LIVING HISTORY
When PINEAPPLE was
The sweet prickly fruit created the first
industry on the Treasure Coast
BY CAMILLE S. YATES
L
10
KING
ong before it became world-famous for the citrus
it produced, the Indian River region was known
for producing pineapples. At the turn of the 20th
century, thousands of acres along the sandy ridge
of the river from Vero Beach to Sewall’s Point
were covered in pineapple.
Pineapples were so plentiful that in 1895 Jensen Beach
ST. LUCIE COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM PHOTO
became known as the Pineapple Capital of the World. Besides
endless acres of pineapple plants, there were pineapple packinghouses,
pineapple canning factories, pineapple elixirs and
postcards of pineapples celebrating the region’s cultivation of
the succulent fruit.
The sandy well-drained soil that runs along the river is ideal
for cultivating pineapples. They are not native to Florida
and were first discovered in the New World in 1493 in Guadeloupe,
Antilles, by Columbus during his second voyage.
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In the late 19th century, thousands of acres of pineapple were grown from Vero Beach to Sewall’s Point. Here, a child cavorts in a pineapple field near
present-day Orange Avenue and 10th Street in Fort Pierce.