Flamingo, Florida
Located in the Everglades National Park, Flamingo has had a bumpy ride from Native American land to a growing city, back to a ghost town, and now a bustling – if not yet completely rebuilt – national park.
After the Tequesta Indians, who had lived in the area, had taken refuge in the Everglades from Europeans things went downhill from there. Spain surrendered the state to Britain in 1763 and relocated the Tequesta tribe to Cuba leaving Flamingo abandoned until the late 1800’s when settlers arrived.
The settlers made their living by selling fish, charcoal and vegetables to Key West, the closest trading area. It wasn’t until 1893 when a new post office was built in the area that it became an actual town.
The name Flamingo came from the birds that were abundant in the area, but unfortunately, the birds also were part of the reason the town fell into disarray. Flamingo allowed illegal hunting of the birds as one of the main industries in the area, but when a game warden came to put an end to it, some of the poachers he confronted murdered him – and it wasn’t clean kill.
The murder lead to tougher hunting legislation, negative media attention and by 1902 flamingos were a rare site due to the continued hunting of the population.