Q. Who was the American president who dedicated the Everglades National Park to the public’s use in 1947?

A. Harry S. Truman

 

During the 1920s and 1930s, Ernest F. Coe led the campaign to create a national park in the Everglades. Congress passed an act to create the park in 1934, but the Depression and World War II delayed its founding until 1947.

Q. Who was the man who provided the necessary funds to complete the job in exchange for 200 acres of Beach Land?

A. Carl Fisher

The island we now know as Miami Beach was originally a barrier island made up of red mangroves. When John S. Collins and the Lummus Brothers began building the wooden bridge connecting Miami Beach to Miami they ran out of funds when the bridge was only half finished. Their hopes for a winter resort town could have slipped away were it not for one man’s donation of $50,000.

Q. Florida’s first newspaper was published in which city?

A. St. Augustine

 

Although the Governor of Puerto Rico, Juan Ponce de Leon discovered Florida for Spain in 1513, it would be many years until Florida was settled by Europeans. After the British lost control of Florida in 1783, settlers from the new nation, the United States moved south. In 1783 the East Florida Gazette became Florida’s first newspaper.

Q. What was the name of this ship?

A. The Prins Valdemar

 

Beginning in 1925 many ship companies began to slow cargo delivery into Miami’s harbor because of Florida’s involvement in suspicious real estate profits. To make matters worse, on Jan. 10, 1926, a four masted Barkentine ship flipped over by a brisk wind. The large boat blocked Miami’s ship channel making it impossible for other ships to deliver badly needed supplies to Miami.