Pioneer Reminiscences

Despite efforts to make South Florida habitable for development and settlement, many features of the tropical environment made some visitors somewhat reluctant to stay.

In 1895, when native Iowan Minnie Trapp traveled to South Florida with her new husband Harlan Trapp, she described the setting this way: "It was a wild country then. The atmosphere was humid. Mosquitoes by the hundreds buzzed around us and caused great lumps to rise over the exposed parts of my body. "

Despite the discomfort, though, she and family stayed in the area that became Coconut Grove, for the beauty of the tropical sunset over the lush foliage helped her overcome her reluctance.

Western Union telegram, September 28,1926

While mosquitoes were one feature of the tropical climate that caused discomfort, an even more menacing element was hurricanes. At the height of the South Florida land boom of the 1920s, the region experienced one of its most devastating hurricanes to date. On September 17, 1926 and into the morning hours of the 18th, powerful winds knocked out electricity and telephone service, felled tress, overturned boats, and demolished houses.

Over 100 people died in the storm, while eight times that number were hospitalized. National newspapers featured headlines like "South Florida Wiped Out in Storm." The hurricane ended the land boom even before the Great Depression did, and became a feature of life in South Florida that subsequent builders and residents would have to contend with.

While several more hurricanes hit the region over the next fifty years, none would be as damaging as Hurricane Andrew in 1992, which brought with it storm damages estimated at close to $30 billion and left 250,000 people homeless.