PUBLISHER’S NOTE
Publisher & Editor
GregoryEnns
772.940.9005
enns@indianrivermag.com
Associate Publisher
Allen Osteen
Assistant to the Publisher
Lisa Pagano
772.466.3346
lisa@indianrivermag.com
Associate Editor
Judith Collins
Design Editor
Michelle Moore-Burney
Writers
Jessica Armstrong,
Susan Burgess, Donna Crary,
Rick Crary, Rachel Cuccurullo,
Pattie Durham, Greg Gardner,
Ellen Gillette, Janie Gould,
Catherine Enns Grigas,
Debra Magrann, Angel McLellan,
Willi Miller, Alison O'Leary,
Jerry Shaw, Christina Tascon,
Sandra Thurlow, Jean Wilson
Photographers
Ed Drondoski, Robert Adams,
Rob Downey, Lori Van Dien,
John Biondo, Anthony Inswasty
Cover Photo
Don Kincaid
Photo Retouching
Herb Paynter
Copy Editors
Pattie Durham, Gaettane A. Paul
Web and Social Media Editor
Alexander G. Enns
Advertising Representatives
Sunny Gates
772.204.5043
sunny@indianrivermag.com
Marsha Lange
772.237.1717
marsha@indianrivermag.com
Kelly Farish
772.359.3697
kelly@indianrivermag.com
Bill Frank
561.909.7538
bill@indianrivermag.com
Debi Curzio
404.218.3551
debi@indianrivermag.com
Jennifer Lincoln
561.396.3150
jennifer@indianrivermag.com
Distribution
Wes Holloway, Kirk Jones
Our Motto
‘We fly our own mission’
— Ed Drondoski, Founding Photographer
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A TREASURE TO READ
Our earliest snowbirds
Back in the day, “snowbird” was a little-known term locals used to refer to people from
the north who came to South Florida during the winter to get out of the cold.
Today, “snowbird” has its own exhaustive Wikipedia entry, expounding that
snowbirds are “typically retirees who wish to avoid the snow and cold temperatures of
northern winter, but maintain ties with family and friends by staying there the rest of the
year.”
The entry also includes younger people with jobs tied to the tourism season and business
owners who have a second home in Florida who can telecommute and to RVers who bring
their homes with them.
It’s possible that our earliest snowbirds were the humans linked 12,000 years ago to the
Old Vero Ice Age Site, near the Vero Beach Regional Airport.
The Creek Indians, from whom the Florida Seminole tribe descended,
might have been South Florida’s earliest recorded snowbirds. Archaeological
evidence found in Biscayne Bay shows that Creek Indians from
Tallassee, Ala., had been setting up camps in South Florida as early as
1750, coming down in the winter from the cold in Tallassee.
Writer Jean Wilson profiles one of the Treasure Coast’s first snowbirds
of European ancestry, Pennsylvania Sen. Matthew Quay, in “An Original
Snowbird,’’ beginning on Page 8.
Quay began visiting St. Lucie Village, site of the Army installation known as Fort Capron
from 1850 to 1858, as early as the 1870, as the guest of Judge James Paine, who had commanded
Fort Capron and ran a boarding house with his brother called the St. Lucie House.
Quay suffered from an inherited lung condition, with the sunny Florida weather being
an antidote to better winter health. But he also found Florida a great place to fish, gamble
with friends and escape from his tumultuous political life in Washington.
Like many snowbirds, Quay came down as a renter and eventually built his own winter
home. That was followed by a house built by Quay’s son and several others built by
friends, including a club house known as the St. Lucie Club, still standing today.
It was the start of something great.
We hope you enjoy the many other features in this issue. Have a great summer and see
you in October, when our next issue arrives.
Indian River Magazine Inc. is a locally
owned company based at 308 Ave. A in Fort
Pierce, FL 34950. Indian River magazine
publishes five times a year: early October,
late November, mid-January, early March and
early May. All material contained herein is
copyrighted by Indian River Magazine Inc.
4
The St. Lucie Club is one of several buildings in historic St. Lucie Village from the time of U.S. Sen. Matthew
Quay, one of our first snowbirds, that remain standing today.
BEST OVERALL WRITING 2017
Florida Magazine Association
Signatures:Signatures 2/25/13 4:25 PM Page 1
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