Explore Florida Treasure Stories

Florida's Fabulous Treasures

Gasparilla and Juan Gomez

Gold of the Engel Trassen

Shipwreck Treasures in Indian River Country

Spanish Treasure of DeLeon Springs

Welcome to Florida, "The Sunshine State," known for its sandy beaches, orange groves, Everglades, Florida panthers, alligators, and Walt Disney World  -- a wild and wonderful place rich in history and stories of treasure.

The Florida coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico was very different 12,000 years ago.  The sea level was much lower than it is today, and therefore the Florida peninsula was more than twice as large. The rich plant and animal environment of prehistoric Florida included saber-toothed tigers, camels, and giant armadillos.  The French first settled in Florida in 1562 as Huguenots, the French Protestants, establishing themselves on the St. Johns River not far from the Spanish settlement at old St. Augustine.  The Spanish crusaded for the conversion of Native Americans within its territory, often brutalizing populations that did not convert to Catholicism, leading to the southern migration in 1750 of Indian refugees and escaped slaves from the north into Florida where they became known as the "Seminoles," which means "wild men."  In 1521, Spaniard Ponce de Leon brought horses and Andalusian cattle, the ancestors of the Texas Longhorns.  He knew he'd found pastureland, and turned Florida into America's oldest cattle-raising state.  Florida's woods are also roamed by feral hogs, the descendants of those brought over for food by Hernando de Soto.  Today, with its abundant orange groves, Florida produces about 75% of the U.S. oranges, and about 40% of the entire world's orange juice supply. 

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