LIVING HISTORY
8
RIVER OF
FORGOTTEN
DREAMS
RICK CRARY
Trials and tribulations of early St. Lucie settlers
In the age of Manifest Destiny, as America’s “multiplying
millions” headed westward to conquer the continent,
only trifling thousands set their sites on the Florida Territory.
Of those, a few uncounted hundreds tried their luck
on the Treasure Coast in the 1840s. At that time the area was
part of a region best known for biting insects. It was called
Mosquito County. If the adventurers’ dreams had come true,
they would have transformed the wide riverfront from Sebastian
down past Stuart into a land of tropical plantations.
After the United States took possession of Florida in 1821
from Spain, Indian troubles kept most pioneers away from
the peninsula. President Andrew Jackson tried to force the
Seminoles to move out West. In 1835, the Seminoles launched
a counter-offensive to chase Americans out. That resulted in
seven costly years of conflict known as the Florida War. Soldiers
spread the word back home that the territory was noth- >>
The Indian River, once known in the
region as St. Lucie Sound, as seen
from Old Fort Park in Fort Pierce.
BY RICK CRARY
“An antebellum colony arose on the Treasure Coast
… and then it disappeared.”