Abstract
In the early twentieth century, city boosters in Vero Beach concocted a mythical tale of its founding that reimagined the region as devoid of Indigenous inhabitants, recently inhabited, dripping with colonial Spanish lore, and otherwise thoroughly transformed by the arrival of white European settlers. Town planners, promoters, and historical societies collectively sold the community with simple stories that obfuscate Vero's, and Florida's, more complex and inclusive history. Despite the presence of Seminoles in the region and extensive physical evidence for the region's long history of Indigenous occupation, the Indian River Farms Company and city boosters Herman J. Zeuch, Waldo Sexton, and Arthur McKee drew upon a broad range of Indigenous and other historical images both from within and beyond Florida to construct this tourist destination. They, along with others, used stereotypical caricatures of Spanish pirates and wreckers, mapped the town with Indigenous names from across the nation, and otherwise largely replaced local history with a usable, imported, and easily consumable settler past.
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Recommended Citation
Shefveland, Kristalyn Marie
(2021)
"Remembering an Indigenous South: Regional Identity, Vero Beach, and Settler Tourism,"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 100:
No.
1, Article 7.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol100/iss1/7
