So, you think you know Orlando?

Most people think Orlando is a totally modern city, born from the creation of Walt Disney World in 1966, but that is a long way from the truth. There’s more to this wonderful Central Florida place than Disney. Much more.

It’s probably fair to say Walt Disney put Orlando on the map, at least in tourist terms. His announcement nearly 60 years ago of a vast new resort complex was certainly the catalyst for a huge amount of development in Central Florida through the 1970s and 80s.

But take a little trip back in time, and we’ll reveal that there really is a whole other side to The City Beautiful, to give it its full nickname, that most people don’t see, one that dates back to 1838, and even earlier. In reality, Orlando’s history encompasses mass migrations, open warfare, cattle farming, property booms, the citrus industry and the race to put man on the moon.

Native peoples

Sadly, few traces remain of the indigenous peoples who originally populated Florida after the last Ice Age roughly 14,000 years ago, when the state was twice the size it is now, but there were at least six major tribes, including the Timucua and Calusa. Archaeological evidence along the Atlantic coast at Tomoka State Park (near Ormond Beach) and Big Talbot Island State Park (near Jacksonville) preserve Timucua midden mounds, burial complexes and shell rings, as well as pottery fragments, but the tribes were virtually wiped out after contact with the first European settlers – the Spanish conquistadors – in the 16th century.

That native void in the peninsula was filled in the 18th and 19th centuries by the arrival of the Seminole tribes, fleeing from persecution in Georgia and the Carolinas and that’s when Florida history went into overdrive. In a bid to remove all native peoples from the area – which was acquired by treaty in 1819 – the US government sent the army into the Florida Territory, sparking the three Seminole Wars from 1817 to 1858.

The Second Seminole War (1835-1842) was the most bloody of the three, bringing the Orlando area into play for the first time with the creation of Fort Gatlin in November 1938. There is a historic plaque marking the site at the junction of Gatlin Avenue and South Summerlin Avenue in the Edgewood suburb to the south of the city, and it is well worth seeking out for history buffs.

Becoming Orlando

The Fort was decommissioned in 1849 but a few soldiers and families remained in the area, growing citrus and raising cattle. In 1856, Fort Gatlin became the county seat of Orange County, which was created from the much larger Mosquito County in 1845 (yes, they really did originally name it after the most populous creature in the state!). Originally called Jernigan, the community’s name was later changed to Orlando, a name most historians attribute to militiaman Orlando Reeves, who was killed in a skirmish during the Second Seminole War. During World War II, the US Navy established a secret sonar laboratory near this site on Lake Gem Mary because of the great depth of the lake. The lab was closed in 1997.

Orlando experienced a notable increase in population after officially becoming a town in 1875, and started to attract its first tourists as a winter destination, hence the city suburbs of Winter Park, Winter Garden and Winter Springs. Cattle ranching was the big news in the 1880s – epitomised by the famous statue of Bunk Baxter, alligator wrestler, from 1884 – which slowly gave way to the citrus industry, bringing in millions of acres of orange groves (until the big freezes of the 1980s).

A 1920s land boom ensured the city’s permanence, closely followed by World War II, when it became an Army air base (now the modern Orlando Executive Airport) and Navy training centre, which is memorialised in Blue Jacket Park.

Another key moment was the creation of a new airport in 1940, which quickly became another WWII bomber training base. During the Cold War, it was renamed McCoy Air Force Base and was home to several B-52 bomber squadrons, which were on full alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. If you’ve ever wondered why Orlando’s airport code is MCO and not ORL, it’s because of its origins as McCoy. There is also a public monument to the Air Force base in the shape of B-52 Memorial Park at the airport.

The Space Race also gave the city another boost as it became an industrial and business support for nearby Cape Canaveral, with the influx of technical companies, support staff and the first computer laboratories. So, by 1966, there was already a LOT going on at this Central Florida location in a state that was fast becoming a major tourist destination.

Along came Walt

Alongside all the technical and urban development of Orlando, another industry also had eyes for this location, at the heart of the state and with major road links to the north and south. Walt Disney had created his unique Disneyland “themed” park in 1955, but was dismayed at the way it was immediately surrounded by a welter of associated tourist sprawl, and vowed to do things differently for his next venture.

The “next venture” was his Florida Project, and a mission to quietly acquire 40 square miles of unused Orlando land to provide the dramatic increase in scale Walt envisaged. Much of the land acquisition had already been made when, on November 15, 1965, Walt, his brother Roy and Florida governor Haydon Burns staged a news conference to announce the massive undertaking. It was hailed as a new “world of pleasure, entertainment and economic development,” and was subsequently named Walt Disney World after Walt’s death in December 1966.

This vast complex of theme park, hotels and other recreations officially opened on October 1, 1971, and THAT is where the modern history of Orlando really kicked in. For history aficionados, there is still one building that dates back to the pre-opening phase, when it was the official preview centre for Walt’s world, and locals and visitors alike were encouraged to come and see the grand design for themselves. Today, that building is the Amateur Athletic Union building on Hotel Boulevard (leading to Disney Springs), and it is a mute testament to that bygone age PD, or Pre-Disney.

Find out more about Orlando’s history at the Orange County Regional History Center in downtown Orlando.