Q. Name the people who lived on the banks of the Miami River 500 years ago and built Florida’s 41st National Historic Landmark Miami Circle™.

There has been a considerable amount of press coverage of Florida’s 41^st National Historic Landmark Miami Circle™, an archaeological discovery site located in downtown Miami. The site was discovered in 1998 and purchased in 1999 by the State of Florida for $26.7 million. It holds what some believe is evidence of the complex and planned architecture by the people who inhabited South Florida almost 500 years ago.

A: Tequesta

 

(Archaeological dig at Miami Circle™ site, ca. 1999. Credit: Scott Smith, Historical Museum of Southern Florida.)

Q. Who is America’s foremost ornithologist, who spent 7 months in Florida during 1831-32, observing bird life from St. Augustine to the Dry Tortugas?

Born in Santo Domingo, present-day Haiti, in 1785, America’s foremost ornithologist grew up in France. In 1820 he began his masterpiece, The Birds of America and traveled in search of birds to paint. In 1831 his expedition came to the east coast of Florida to find water birds and tropical species. Birds were drawn from freshly killed specimens or from life, and made to look as life-life as possible. The Birds of America consist of 435 prints of more than 457 species of birds and the Historical Museum of S. Florida is fortunate to have complete sets of the first and second editions of his masterpiece. 

A. John James Audubon

 

(Roseate Spoonbill, ca. 1831-2. Credit: John James Audubon, Historical Museum of Southern Florida.)

Q. What type of land, worldwide, is generally found in the same latitude belt as Florida?

Although we in Florida lie outside of the confines of the Tropic of Cancer, the climate ‘officially’ is classified as ‘wet and dry tropical’. In order for a climate to be truly tropical (dry, wet or otherwise), the coldest month of the year must have an average temperature above 64.4 degrees. Our coldest month, January, in Miami is 67.7 degrees, clearly within this classification. South Florida is the only part of mainland United States that officially has a tropical climate.

A. Desert, primarily

(Greetings from Florida postcard, ca. 1950 Credit: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (November 10, 1883), p. 184., Historical Museum of Southern Florida. )