FLORIDA:
THE SETTING
BASICS ABOUT FLORIDA
As Neil Armstrong returned to Earth from his historic walk
on the Moon, the first place in the United States
he noticed was appropriately Florida,
the spot where his mission started. Sticking out into the Gulf of Mexico and
Atlantic Ocean in the southeast corner of the country, Florida is just so identifiable. The
peninsular was just such a landmark to the Spanish conquistadors who viewed Florida as the front door to their great American Empire
and to the beginning of North America.
The story of Florida
the geographical place is quite short, a young land mass emerged from the
ocean a few ticks on the geological clock. The story of Florida the modern historical place is
longer than any other state. It is a story of innumerable different people:
Indians and horse soldiers, sailors and pirates, priests and planters, sheriffs
and outlaws, politicians and promoters, playboys and migrants, both the retired
and the youthful. It is a history of how people from six different traditions -
Indian, French, Spanish, English, Southern, and Modern American - came to the
peninsula in search of a better life in a land which offered countless unique
opportunities well into the twentieth century.
Florida's distinctive geographic
location on the southeastern most shore of the United States makes the area part
of Southern history: plantations, export economy, slave labor, and
states-rights. But a closer look will note that Florida has a Western side. Pensacola
is as far west as Chicago and the southern half of the peninsula was as
sparsely inhabited by white men in 1860 as the Rocky
Mountain states. Florida
had its Indian wars, cowboys, fur trappers, gunfighters, and frontier life at
the same time as the Western states.
FLORIDA
- THE LAND
While this is a history of the people of Florida, it is still important to denote
some important geographical factors. To first observers, Florida is very flat,
without notable changes of elevation. Florida,
the land, is relatively young by geological standards, rising out of the ocean
some 300 to 400 million years ago. A body of water, known as the Florida
Trench, separated North Florida from the swampy plains of South
Florida.
After 200 million years, when dinosaurs roamed the land, these volcanic
mountains eroded leaving a shallow sea where was once the Trench. Masses of
sand and fossilized marine shell, called limestone, formed mounting layers of
this underwater plateau. These layers finally arched upward to create a marshy
plain at sea level, where fossilized bones and shell caused phosphate deposits.
During the Ice Age, one million years ago, the waters of the world filled
into glaciers, thus lowering the level of the oceans. Florida grew to twice its present size.
Saber-toothed tigers and mastodons roamed the cool swamplands of Florida. When the ice
melted, the oceans again rose and cut Florida
into terraces and upland plateaus.
In recent geologic history, sandbars have extended the coastline while coral
grew along the warm waters. Coral, the skeletal deposits of dead sealife of
anthozoan family, protected the southern shores from some erosion. Men made the
other drastic land changes by closing off the natural flow of waters in great
tidal marshes, by cutting down forest cover, and by filling in many bays and
river inlets.
Today, Florida
has six major geographic regions that historians utilize to describe
regions:
The Coastal Lowlands encircle the state and extend along the shores
inland from ten to one hundred miles. The most recent region to emerge from the
ocean, the lowlands are covered with forests of saw palmetto and cypress. In
the south are the great grass savannas and mangroves of the Lake Okeechobee Basin
and the Everglades. The coastal swamps and
forests were once threatening obstacles to early settlers; today it is the
booming population of settlers who endanger the coastal environment.
Northwest of the coastal lowlands, between the Perdido and Apalachicola Rivers,
are the Western Highlands. These hilly uplands of pine forest contain
the highest elevations in Florida, a mere 345
feet at the northwestern part of Walton
County.
East of these Highlands is a region known as
the Marianna Lowlands. In these lower, rolling hills and valleys dotted
with limestone sections, are many of the state's oldest farming districts.
Further east, between the Apalachicola and Withlacochee Rivers,
are the Tallahassee Hills. This hilly region of live oak and pine
forests gradually slope eastward to a small plan and the Suwannee River.
This was Florida's
first great farming region.
The center of the peninsular contains the Central Highlands. This
large, 250 mile region contains rolling lake districts in the North and low
grass plains in the South near Lake Okeechobee.
This area is dotted by Upland Plains. Each of these regions represented
noticeable differences in making a livelihood for its settlers.
FLORIDA'S PHYSICAL UNIQUENESS
Place and position are just two geographic
characteristics which had important influences on the story of Florida. Her location
between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean assured Florida's significance to the Spanish world.
Florida is the American state that is closest
to South America, which is to the east of Florida. Florida
is closer to the Panama Canal than Texas.
Climate is synonymous with Florida.
If Miami were in the Eastern Hemisphere, it
could be located on the Nile
River. Florida is not
only closer to the equator than any other American state other than Hawaii, its
location on the southeastern tip of North America means Florida has a humid
subtropical climate, with heavy rainfall from April to November.
Without tall mountains, Northern cold waves easily enter the peninsular and
drop the temperature below the forty degree mark. Yet, Florida's size and surrounding warm waters
modify extremes of temperature. Every spot in Florida is within eighty miles of the sea.
Water shaped nearly every aspect of Florida's
development. Florida's
coastline of 2,276 miles is, greater tan any other state in the Continental
United States. Because of the continuity of the Atlantic currents and the
uniformity of sand drifts along Florida's
ocean ledge, the Atlantic
Coast is an almost
straight line of sandy barrier islands. These islands establish a protective
intracoastal waterway, but limits large harbors except at inlets near river
mouths.
A Map of FLORIDA'S WATER WORLD
The Gulf of Mexico shore is blessed with larger bays such as Tampa Bay, Apalachicola Bay,
Charlotte Harbor,
and Pensacola Bay, all capable of becoming a major
deep water port. This abundance of rivers and harbors on the Gulf side makes
this coastal line long and diverse.
Florida has many rivers on the Gulf Coast,
centers of early habitation and transportation. The Atlantic side, however, has
Florida's largest river,the St. John's, one of
the world's few northward flowing streams. No state can match Florida's number of major springs. Boasting,
fishing, and swimming are words that have long been associated with Florida.
And yet, many urban areas of Florida face
severe water shortages, a fact that is confusing to the outsider who examines Florida's water resources.
FLORIDA'S NATURAL RESOURCES
All of Florida is located
within the region of the United
States known as the Coastal Plain. It is
actually a series of terraces, caused by shifts of the ocean depths and great
changes in climate.
The soils of the peninsular are quite diverse, ranging from well drained,
sandy loams and loamy sands of North Florida to the poorly drained peats and
muck lands of Lake Okeechobee. The great
central orange belt is mainly well drained sands, while the coastal lowlands
are of poorly drained sands and loamy sands thinly over non calcareous
materials, consisting of mixtures of sand, silt, and clay.
This diversity of soils provides a rich abundance of different vegetation,
the most important being the hardwood and pine forests of North
Florida. Live oak, red oak, laurel oak, hickory, dogwood, sweet
gum, and redbud provided Florida
with an early industry.
Florida lacks great amounts of precious
minerals or oil, but phosphate provided Florida
with a mining industry.
Florida is
endowed with an abundance of animal and plant life which not only
simplified making a living to the original human inhabitants, but provides
important industries for today's Floridians. Over eighty species of land
mammals dwell in Florida,
from the black bear to the tiny field mouse. Most people, however, remember Florida as the major
domain of the alligator and American crocodile, almost extinct in other places
of this land.
Four hundred species of wild birds are Florida natives. The rookeries around the
lake regions, coastal marshes, and the Everglades
attract millions of migratory birds making these places still paradises for
bird watchers.
Floridians found the local waters filled with seven hundred species of fish.
Fishing is still a vital part of the Florida
life style despite the serious pollution of Florida lakes and fish. Record bass,
catfish, perch, and trout as well as ocean fish like pompano, snapper, snook,
and grouper is well recorded. The big game fish like sailfish and tarpon are
famous in Florida.
Much of this environment is challenged by one of the last species to arrive
in Florida:
man. Despite being the second largest state in area east of the Mississippi
River, Florida
has become the fourth most populated state. Its long, thin shape places people
in vulnerable locations. The state's size often gives Floridians the confidence
there is plenty of open spaces. An automobile trip from Key
West to Pensacola
is 900 miles.
With Florida's near absence of seasons and
sunshine, the plant life of Florida
is also extensive. While visitors to the state seek out the swamplands for
cypress and the lower coast for pam trees, North Florida
is one of the great forested regions in the East.
The amount of sunlight and rain allows for the success of almost four
thousand species of plants in Florida.
History has often shown that plants and animals and reptiles grow too well in Florida. The importation
of foreign plants and animals and fish have often had damaging effects of
native species. In any case, Florida
is a unique and distinctive place.