Florida Trivia & Tidbits - Page 5

Looking for Florida trivia? Try our list Florida little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

The "Okeechobee Hurricane" on Sept. 16, 1928, caught inland residents unprepared as the dikes on Lake Okeechobee crumbled and floodwaters swept across lakeside towns. More than 1,800 people died and many were buried in mass graves.

first appeared: 7/2/2006

A small-scale version of the "Greatest Show on Earth" is a big delight at Ringling Circus Museum's Tibbals Learning Center in Sarasota (pop. 52,715). The miniature Howard Bros. Circus features tiny replicas of 152 circus wagons, 700 animals, 1,500 performers and workers, and 7,000 folding chairs.

first appeared: 6/25/2006

The world's oldest barefoot water skier, "Banana George" Blair of Winter Haven (pop. 26,487), celebrated his 91st birthday in January by performing at Cypress Gardens in his trademark yellow wetsuit. Blair also is the world's oldest active snowboarder and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

first appeared: 6/4/2006

The McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville houses more than 2 million butterfly and moth specimens, one of the nation's largest collections.

first appeared: 5/21/2006

Completed in 1890, the Osceola County Courthouse in Kissimmee (pop. 47,814) is the state's oldest courthouse still in use. The Romanesque Revival-style structure was built three years after the county was formed from parts of Brevard and Orange counties.

first appeared: 5/14/2006

Established in 1974, Emergency One or E-One, headquartered in Ocala (pop. 45,943), is a leading worldwide manufacturer of fire trucks, ambulances and specialized rescue and emergency vehicles for airports.

first appeared: 4/23/2006

Organized in 1924, the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club is the world’s largest shuffleboard club and promotes the sport year-round with 65 courts. During the sport’s heyday from the 1930s to 1960s, the club had 110 courts and 5,000 members.

first appeared: 4/9/2006

Monroe County Deputy Sheriff Guy Bradley has been called America’s first environmental martyr. He was murdered in 1905 while protecting wading birds from plume hunters, and his death led to laws to protect the birds’ nesting colonies.

first appeared: 3/26/2006

Chartered in 1876, Temple Beth El in Pensacola was the first Jewish congregation in the state. The region’s first Jews were skilled in lumber production and drawn to lumber work in nearby Milton (pop. 7,045).

first appeared: 3/12/2006

The beaches of Siesta Key (pop. 7,150) consistently are rated among the world’s best with the finest, cleanest sand. The sand is 99 percent pure quartz crystal and free of shell particles, which accounts for its sugar-fine texture.

first appeared: 2/26/2006

The National Presidents Hall of Fame and Museum in Clermont (pop. 9,333) is the permanent home of a 10-ton replica of the White House. John and Jan Zweifel began building the miniature house, which tours the country, in 1962. The house includes hand-carved furniture, crystal chandeliers, portraits and hand-stitched carpets, all reproductions of the White House furnishings.

first appeared: 2/12/2006

Completed in 1887, the 175-foot Ponce De Leon Inlet Light Station near Daytona Beach (pop. 64,112) is the state’s tallest lighthouse and offers a view of the Florida coastline from Daytona Beach to New Smyrna Beach (pop. 20,048). The light station is a National Historic Landmark.

first appeared: 1/29/2006

The Phosphate Museum in Mulberry (pop. 3,230) chronicles the 1880s discovery of phosphate in Florida and the development of the mining industry that made the town the phosphate capital of the world.

first appeared: 1/15/2006

MISS FLORIDA 2006—Mari Wilensky, who once appeared as an actor on TV’s America’s Most Wanted, graduated from the University of Florida. She has created a not-for-profit corporation to promote children’s literacy and also established a program called Adopt-a-Grandparent.

first appeared: 1/8/2006

In 1910, the town of Boggy was renamed Niceville (pop. 11,684), and then renamed Valparaiso in 1919. When New Valparaiso sprang up and caused confusion, the town lived up to its name and became Niceville again. Valparaiso (pop. 6,408) dropped the "New."

first appeared: 1/1/2006

Twice daily, the public can watch poisonous snakes being milked for their venom at Reptile World Serpentarium in St. Cloud (pop. 20,074). Reptile residents include six species of cobras and 11 kinds of rattlesnakes.

first appeared: 12/18/2005

The World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine (pop. 11,592) chronicles the history of the game and its legendary players. Visitors can practice their skills on an 1880s-style putting green with a wood-shafted putter and test their knowledge of the rules of the game in an interactive theater.

first appeared: 12/4/2005

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) is credited with being the first African-American to collect African-American and African-Caribbean folklore, which she used in her novels, plays and short stories. She grew up in Eatonville (pop. 2,432), near Orlando.

first appeared: 11/20/2005

The state, which ranks first in tomato production, harvested 1.4 billion pounds of the crop during the 2003-2004 growing season. Only 1 percent of the crop is processed; the rest feeds the fresh market.

first appeared: 11/6/2005

The 130-foot schooner Western Union, launched in Key West (pop. 25,478) in 1939, served the Western Union Telegraph Co. for 35 years, laying and maintaining underwater cable. The ship, a national historic landmark, sails today as a tourist vessel.

first appeared: 10/23/2005

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