[Sunny-Days90]

Post your interesting and fun filled facts about Florida.

Saint Augustine is the oldest European settlement in North America.

Miami Beach pharmacist Benjamin Green invented the first suntan cream in 1944. He accomplished this development by cooking cocoa butter in a granite coffee pot on his wife's stove.

Miami installed the first bank automated teller machine.

DeFuniak Springs is home to one of the two naturally round lakes in the world.

Florida is the only state that has 2 rivers both with the same name. There is a Withlacoochee in north central Florida (Madison County) and a Withlacoochee in central Florida.
They have nothing in common except the name.

Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where the drink was first developed.

[On-da-Beach]

Coastal Dune Lakes are only located in 5 places on Earth. Florida's panhandle being one of them.

[kevinkagy]

Miami has the country's third largest skyline.

Miami is also the only major city in the country to be bordered by two national parks.

Florida has 663 miles of beaches.

The longest river is the St. John's River.

Miami's Brickell Financial District has the country's largest amount of international banks, hence its nickname "Gateway to the Americas".

Florida's largest county is Palm Beach.

[Sunny-Days90]

Originally Posted by On-da-Beach

Coastal Dune Lakes are only located in 5 places on Earth. Florida's panhandle being one of them.

Yes!

Someone posted a picture of that recently. Amazing.

[mquintana]

Key West is the home of the Mel Fisher museum. Mel Fisher was a treasure diver with a crew (my dad was one of his divers and personal friend) and they found gold, jewels, coins, and so much more from the Spanish ships. One of the ships that they found was the Atocha.
Mel Fisher's Treasures

[On-da-Beach]

That museum is totally cool!

[Sunny-Days90]

Originally Posted by mquintana

Key West is the home of the Mel Fisher museum. Mel Fisher was a treasure diver with a crew (my dad was one of his divers and personal friend) and they found gold, jewels, coins, and so much more from the Spanish ships. One of the ships that they found was the Atocha.
Mel Fisher's Treasures

Wow, and I missed the museum last time we were down in Key West. Won't miss it next time! I cannot imagine what is was like to be a diver to go down to the ship.

[Lindsey_Mcfarren]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the St. Johns one of the few rivers that flows Northward?

Then there is that fort (civil war era) down in the Keys where Dr. Mudd spent his last days, Dr. Mudd being the Dr. who set the leg of the man who shot Abraham Lincoln. His actions caused the saying "your name is mud".

[beachmouse]

While studying ways to reduce or prevent the severity of yellow fever during outbreaks, Dr. John Gorrie of Apalachicola invented the ice machine, (for which he was granted the first US patent for mechanical refrigeration) and his engineering exercises helped lead to the development of both the refrigerator and modern air conditioning.

[mquintana]

I can't imagine either, lol. I am not as daring as my father is. He loved it though. Every so often, Mel used to let them keep things. One day he found a 4 Escudo that was worth about $33,000 and Mel told him he could have it, so he sold it and bought himself a sail boat to live on. He named his boat 4 Escudo. It was pretty neat, but he's almost killed himself a couple of times diving for treasure, with the bends. He doesn't dive anymore, not like that. There was a book that was published in the 90's and they mentioned his name in it, I just can't remember what it was called.

That is how all those people started wearing the dablumes. The coin looking necklaces.

But you gotta see the museum. It's pretty neat to see all that treasure.

Originally Posted by Sunny-Days90

Wow, and I missed the museum last time we were down in Key West. Won't miss it next time! I cannot imagine what is was like to be a diver to go down to the ship.