Amelia Island is the only territory in the United States to have been under eight flags of domination during the past five centuries. The island's development from the 16th century is best summed as "the French visited, the Spanish developed, the English named and the Americans tamed". The seeds of the island's struggle were first planted in 1562 when Frenchman Jean Ribault stepped ashore on "Isle de Mai" (Island of May) and Europe began its coexistence with the Native Americans. Spanish rule followed with intent to Christianize the natives of the island until Spain swapped Florida for Havana with England . British loyalists then diligently established plantations for King George II and dubbed the island "Amelia," in honor of his daughter. Amelia Island is locked in the charm and enchantment of the Victorian era thanks to Henry Flagler. One of America's premier industrialists, Flagler bypassed Amelia Island when he built his railroad and associated tourist hotels along Florida's East Coast. As a result, mass modernization bypassed the island; a disguised blessing that allowed Amelia to remain an authentic Victorian seaport village. In the early 20th century, Amelia Island became the birthplace of the modern shrimping industry as innovators replaced rowboats and cast nets with power-driven seines and trawls. Today, nearly 80 percent of Florida's Atlantic White Shrimp are harvested in Amelia's waters and the Burbank Trawl Makers (locals call it the Net House) is still one of the world's largest producers of hand-sewn shrimp nets. In the mid 1930's, the founders of Afro-American Life Insurance bought 200 acres on the southern end of Amelia Island. The 200 acres became known as American Beach, an oceanfront haven for African Americans during the Jim Crow era of segregation. In its heyday, homes, restaurants and nightclubs attracted the likes of Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and James Brown. Today, approximately 100 homes remain from the 1940's and 1950's and American Beach is the first stop on Florida's Black Heritage Trail. Though its popularity faded with the advent of desegregation, today it remains a quiet beachfront community. Island favorite historic activities are listed below: Amelia Island Museum of History - The history of the Island of Eight Flags comes alive at Florida's only spoken history museum housed in the renovated 1935 county jail. The museum is complete with historical objects and archaeological finds. The museum also conducts walking tours of the historic district. Fort Clinch State Park - This Civil War-era fort overlooks the Cumberland Sound and is open to the public. Complete with cannons, jail cells, a blacksmith and hospital, this brick fortress holds reenactments the first weekend of every month. Camping on Fort property is also available. Walking Tours of Historic Fernandina Beach - Given by the Amelia Island Museum of History, walking tours take groups up Historic Centre Street and into the Silk Stocking District exposing them to the many great historical figures who influenced the architecture and business on the Island. These tours can be modified for children. History of Fernandina by Kevin Turner In 1854, Fernandina was at the cusp of a boom that promised to make it the most prosperous and powerful city in Florida, an infant state only nine years old. David Levy Yulee, a man who is not given proper historic credit as Florida's father, had advocated vigorously for its statehood in 1845, he had secured federal land grants for the construction of the Florida Railroad, to connect Fernandina with Cedar Key, and thus the Atlantic Southeast with the Gulf of Mexico. That work started in 1855. He took charge of the project immediately. With his untiring ambition and natural political alacrity, he plowed through the railroads first problem. Fernandina, as founded years earlier, was surrounded by the natural defenses of surrounding wetlands. Since a railroad could not be brought to it, Yulee brought Fernandina to the railroad. Purchasing land on the other side of the towns southern marsh, Yulee mapped out a New Fernandina that would be at the head of his new railroad, along the areas naturally deep harbor. The north-south streets were numbers, and the east-west streets south of the city's center were alphabetically named after trees. Bisecting the New Fernandina was Centre Street, and facing the Amelia River was Front Street or First Street. East-west streets north of Centre Street were named after political friends and acquaintances of Yulee. It was on one of these streets that Yulee made his home. As construction began on the railroad, he set out to populate its streets with residents and businesses. He first constructed a boardwalk across the marsh separating old from new, connecting to the northern end of Second Street, which would become the new city's North-South Main Street. By 1854, Fernandina's boom was on. New businesses and houses were built on Yulee's street grid like popcorn. Fernandina's docks attracted fleets of merchant and passenger ships and the railroad could not be built fast enough. Trades in turpentine, wood and naval stores were heavy, and many foreign countries began to keep consulates in the town. The slave trade, both legitimate and contraband, took place here as well, and here hints of the islands roots in piracy revealed themselves. The boom stole some of the thunder from Jacksonville, which naturally watched its transformation from a sleepy town wrested from Spanish hands to a new, booming, rapidly growing port city. Yulee was always the city's power center, and through the end of the Civil War, the city's fortunes seemed tied to his. But until Union troops took the city in 1862, it seemed that nothing could stop Fernandina's wild growth as saloons, hotels, blacksmiths, shoemakers, and undertakers appeared on every corner. Many itinerants came and went, and prostitution appeared on Second Street. City government scrambled to get a foothold and wouldn't pass a property tax until 1857. However advanced the city was, its streets were still of mud and wandering animals of every kind were found there, day and night. Horses and cows walked alongside people during the city's gold rush to capitalize upon and export the treasures from Florida's interior. It was too much for Jacksonville's Florida News publisher Joseph Rogero to resist. His newspaper was delivered to its streets every week beginning in 1854 and was widely read by the architects of the city's boom times. After covering Fernandina for four years and complaining about the interruptions in the fledgling mail system that often separated him from its stories, he wanted a piece of the action and moved his presses here in February 1858. As they say, the rest is history. The News-Leader's legacy is intertwined with that all-important year in Fernandina's history, 1854. That year, it seemed the sky was the limit and the future promised that Amelia Island would someday grow to become another Manhattan Island. It might have happened, too, if fate had allowed it...

History From the Island Chamber Amelia Island's splendor is only enhanced by the uniqueness of its history. Originally inhabited over 4,000 years ago by the Timucuan Indians, the island is the only United States location to have been under eight different flags. The Timucuan Indians were noted for their stature, some measuring over 6 feet tall to the tops of their elaborately crafted hairstyles, and their unusual custom of tattooing themselves with red, black, yellow, and blue. One can only imagine the astonishment on the faces of the French settlers when they first landed on Amelia Island in 1562. Huguenot leader Jean Ribault led the first recorded European expedition to the region. Seeking freedom for the persecuted Huguenots while extending the French empire, they arrived in May of 1562, resulting in the island being named "Isle de Mai" (Island of May). Though Ribault didn't remain, René de Laudonnier followed him in 1564. A permanent settlement called Fort Caroline was constructed near the mouth of the St. John's River. However, in 1565, Spanish troops led by Pedro Menendez de Aviles brutally slaughtered these French settlers in order to regain territory claimed by Spain. The first Spanish reign was from 1565-1763. They constructed a mission, Santa Maria, near what is now known as Old Town, in order to convert natives to Christianity and protect Spain's hold on this new territory. The island then became known as "Isla de Santa Maria". It is at this point that the population of the Timucuans began to decline as a result of the influx of European diseases. This led to their near total extinction within 100 years of the first European contact. The British, to the north, began to take an interest in the island's naturally deep harbor and strategic location on the international trade routes. It also served as a buffer to control Spain's encroachment on England's expanding empire. This is when the island attained its current name. In 1736, the British Governor of Georgia, James Oglethorpe, named the island in honor of Princess Amelia, daughter of King George II. Though the island was named Amelia, it didn't fall under complete British control until Spain traded it for Cuba in 1763 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Britain subsequently divided its acquisition into the 14th and 15th colonies of East Florida and West Florida. During this period of British rule, the island may have been known as Egmont. The British Monarchy gave John Perceval, the Second Earl of Egmont, a vast land grant on the island. Although he never actually set foot on his holdings, he set up the plantation system under the oversight of Stephen Egan. The staple crop of this plantation was Indigo, used in the production of a "poor man's" Royal Blue dye, which was highly sought after by European consumers. Amelia Island and Florida remained loyal to the crown during the American Revolution. However, revolutionary forces invaded the island in 1777 and 1778. After the Revolution, Britain ceded Florida back to Spain in a second Treaty of Paris. With the return of Spanish control, Surveyor George J. F. Clarke platted the town of Fernandina, named in honor of King Ferdinand VII of Spain. It was the last Spanish town platted in the "New World." This document is in the permanent collection of the National Archives in Madrid, Spain. In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson signed the Embargo Act, closing United States ports to foreign shipping. This made the border town of Fernandina a center for piracy. To control the cross border smuggling and violations of U.S law, President James Madison began to subvert Spanish control. Through intermediaries, he gained the support of Americans living in the area. On March 17, 1812, the "Patriots of Amelia Island", with a timely appearance of a U.S. flotilla, won control and raised their "Patriot" flag above Fernandina. The next day they ceded the island to the United States. Upon hearing of the exchange, Spain filed a protest. This forced the U. S. to relinquish control of the island in light of the impending conflict with Britain and the War of 1812. Despite the reacquisition, Spain failed to adequately govern the territory, allowing for continued lawlessness and violations of United States sovereignty. In 1817, a Scotsman named Sir Gregor Macgregor, with support from influential Americans, again ran the Spanish off the island and raised the "Green Cross of Florida" flag. However, because of a lack of money and adequate reinforcements, he left his lieutenants in charge. They subsequently made a deal with a Frenchman, and privateer, Luis Aury, in order to garner and maintain control. Aury, in exchange for his support, demanded command of the island and raised the flag of the revolutionary Republic of Mexico, under whose sanction he was currently acting. The island entered a period of bedlam. The United States sent gunboats and Marines to take control, in trust for Spain. Spain decided to sell Florida to the United States in exchange for assuming their $5 million debt owed to U.S. citizens. Thus, on July 10, 1821, Florida became a United States territory. Finally, rule and order came to the island. It became a new frontier for enterprising Americans to forge their way. Out of these arose a visionary politician and businessman, David Levy Yulee. He was key to securing Florida's statehood, becoming not only one of Florida's first U.S. Senators, but also the nation's first Jewish senator. As if these achievements weren't enough, David Levy Yulee is also the Founding Father of present day Fernandina Beach. Yulee created the Florida Railroad Company that built the first cross Florida railroad, originating at the foot of Centre Street in Fernandina Beach and terminating in Cedar Key on Florida's Gulf Coast. The intention of this route was to expedite shipments to the nation's interior by alleviating the 1,000-mile voyage around Florida. However, as fate would have it, Yulee's railroad was completed in March of 1861, merely one month prior to the commencement of the Civil War. With the onset of the war, the Confederate Flag was raised over nearby Fort Clinch. At this time, Confederate President Jefferson Davis sent his chief engineer, General Robert E. Lee, to inspect coastal fortifications. After two visits to Amelia Island, General Lee determined that the island was indefensible and recommended a Confederate withdrawal to the mainland. On March 3, 1862 a Union flotilla of 28 vessels headed toward the island, becoming the largest amphibious deployment of U. S. forces to date. Union control remained throughout the remainder of hostilities. Following the war, many of the occupying soldiers returned with their families to build a new life for themselves on Amelia Island. On May 1, 1865, Fernandina Beach made history once again by holding the first southern election with white and black voters. Salmon P. Chase, a United States Supreme Court Justice, administered the oath of office to Mayor-elect Adolphos Mot. We now enter the island's Golden Age. Between 1870 and 1910, many wealthy Americans made Fernandina their home, creating an elegant Victorian community that flourishes to this day. The boom was fueled by the shipping industry and tourists visiting from the Northeast, via steamboats, to enjoy our warm climate and luxurious hotels. Such notables as Ulysses S. Grant, William Jennings Bryant, the Carnegies, and Jose Marti were just a few of the island's historic visitors. In 1890, Standard Oil co-founder, Henry Flagler, extended his railroads, which lured tourist traffic to St. Augustine and points south. This resulted in a faltering local economy, until enterprising fishermen saw the potential for the shrimping industry. Rowboats and cast nets were replaced with power driven seines and otter trawls, giving birth, here on Amelia Island, to the modern shrimping industry. In the 1930's, an additional boost to the economy was provided when two pulp mills located here. In the late 1930's, Chairman of the Board and President of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company, Abraham Lincoln Lewis, established American Beach. A half-mile stretch of beach located on the southern end of Amelia Island, it became a vacation retreat for prominent African Americans, with musicians like Ray Charles and Duke Ellington playing the local clubs. American Beach is the oldest continuously black-owned seacoast resort in the United States. It is the first East Coast stop on the Florida Black Heritage Trail. Amelia Island has the additional tribute of being listed on the National Jewish Heritage Trail, and the 50 block downtown area has the honor of a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. As you can see, the area's history is extensive and varied, offering something of interest for everyone.

Amelia Island, Florida © AmeliaToday.com 2005