| |
 Seminoles fishing on the New River, 1910s-1920s
|
 |
Stranahan’s Trading Post on the bank of the New River, 1896
|
 |
The Orange Blossom Special pulls into the Fort Lauderdale station on the new Seaboard Airline Railroad, 1927.
|
|
|
For at least 5,000 years, people have been drawn to the area now known as Fort Lauderdale and Broward County. The prehistoric peoples of south Florida, known as the Glades Culture, as well as the Tequesta of the early historic period enjoyed the abundance of natural resources available along the area’s New River. By 1763 the last of these aboriginal peoples had left, and except for a few white settlers, the area was devoid of population. The Seminole Indians first appeared in what is now Broward County in the 1820s and were joined by a handful of white planters along the New River.
The city of Fort Lauderdale is named for a fortification built during the Second Seminole War on the banks of the New River. In 1838 Major William Lauderdale led a detachment of Tennessee Volunteers south along the east coast of Florida to capture Seminole agricultural lands and battle the elusive Indian warriors. Altogether, three Forts Lauderdale would be constructed: the first at the fork of the New River; the second at Tarpon Bend; and the third and largest on the beach, at the site of today’s Bahia Mar.
After the Second Seminole War ended, southeastern Florida remained a virtual wilderness due to the lack of transportation into the region. In 1892, however, the Dade County government authorized the construction of a rock road between Lantana (in Palm Beach County) and Lemon City (now North Miami). An overnight camp and ferry crossing was established at the New River, and Ohio native Frank Stranahan arrived to take charge of the facilities. He established a flourishing trading post with the local Seminoles, and by 1895 Stranahan’s Trading Post was a south Florida landmark.
In 1896 the Florida East Coast Railway reached southward to Fort Lauderdale, providing rapid transportation to south Florida from all parts of the nation. The little village increased in size and was incorporated in 1911 as the City of Fort Lauderdale. In 1915 Broward County was created out of parts of Dade and Palm Beach counties.
A map of the three Forts Lauderdale |
