Florida Frontiers: The Weekly Newspaper Articles of the Florida Historical Society is a weekly newspaper article covering history-based events, exhibitions, activities, places and people in Florida. The newspaper articles premiered in January 2014. We explore the relevance of Florida history to contemporary society and promote awareness of heritage and culture tourism options in the state.
Ever since 16th century Spanish explorers realized that Florida was a large peninsula, people have dreamed of finding or creating a “shortcut” linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. By the early 19th century, a series of politicians and businessmen envisioned cutting a canal from one side of Florida to the other, creating a direct path for commercial boat traffic across the top of the...
This Friday night, a woman who was ritualistically buried in Brevard County more than 7,000 years ago will be brought back to life. Using some of the same forensic reconstruction techniques used to identify modern crime victims from skeletal remains, artist Brian Owens has created the Windover Woman sculpture that will be unveiled this weekend. “This was a fun project,” says Owens. “I usually work...
Personal attacks and name calling have a long tradition in American political campaigns. When polled, people overwhelmingly say they do not approve of such tactics, yet election results demonstrate that such negative campaigning is frequently successful. When modern political commentators discuss the divisiveness of contemporary American politics, they often refer to Florida’s 1950 Democratic...
The LaGrange community was established in the mid-1800s, between what would become Titusville and Mims. The LaGrange Church, organized in 1869, is the oldest Protestant church on the east coast of Florida, from New Smyrna to Key West. The original church was built in what is now the northern section of LaGrange Cemetery. A two story log church was built in 1872, at the church’s current location...
People visit the town of Cassadaga, Florida, to communicate with the dead. The residents of Cassadaga are Spiritualists who believe that life continues after physical death, and that mediums can be used to communicate with those who have passed on to the Spirit World. The religion of Spiritualism also embraces a belief in hands-on healing. Spiritualism was very popular in the late nineteenth and...
The Windover Dig in Titusville, Florida was one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the world. Nearly 200 ritualistically buried bodies were discovered, wrapped in the oldest woven cloth found in North America. The amazingly well-preserved remains were determined to be between 7,000 and 8,000 years old, making them 3,200 years older than King Tutankhamen and 2,000 years older than...
Patrick D. Smith’s 1984 novel “A Land Remembered” is one of the most popular books about Florida ever written. The beloved Merritt Island author was born October 8, 1927, and died January 26, 2014. He would have been 88 this week. Most popular novels have a year or so of commercial success, perhaps getting another boost when a paperback version comes out. Smith’s “A Land Remembered” has been a...
Peggy Bulger wanted to follow in Stetson Kennedy’s footsteps. In fact, Bulger wrote her doctoral dissertation about him. As head of the Florida Writer’s Project for the Works Project Administration in the 1930s and ‘40s, Kennedy traveled throughout the state documenting the traditions, folktales, and folk songs of Florida’s diverse population. He recorded the oral histories of Greek sponge divers...