Miami-Dade County is home to many private and public universities and colleges. Symbols Histories Timelines Famous People. Florida State Click Image to Enlarge. Florida Counties There are sixty-seven counties in the state of Florida. In , there were only two Counties in Florida: Escambia to the west and St. Johns to the east. From these two Counties were formed 67 today. Its last county was created in with the formation of Gilchrist County from a segment of Alachua County.
According to a census report, the county had a population of 2,,, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in the United States. It is also Florida's third-largest county in terms of land area, with 1, square miles 5, km 2.
The county seat is Miami. The county is home to 34 incorporated cities and many unincorporated areas. The northern, central and eastern portions of the county are heavily urbanized with many high rises up the coastline, as well as the location of South Florida 's central business district , Downtown Miami. Agricultural Redland makes up roughly one third of Miami-Dade County's inhabited land area, and is sparsely populated, a stark contrast to the densely populated, urban northern Miami-Dade County.
The western portion of the county extends into the Everglades National Park and is populated only by a Miccosukee tribal village. The earliest evidence of Native American settlement in the Miami region came from about 12, years ago. The first inhabitants settled on the banks of the Miami River , with the main villages on the northern banks. The inhabitants at the time of first European contact were the Tequesta people, who controlled much of southeastern Florida, including what is now Miami-Dade County , Broward County , and the southern part of Palm Beach County.
The Tequesta Indians fished, hunted, and gathered the fruit and roots of plants for food, but did not practice any form of agriculture. They buried the small bones of the deceased with the rest of the body, and put the larger bones in a box for the village people to see.
The Tequesta are credited with making the Miami Circle. His journal records that he reached Chequescha , a varianth of Tequesta , which was Miami's first recorded name. It is unknown whether he came ashore or made contact with the natives.
Spanish soldiers led by Father Francisco Villarreal built a Jesuit mission at the mouth of the Miami River a year later but it was short-lived.
After the Spaniards left, the Tequesta Indians were left to fend themselves from European-introduced diseases like smallpox. By , the Tequesta sent a couple of local chiefs to Havana , Cuba , to ask if they could migrate there. The Cubans sent two ships to help them, but Spanish illnesses struck and most of the Indians died. The first permanent European settlers arrived in the early 19th century. People came from the Bahamas to South Florida and the Keys to hunt for treasure from the ships that ran aground on the treacherous Great Florida Reef.
Some accepted Spanish land offers along the Miami River. At about the same time, the Seminole Indians arrived, along with a group of runaway slaves. Harney led several raids against the Indians. Most non-Indian residents were soldiers stationed at Fort Dallas. It was the most devastating Indian war in American history, causing almost a total loss of population in Miami.
In , Miami became the county seat, and six years later a census reported that there were ninety-six residents living in the area. The Third Seminole War was not as destructive as the second one. Even so, it slowed down the settlement of southeast Florida. At the end of the war, a few of the soldiers stayed. The county was named after Major Francis L. Dade, a soldier killed in in the Second Seminole War, at what has since been named the Dade Battlefield.
In the county seat was moved to Juno, near present-day Juno Beach, Florida , returning to Miami in In , Palm Beach County was formed from the northern portion of what was then Dade County, and then in , Palm Beach County and Dade County contributed nearly equal portions of land to create what is now Broward County. There have been no significant boundary changes to the county since The third-costliest natural disaster to occur in the United States was Hurricane Andrew , which hit Miami early Monday morning on August 24, It struck the southern part of the county from due east, south of Miami and very near Homestead , Kendall , and Cutler Ridge now the Town of Cutler Bay.
Everglades Reclamation or drainage led to the birth of a feverish real estate industry for Miami and much of southeast Florida as large speculators purchased millions of acres of reclaimed land from the State of Florida, then marketed it aggressively in many parts of the nation.
Later called Overtown, this region would grow rapidly before experiencing a period of steep decline beginning in the s for a host of reasons, including the construction of an extensive expressway system that ripped through the heart of the quarter and led to the displacement of 20, residents about one-half of its population. For most Miamians this event marked their first glimpse of an airplane.
Soon after the inaugural aerial display, Glenn Curtiss, a famed aviator, arrived and established a flight school. By the time America entered World War I in , Miami and the surrounding area hosted several flying schools, including a facility near the Miami Canal that Curtiss operated for future combat pilots in the Great War.
Miami was already booming when the Roaring Twenties began. It represented the largest per capita increase of any municipality in the nation. Its expanding borders now extended several miles in each direction beyond the original parameters. But this growth would pale by comparison with what lay ahead—the onset of the great real estate boom of the mids.
Speculation brought people from all parts of the nation to Florida in quest of quick wealth in the overheated Florida real estate market and Miami was its storm center. In the late summer of , as the boom neared its zenith, nearly 1, subdivisions were under construction in Miami and its environs.
Beautiful developments bearing a Spanish eclectic or Mediterranean Revival style of architecture arose in areas that had only recently been farms or woodland. Most prominent here were the sparkling new municipalities of Coral Gables and Miami Shores. The annexation of Lemon City, Coconut Grove, and other historic communities and neighborhoods in led to the expansion of the city of Miami from 13 to 43 square miles. The boom was accompanied by a breakdown in law and order.
Owing in part to the wrenching changes that accompanied the boom, the rate of violent deaths homicides, suicides, and accidents for Miami and Dade County in the middle years of the s, was greater than at anytime since the state of Florida began record keeping. The boom began dissipating in Wary speculators backed off from further investment in light of inflation, and a series of setbacks brought construction to a standstill.
The spring and summer of witnessed a mass exodus of speculators. The boom was over. In September, a hurricane with winds of miles per hour smashed into the Miami area, with a portion of the eye passing over downtown.
More than Miamians and Dade Countians lost their lives in the storm. Thousands of homes were destroyed. Unfinished subdivisions were leveled. The entire region was plunged into a severe economic depression three years before the rest of the nation. Miami weathered the Great Depression of the s better than many other communities. This was due in part to the advent of commercial aviation—Pan American Airways and Eastern Airlines established headquarters in the Magic City—and a resurgent tourism in the second half of the decade.
Tourism was pegged to special events and activities such as the Orange Bowl Festival, which began in the mids, and became a popular tourist draw. New Deal programs put more than 16, Miamians to work, building fire stations, schools, and post offices.
Dimouts and blackouts were the rule in the early part of the conflict due to the German submarines in nearby waters. DuPont Building. Local businesses, such as shipbuilding and upholstering, worked double shifts on government contracted projects. The Magic City was even involved in the Japanese surrender.
The Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima in August One week later the Japanese surrendered, ending the most destructive war in the history of humankind. Postwar Miami bustled as never before. The new Miamians represented one ingredient in a new boom whose impact was evidenced by soaring enrollments at the University of Miami, a suburban building explosion, and record numbers of winter visitors, especially on Miami Beach. Change was everywhere, most notably in such vital sectors of the economy as aviation.
Increasingly, Dade county was assuming a more important role over the destiny of its citizens.
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