Whats so “new” about the New River?
Nothing, really; the New River got its name as the result of an old legend that the river had come into existence overnight. A 1631 Spanish map of the area labels the waterway R. Novo (Latin for New River). Science has disproved the myth of the river’s mysterious origins, but the name has stuck. Although Florida has an entire agricultural industry based on it, citrus is not native to this state or even this continent. All citrus plants originated in Asia and were carried by immigrants or traded to the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Christopher Columbus brought lime seeds to the New World in 1493, and Spanish explorers introduced citrus to Florida in the 1500s. Ethnographic and historical records show that the Tequesta Indians of south Florida obtained protein from a variety of local animals, including turtles, tuna, whales, lobster, seal, deer and raccoon. This area was home to a series of three U.S. military sites named “Fort Lauderdale.” The first was established in 1838 during the
