Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
54
A Fountain of Fruit
Fun Facts
Legend has it that Florida's citrus industry has its roots in seeds spit onto the
ground by Ponce de León and his followers as they traversed the state searching
for the fountain of youth. The seeds supposedly germinated in the rich Florida
soil.
the local economy. Stray cows no longer
had to be shooed from the railway tracks.
Streets were being paved and electricity
and telephone service installed. The popu-
lation at the turn of the 20th century was
2,481. In 1902, the city passed its first
automobile laws, which included an in-
town speed limit of 5 mph. In 1904, the
city flooded. And in 1905, it suffered a
drought that ended—miraculously or
coincidentally—on a day when all faiths
united at the local First Baptist Church to
pray for rain. By 1910, prosperity returned,
and Orlando, with a population of nearly
4,000, was in a small way becoming a
tourism and convention center. World
War I brought further industrial growth
and a real-estate boom, not just to
Orlando, but to all of Florida. Millions of
immigrants, speculators, and builders
descended on the state in search of a quick
buck. As land speculation reached a fever
pitch and property was bought and resold
almost overnight, many citrus groves gave
way to urbanization. Preeminent Orlando
builder and promoter Carl Dann described
the action: “It finally became nothing
more than a gambling machine, each man
buying on a shoestring, betting dollars a
bigger fool would come along and buy his
option.”
Quite suddenly, the bubble burst. A
July 1926 issue of the
Nation
provided the
obituary for the Florida land boom: “The
world's greatest poker game, played with
lots instead of chips, is over. And the play-
ers are now . . . paying up.” Construction
slowed to a trickle, and many newcomers
who came to Florida to jump on the band-
wagon fled to their homes in the North.
Though Orlando wasn't quite as hard hit
as Miami—scene of the greediest land
grabs—some belt-tightening was in order.
Nevertheless, the city managed to build a
municipal airport in 1928. Then came a
Mediterranean fruit-fly infestation that
crippled the citrus industry. Hundreds of
thousands of acres of land in quarantined
3
■
1990
Universal Studios Flor-
ida opens, bringing the mov-
ies to life for all who enter its
gates.
■
1993
SeaWorld expands,
and Universal Studios
unleashes the fearsome
Jaws.
■
1998
Disney starts its own
cruise line and opens most
of Animal Kingdom. Univer-
sal opens CityWalk, a vast
new entertainment complex.
Disney's West Side, Pleasure
Island, and Disney Village
Marketplace become known
as Downtown Disney.
■
1999
Islands of Adventure,
Universal Orlando's second
theme park, featuring stom-
ach-churning thrill rides,
opens. The final section of
Animal Kingdom, Asia,
opens. The Disney Cruise
Line launches Good Ship No.
2, the
Wonder.
■
2000
SeaWorld opens its
second park, Discovery Cove,
offering a chance to swim
with the fishes, er, dolphins.
SeaWorld also delivers its
first roller coaster, Kraken.
■
2001
Church Street Station
closes its doors for good. The
tourist industry takes a blow
due to the September 11,
2001, terrorist attacks.
