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Exploring Volusia County history
I'm a Halifax Historical Society volunteer and a lifelong fan of our local stories, from Timucuan shell mounds and the 1768 New Smyrna colony to the beach speed trials and the birth of NASCAR. Here are a few free things I've made to share them:
About the Halifax Historical Society
The Halifax Historical Society has been gathering the stories of Daytona Beach and the Halifax River towns since the 1930s, and it was officially chartered in 1949. Since 1986 its museum has occupied the old Merchants Bank at 252 South Beach Street, a 1910 building on the National Register of Historic Places. Before that, the collection was housed in a home donated by former Cuban president Fulgencio Batista, one of Daytona's more surprising residents. Today the museum covers everything from the area's earliest peoples to the beach-racing era, with archives full of rare photographs and postcards. I'm proud to volunteer there.
The lighthouse, Disappearing Island and the sharks
I took the lighthouse photo above from the New Smyrna Beach side of Ponce Inlet, near the jetties, looking across at the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse. First lit in 1887 and 175 feet tall, it's still Florida's tallest lighthouse. Just inside the jetties sits Disappearing Island, a sandbar that shows up at low tide and vanishes at high tide, where the Halifax River, the Indian River and the inlet meet. It's reachable only by boat, kayak or paddleboard. The inlet also pours a steady stream of fish in and out with every tide, and locals will tell you that's why sharks like to hang around this stretch of water.
My current obsession: the McCoy brothers
Right now I'm deep into the story of Bill and Ben McCoy. Around 1900 the brothers set up a boatyard on the Halifax River in Holly Hill, running excursion boats and eventually building yachts for clients like Andrew Carnegie and the Vanderbilts. When Prohibition arrived, Bill turned to rum running: he sailed liquor from the Bahamas up to "Rum Row" off the Atlantic coast. His whiskey was never watered down, which is one popular explanation for the phrase "the real McCoy." The Coast Guard caught him in 1923, and he served nine months before coming home to Florida. I'm still digging, so if your family has McCoy stories, I'd love to hear them.
Snowy egret
Snowy egret
A snowy egret fishing the shallows. Look for the yellow feet.
Gopher tortoise
Gopher tortoise
A gopher tortoise, a protected species in Florida. Their burrows shelter hundreds of other animals.
Ruddy turnstones
Ruddy turnstones
Ruddy turnstones working the jetty rocks, flipping stones for a snack.
The Eldora House
The Eldora House
My favorite hidden historic site, tucked inside Canaveral National Seashore south of New Smyrna Beach.
Ponce Inlet Lighthouse
Ponce Inlet Lighthouse
The Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse rising over the saw palmettos.
Coastal dunes
Coastal dunes
Dune plants holding the coastline together along the Atlantic.
Free Florida History Flashcards, Quizzes, Study Guides
Free Florida History Flashcards, Quizzes, Study Guides
Florida history is taught in 4th grade. I build free Quizlet flashcards, quizzes, study guides on our own Volusia, Flagler, Seminole history, lined up with Florida's SS.4.A standards. Pick a place or a person:
Daytona Beach History Flashcards, quiz
New Smyrna Beach History Flashcards
Canaveral National Seashore History Flashcards
Eldora House History Flashcards
Jackie Robinson in Daytona Beach Flashcards
Mary McLeod Bethune Flashcards
Volusia County History Flashcards
Flagler County History Flashcards
See every Jeep Michelle quiz, flashcard set, study guide on Quizlet
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