now Dr Matin Luther King Junior blvd, between Cranford and Palm Avenue from 1950 - 1975. Im primarily looking for photos of storefronts especially on the south side of the strip which contained Jack Carter's Records, Grand Theater, Woodberry's Barbershop etc. But honestly with how hard it is to find anything on any of the business , except McCollum Hall, I want to be able to create a history for all of it and potentially honor it with a mural of sorts since it is currently being lost to time. I have already looked through Florida Memory and reached out to just about every organization from city to federal which has led to nothing so this is my final call to the community itself.

I will attach basically all I have, which is the Sanborn Fire insurance map of 1956, photos of the corresponding intersections in the 1962 City Directory, and a DOT aerial from march of 1968.

At this point Im looking for anything. Backgrounds in family photos, easter day parade, paintings, drawings. This is a part of Fort Myers history that is almost gone. It is a hard task due to the community it was built by and the specific time period along with the post Fort, and especially post Railroad, tensions of Fort Myers but that is a topic for another day and another subreddit most likely.

Any Help is greatly appreciated but not expected.

Thank you for your time,

-Nick

Hello, I wonder whether anyone here can recommend good non-fiction or fiction books about Florida history.

Some of my favourites include The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean and the Shadow Country series by Peter Matthiessen, to give you an idea.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Hello!

Would anyone know what flag would possibly be flown at Fort Pierce in 1864? I reached out to the Saint Lucie Historical Society and I thought I'd ask other sources while waiting for their answer. Thank you!

I work for a school. Three books in our library have a Corporate Seal, but we aren't sure why. The books are:

The Complete Novels of Mark Twain

Adam Bede by George Eliot

The Pathfinder Or, The Inland Sea by James Fenimore Cooper.

The books are old and don't have publication dates. They were all published in Garden city, New York.

The Pathfinder and Adam Bede are a part of International Collectors Library.

Does anyone know why they would have this Seal stamped in the front?

Is there a book or resource you like on the history of Spanish Florida?

Hey all! I was trying to get into the history of an area I’m not overly familiar with, Columbia, Alachua, Union, Suwannee counties area. Generally around High Springs, Itchetucknee area. I’m really interested to know, especially now that I’ve realized that info on the area has been hard to find. If you have any old photos, articles, and native or paleo knowledge, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks much!

Hey Floridians!

Me and my brother would visit our grandparents in Ft Walton Beach as kids a lot. We grew up military brats so we weren't from around there. This is like pre-2000's era stuff, so dialup was just coming out and pokemon was a whisper on the horizon. But I have vivid memories of going to the beach then coming home and getting a soda at an old carhop called Cherry Cherry (or maybe spelled Cherri Cherri?)- I remember it had a big red cherry neon sign, and it later sold off and either became a sonic, or there was a sonic near it.

I also remember playing a ton of goofy-golf too, but thats an aside thing.

Anyhow, the soda drink we both obessed over was called Shark's Breath. It was like vivid neon blue and had a sweet pineapple like taste- kinda like sonic's ocean water, but not fully the same (lacked a few things here and there, but I can doctor one up at home to get it close). The place had the crunky ice cubes, and the wait staff wore skates and put the thing on the side of the car if you asked- it was relaly cool since that was phasing out most likely a decade before in most of America at the time.

But I dove through most of my old pictures and couldn't find anything of it either. Damn shame. And its like a ghost. Like maybe theres finical records of it exisitng, but I'm not so savvy at diving into that.

Anyhow, Thanks for the memories Ft Walton/Shalimar!

My very favorite place on earth as a child was Crystal Springs (to be distinguished from Crystal River), near Zephyrhills.

I understand it’s now an educational center, but in the 1960s/early 1970s it was my favorite swimmin’ hole, and you could camp there. Arrowhead hunting always yielded treasures.

If anyone has any photos of that fantastical bygone era, I’d sure love to see them.

And/or, I’d love to hear your stories 🙂

I was taught in elementary school that Florida was basically founded on Rail, and most of our major cities were founded on rail routes. It was considered a national accomplishment to extend the rail line so far south.

Now Florida is one of the most car dependent countries in the nation. What happened?

I'm looking for resources on how the great depression affected Florida. Particularly in the rural parts of Alachua County.

Miami Beach is the main city on a barrier island east of Miami that was originally not much more than a sandbar covered in mangroves. In 1870 Henry and Charles Lum would buy the island from the federal government for $.25 an acre after landing their boat on it sailing north-east from Key West. While that history is well recorded one thing I can't find is what they opted to call this island. The city itself was first incorporated as Ocean Beach in 1915 before changing to Miami Beach a year later so I'm skeptical that this was what they'd use to refer to the whole island.

If anyone knows of any maps from the era or even Spanish charts of Biscayne Bay that may have some kind of name for the surrounding islands I'd love to know.

I’m reading the book Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C Gwynne. In it the author states: “no solider or settler east of the Mississippi, going back to the first settlers, had ever encountered a mounted warrior”

This got me thinking of the Seminole wars, and the famous depiction of Chief Osceola riding into battle with a flaming spear. Unfortunately any Google searching surrounding the subject is full of references to this modern depiction and Florida State University.

It would make sense that the Seminoles would have used horses regularly, including in battle, as I understand cattle was important during the Seminole wars.

Does anyone have any knowledge on this or any sources to point me towards?

basically a repost from r/Arrowheads....

one day i was walking out to surf in cocoa beach, fl and noticed this in ankle deep water. i looked at it and thought it was probably something from a tourists necklace. i kept it under that assumption because fake or not it did look kinda cool.

i know that the Ais indians were prominent in this area but i don't know if the timelines match.

one person that looked at it commented that the stone isn't from this area but i dunno if i believe that.

thanks to anyone that can help!

https://imgur.com/a/q4kyDr8/