Table of Contents and Introduction to Our History

TABLE OF CONTENTS - History of the Palm Beaches Articles

I. The First 'Palm Beachers'

• The Jeaga Indians of 'Aboioa': 1513. (Article Posted  in Archive - July 2015)
• Uncovering the History of the Santaluces Indians. (January 2015)
• A History of the Tequesta Indians in Boca Raton. (June 2016)
• Palm Beach County's Ancient Transit Networks. (February 2018)

II. Conquistadors, Pirates and Explorers

• Navidad at Fort Santa Lucia: 1565-66. (December 2014)
• Dutch Privateers Prowl the Treasure Coast: 1627-28. (August 2018)
• The British Expedition to the Hobe River: 1772. (April 2018)

III. The Palm Beaches During the Seminole Wars

• Cha-chi's Village Rests Beneath West Palm Beach. (December 2014)
• Fort McRae: A Frontier Outpost on Lake Okeechobee. (December 2018)
• Samuel Colt Tests New Repeating Rifles at Fort Jupiter. (January 2019)
• The Last Campaign of Major William Lauderdale. (October 2016)
• The U.S. Navy's Expedition to Lake Okeechobee: 1842. (April 2016)
• Fort Jupiter During the Third Seminole War: 1855-58. (November 2018)

IV. The Civil War and the War with Spain

• Civil War Blockade Runners at the Jupiter Inlet. (May 2015)
• Palm Beaches Used as Confederacy's Last Hideout. (March 2015)
• The Palm Beaches During the Spanish-American War: 1898. (May 2017)

V. Natural History and Geography of Palm Beach County

• The Changing Geographic Face of Palm Beach County. (August. 2017)
• A Long and Winding History of the Hillsboro River. (November 2017)
• Democrat River: Belle Glade's Everglades Gateway. (October 2017)
• County's History Unearthed in Shellrock Mining Pits. (April 2018)

VI. Early Settlers and Settlements in the Palm Beaches

• Welcome to Historic Downtown 'Figulus': 1881-93. (February 2016)
• Pioneer Creates 'Utopia' Along Lake Okeechobee. (December 2017)
• The Short Life and Sudden End of God's 'Chosen' City. (July 2016)
• The Life and Times of Palm Beaches' Alligator Joe. (July 2017)
• Mango Grove Shaped Early History of Mangonia Park. (July 2018.)
• Glades, Lake Worth Share 'Father of Sugar's' Legacy. (January 2019) 

VII. World War on the Shores of the Palm Beaches

• 'Battle of the Atlantic' Comes to the Palm Beaches. (November 2015)
• Wartime POW's, Spy Reports in Palm Beach County. (February 2017)
• U.S.S. Jupiter Became America's First Aircraft Carrier. (August 2015)

VIII. Landmarks and Historic Sites

• True Tale of Captain Gus and the Old Palm Beach Pier. (December 2016)
• John Prince's Memorial: A County Park for the People. (January 2017)
• Local Shipwreck Site One of 17 'Museums of the Sea'. (April 2017)
• WPB Episcopal Church Becomes Historic Landmark. (November 2018)
• Historic WPB Medical Lab Fought Disease Epidemics. (June 2018)
• U.S. 27: County's Highway of Sugar, Blood and Hope. (May 2018)
• Many County Roads Honor the Famous or the Obscure. (May 2018)
• Local Church Has Its Roots in Arctic 'Saami' Ministry. (March 1917)
• Summer of 'Rockreation' in Palm Beach County: 1970. (Sept. 2018)

IX. Hurricanes, Monsters and Myths

• Inside the Eye of Hurricane Cleo: 1964. (March 2016)
• Last Voyage of the SS Inchulva Off Delray Beach. (August 2016)
• 'Muck Monster' Legend Becomes Part of Our History. (October 2016)
• Close Encounters with Cryptid 'Skunk Apes': 1972-78, (October 2018)
• Digging Up the Haunted History of the Palm Beaches. (September 2016)

X. Prologue (Below)

• Palm Beachers Adjust to Life with Their Neighbor - Donald Trump. (Below)

INTRODUCTION: The Palm Beaches Yesterday and Today
 
        The "Palm Beaches" is a common regional name for the communities located within the geographical borders of Palm Beach County, FL.
         There are seven cities that share the name "Palm Beach," as well as the coastal barrier island. The exclusive Town of Palm Beach, incorporated in April 1911, claims original title to the moniker due to the opening of a post office by that name in January 1887. However, its larger neighbor across the Lake Worth Lagoon, West Palm Beach, was actually founded 17 years earlier in November 1894.
        The other communities sharing the name Palm Beach are South Palm Beach, founded in 1955, North Palm Beach (1956), Palm Beach Gardens (1959), Royal Palm Beach (1959) and Palm Beach Shores (1951). The Palm Beaches also includes a Palm Springs, incorporated in 1957.
        To accommodate cities not sharing the name Palm Beach, such as Boca Raton, Jupiter and Wellington, a public relations guru once created the title of the "Greater Palm Beaches" to encompass the entire county.
        Neither greater nor lesser, the rural Everglades communities of Belle Glade, Pahokee and South Bay, located along the southeast shore of Lake Okeechobee, have always had a identity separate from the coastal Palm Beaches. They share a history as rich and diverse as their more affluent neighbors along the Atlantic coast.
        Palm Beach County itself was established in 1909 and is considered a youthful geographic entity in the timeline of history. However, its native American inhabitants date back nearly 7,000 years.
        This history of the Palm Beaches will lead the reader from the time of the Jeaga, Santaluces and Tequesta Indians forward to the present day through a series of articles profiling little-known people, places and events that shaped the region's future.
        The historical trail is marked and outlined for you, the reader, to follow.
(c.) Davidsson. 2019. 

PROLOGUE: 'Palm Beachers Adjust to Life with Their Neighbor - Donald Trump'

        It is a Wednesday afternoon and local news stations make the announcement that President Donald Trump is planning a weekend visit to his "Winter White House" at the historic Mar-a-lago mansion in the Town of Palm Beach. It was schedule repeated throughout the trump presidency from November 2016 through Jan. 20, 2021.
        It was necessary for the White House to announce the President's travel plans in advance so Palm Beach County, the City of West Palm Beach and the Town of Palm Beach can prepare for road closures, traffic control and security prior to his arrival on Friday afternoon. After four years of presidential visits, local governments learned what to expect:
       * 12 p.m. Friday: Security checkpoints are set up by local law enforcement agencies on the east side of the Southern Boulevard Bridge in West Palm Beach, and just north and south of Mar-a-lago on State Road A1A in Palm Beach. The checkpoints are covered by canvass pavilions to protect the officers from the relentless South Florida sun during the three-day visit.
        During the President's visits, the Town of Palm Beach is essentially split in two. The only north-south highway, A1A, is closed to traffic in front of Mar-a-lago. Residents living in the southern third of the island city, and all service vehicles, must cross the bridge to the mainland, drive through West Palm Beach then cross the Lake Worth Lagoon a second time at the two northern bridges.
        There are no national news media satellite trucks stationed inside the Mar-a-lago security zone. Reporters broadcast their reports from Howard Park in West Palm Beach and other remote locations.
        * 4 p.m. Friday: Two small U.S. Coast Guard patrol boats, each armed with a 50-caliber machine gun in its bow, arrive from their Port of Palm Beach base and assume their stations in the lagoon along the bayside of Mar-a-lago. Offshore of the Winter White House, in the Atlantic ocean, a Coast Guard cutter is posted during presidential visits.
        Nautical sightseers hoping to catch a view of President Trump by sea are quickly escorted out of the area by the Coast Guard. Fishermen also are discouraged from dropping their lines too close to Mar-a-lago.
        * 4:30 p.m. Friday: A Palm Beach Sheriff's Office (PBSO) helicopter patrols the air space over Mar-a-lago in advance of the President's arrival. It circles the area for about 30 minutes then returns to the Palm Beach International (PBI) Airport.
        Prior to the arrival and departure of  "Air Force One," PBI is shut down. There are no commercial or general aviation flights allowed as the President's 747 jet nears the airport.
        After his arrival at Mar-a-lago, commercial fights are diverted northeast of the mansion and pass over downtown West Palm Beach until Air Force One departs on Sunday night. Military aircraft will intercept violators of the designated presidential air space in Palm Beach County.
        The election of Trump as President ended a 20-year legal battle between the owner of Mar-a-lago and Palm Beach County over the routing of commercial air traffic over his estate. The east-west takeoff and landing pattern has passed over Mar-a-lago since the days when PBI was the Morrison Army Air Corps Field during World War II.
        Trump filed a $100 million lawsuit against PBI and the county for damages caused by air traffic over his historic mansion. Ironically, since air traffic is not allowed over Mar-a-lago when the President is in residence, the lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in 2016.
        A PBSO motorcycle officer stops at the bridge tender's station on the Southern Blvd. Bridge. The old bridge has been dismantled and is temporarily replaced by a "lift bridge" made of iron and steel until a permanent structure is built. Yachts and sailboats on the Lake Worth Lagoon must delay their passage under the bridge until after the President's arrival.
        * 5:30 p.m. Friday: Air Force One arrives at the PBI general aviation facility on the south side of the airport. News media and a small group of Trump supporters, screened by security, greet the President at the airport.
       A motorcade of more than 40 local law enforcement motorcycles and patrol cars, emergency medical vehicles and Secrete Service black SUVs, one of which will carry the President, are prepared in advance for his arrival. Although Mar-a-lago now has a designated pad for Marine helicopters, convoys are used during most visits.
        After four years of the Trump presidency, both protestors and supporters were well aware of the President's travel route. Barricades and local law enforcement are placed at locations where crowds gather to view the motorcade and make their opinions known through a variety of signs, chants and cat-calls.
        The three-mile journey between PBI and Mar-a-lago is a direct route east along Southern Blvd. (S.R. 98). The highway is closed to traffic. After crossing the Southern Blvd and Bingham Island bridges, the caravan will arrive on the island of Palm Beach and enter the gate of the walled Winter White House.
        Prior to their arrival at Mar-a-lago, the President's motorcade passes over the "Marjorie Merriweather Post Memorial Causeway" located between the two bridges. The Post cereal heiress built Mar-a-lago between 1924-27 at a cost of $90 million in today's dollars.
         Mrs. Post willed the estate to the federal government as an historic site prior to her death in 1973. However, due to the high cost of its maintenance, the mansion was returned to her family in 1981. After several failed attempts to sell the property, it was obtained by Trump for less than $8 million, including the many antiques found in the mansion.
        The future President renovated the property by creating a private club in 1995 to finance the upkeep of the estate, complete with a 20,000-square-foot ballroom for dining and entertainment events, a new waterfront pool and tennis courts.
        The President's motorcade arrives safely at Mar-a-lago. Above the Winter White House, he is greeted by hundreds of black turkey vultures, winter visitors from the north, that often circle the mansion in preparation of their nightly roost on the nearby Audubon Islands Sanctuary.
        For two days the President is free to party with friends at the Mar-a-lago Club's "Donald J. Trump Ballroom," entertain foreign heads of state, or play golf with Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus at the "Trump International Golf Club" located on leased county land four miles to the west on the mainland.
        * 5 p.m. Sunday: The security motorcade assembles at Mar-a-lago. The President is returning to the White House in Washington, D.C. The Coast Guard vessels return to their base. Palm Beach County prepares its bill for providing security.  For resident Palm Beachers, life will soon return to normal.
        UPDATE: President Trump changed his residency from New York to Florida in November 2019. Since Mar-a-lago was rezoned as a private club, neighbors are questioning whether the former President can use it as his permanent residency after Jan. 20 2021.
(c.) Davidsson. 2020.

*NOTE: Read full-text articles below and posted by dates in the Blog Archive.