Orlando History, Florida

Orlando - a paradise on earth

Orlando is one of the developed cities of central Florida and attracts millions of tourists every year as it has umpteen top rated attractions for vacationers. Orlando is one of the major cities of Florida, USA and it is considered as the country seat of the Orange County. This is primarily the principal city of the greater Orlando. This Floridian city is well known for it’s a great variety of tourist attractions such as Walt Disney resort, Sea World resort of Universal Orlando to name a few. This city is also popular for its vast array of golf courses located here and has umpteen commercial and residential towers.   

History of Orlando

The History of this place dates back to 1500. In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon, Spanish explorer visited the shore which is now known as St Augustine located in the northeastern corner of this state. This Spanish explorer and other settlers found swamps, mosquitoes as well as native tribes here.   

Three C’s of Orlando

In the early days, the 3C’s of Orlando drove commercial activity to a large scale: citrus, cotton and cattle. As Cuba’s demand for Florida’s beef enhanced, the cattle ranches simply spread all over the flatlands. These cattle rustlers began fighting. In between this, Orlando emerged as a rough and tumble city.   

In the meantime, tired settlers began to turn their focus on cotton, a substantially less menacing crop and finally Orlando became the center of flourishing cotton industry.

When the civil war in US began, workers of farmland moved away in order to choose cotton replacing armed forces. In the year of 1871, when a hurricane had roared through Orlando, it virtually destroyed this entire crop.  

As air conditioning was invented in Orlando, life here became a picnic for all the people in this sunshine state. Sandy soil, summer heat as well as erratic torrential rainfall, however, made living tough for people but provided favorable conditions for the growth of citrus crops. Tangerines, limes, grapefruit as well as orange all thrived in Orlando. By 1870, the citrus industry of this terrain grew rapidly.   

When Henry Flagler as well as, later on, Henry Plante focused upon extension of railroads in this town, orange fever accomplished its acme peak. Despite this fact, the great breeze of the year 1894-1895 badly destroyed all the citrus crops of this region, but by 1950s this city had over 80000 acres of land cultivated for citrus fruits.   

Emerging as a hub of economic activities

Orlando had acquired electricity by 1900s and then in 1903 telecom facilities also reached this place. Thereafter, cars were introduced that could be chugged around at a speed of about 5 mph. In 1922, the first airport got opened here, so economic development started taking place at a faster pace. Now, international airport of Orlando welcomes millions of travelers every year.   

As missile factory of Martin Marietta opened in Orlando, this city became one of the major developed cities of Florida and provided employment opportunities to a large number of people in Orlando.   

email to a friendAsk our travel experts a question about Orlando
ask now

Things about Orlando you may be interested in

• Orlando Guide Books
• Orlando Reviews
• Orlando Travel tips

 

+ list your site

 

ReviewsTravel TipsWrite a reviewWrite a travel tip

 

 

Read our members' reviews about Orlando

• Discount vacations to Orlando
  review by Admutur posted more then 30 days ago
  In this time of crisis when even the year 2012 scare me because of the profecies, we need to move quickly to enjoy life. That is why, right now I need new friends in my life to join me in a group of 8 people to travel to Orlando and be part of great vacations in a Vacation village at Parkaway....

view all

 

Read our members' travel tips about Orlando

• The Holy Land Experience
  travel tip by tylerd posted more then 30 days ago
  There are a lot of weird and unusual theme parks in the world, but the Holy Land Experience takes the cake. Like the name says, you'll find yourself in a replica of Jerusalem, and observe the last days of Jesus Christ. The...
• Sea World Adventure Park
  travel tip by lizzy_a posted more then 30 days ago
  Good fun for the whole family, especially if you are interested in aquatic life. SeaWorld is both a theme park and an aquatic zoo, so there are plenty of shows and things to see. You can get close and personal with lots of marine...
• International Trolley and Train Museum
  travel tip by tomtum posted more then 30 days ago
  I'm not sure how much someone who isn't remotely interested in trains will like this, but if you have even a passing interests in railroads, visiting this museum is a fun experience. The International Trolley and Train Museum...

view all

 

 

Community

Members Who Have Been to Orlando

See who has been to Orlando and ask them a question (membership required)

chels098 ask a question add to friends

vkismith ask a question add to friends

Aschleck ask a question add to friends

BeachCondo ask a question add to friends

 

show all

 

Community Galleries About Orlando

Browse our members' Orlando galleries to get a better impression of the place

view gallery

 

show alladd gallery

 

 

the best travel deals provided by TravelZoo...