Help celebrate our history Jan. 10
I hope you’ll join us from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10, for the ninth annual Treasure Coast History Festival at the St. Lucie County Regional History Center, 414 Seaway Drive, Fort Pierce.
The free festival was founded by our company, Indian River Media Group, in 2017 as a way to bring various historical groups together to share the region’s rich history with the public. Today, the festival is produced by the St. Lucie County Historical Society and has grown by leaps and bounds, now featuring exhibits from dozens of local historical organizations and businesses.
Visitors also receive free admission to the history museum. I love the festival because it feels like an annual reunion, with newcomers and longtime residents returning year after year to learn something new. This year’s festival will include Native American exhibits, military re-enactors from the Seminole Wars, World War II displays, treasure exhibits and speakers, children’s activities, a pioneer village, cattle camp, vintage car show, and an Authors’ Alley featuring historical books and authors. A genuine Summerlin Family Fish Fry, a staple at the festival, returns this year, along with food trucks serving everything from barbecue to Seminole pumpkin bread. The band Uproot Hootenanny and acoustic guitarist Kyle Kraft will provide music.
I’ll be hosting the speakers’ tent. Here’s the lineup:
• 9 a.m.: Historian and author Jean Ellen Wilson presents “A History of the Site of Old Fort Pierce.”
• 10:15 a.m.: Okeechobee Historical Society President Magi Cable shares the story of the founding of Okeechobee.
• 11:30 a.m.: Cow Creek cowboy Buddy Mills presents “Cowboys and Cow Tales of Old Florida.” Mills, featured in my book, Cow Creek Chronicles, will talk about growing up at historical Cow Creek Ranch and address topics from herding cattle and making cow whips to harvesting swamp cabbage — traditions he continues today.
• 12:45 p.m.: Richard Maxwell Brown of the Florida Historical Society presents “500 Years of Florida History in 50 Minutes,” beginning with the arrival of Ponce de Leon in 1513.
• 2 p.m.: Mel Fisher salvage diver John Brandon presents “Historical Shipwreck Recovery Off the Treasure Coast” and how treasure from the sunken 1715 fleet continues to be discovered.
Terry Howard will host the storytellers’ tent. Here’s that schedule:
• 9:15 a.m.: Steve Hoskins shares the history of St. Lucie County’s World War I memorial.
• 10:15 a.m.: Author James D. Snyder talks about the early paddlewheel steamers that plied the Indian River.
• 11:15 a.m.: Sal Gattuso, operations director of 1715 Fleet Queens Jewels LLC, talks about the sinking of the 1715 treasure fleet.
• 12:15 p.m.: Treasure hunters Terry Shannon and Fred Banks discuss treasure hunting on Florida beaches.
• 1:15 p.m.: My old friend and classmate, raconteur Billy Johnson, shares stories of the early Inlet Fisheries business in Fort Pierce.
See the original article in print publication
Jan. 1, 2026
