February 2012

Cattle and Cowboys in Florida

Hun­dreds of years ago, long before tourists or even cities, there was anoth­er Flori­da. When the Spaniard Ponce de León dis­cov­ered it in 1513, Flori­da was most­ly wide, green spaces. In 1521 when he returned, he brought hors­es and sev­en Andalu­sian cat­tle, the ances­tors of the Texas Long­horns. He knew he’d found pas­ture­land. Span­ish explorers […]

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How much does it cost to winter in Florida in 1924?

(From an arti­cle writ­ten in 1924 by Karl H. Gris­mer) Per­cy Gotrocks, who graces Palm Beach with his pres­ence dur­ing the win­ter months, con­sid­ers him­self for­tu­nate if he can get through a sea­son with­out part­ing from about six­ty thou­sand dol­lars. His “shack” on Ocean Boule­vard has a ret­inue of ser­vants that could man a hotel, […]

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