Orlando is known internationally as a tourist destination, attracting fifty million visitors each year to its numerous resorts and parks. In all that excitement, it's easy to overlook the city's interesting past. In the 1800s, the area was embroiled in the Seminole Wars, and Fort Gatlin was constructed to shield citizens from attacks. Soon, a city grew around the fort. During the cowboy era, thousands of cattle, ranchers and cowboys crossed the central Florida terrain moving livestock. Those pioneers soon moved to farming, and Orlando became the center of the Florida citrus industry. Join author and historian James C. Clark as he reveals the remarkable history of one of the world's most popular destinations.

Latino Orlando portrays the experiences of first- and second-generation immigrants who have come to the Orlando metropolitan area from Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and other Latin American countries. While much research on immigration focuses on urban destinations, Simone Delerme delves into a middle- and upper-class suburban context, highlighting the profound demographic and cultural transformation of an overlooked immigrant hub.

Simultaneously a scathing critique of consumer culture and a heartbreakingly manic narrative of obsession and reckoning.

A full-color guidebook with over 300 color photos, The Complete Universal Orlando features candid reviews of every Universal ride, show, restaurant and resort hotel; more than 250 insider tips; and over a thousand details you just can't find anywhere else. Parents will enjoy looking through it with their children, as the abundance of images makes it easy for little ones to decide ?Let's do that!' The book comes from authors Julie and Mike Neal, authors of the award-winning Complete Walt Disney World guides.

Emerging as Florida's largest inland city, Orlando in its infancy more resembled the Old West than the Old South-a frontier town born in the days of the Seminole Wars. The free-spirited early years of cattle ranching and cowboys on the palmetto prairie gave way to a series of booms throughout the city's history. Whether it was railroads, real estate, citrus, or tourism, Orlando has been a community able to cultivate growth through big dreams and an ambitious attitude.

A colorful look at a forgotten era of Florida tourism Filled with rare photographs, vintage postcards and advertisements, and fascinating writing from over 100 years ago, Florida's Healing Waters spotlights a little-known time in Florida history when tourists poured into the state in search of good health. Rick Kilby explores the Victorian belief that water caused healing and rehabilitation, tracing the history of "taking the waters" from its origins in the era of Enlightenment. Nineteenth-century Americans traveled from afar to bathe in the outdoors and soak up the warm climate of Florida. Here, with more than 1,000 freshwater springs, 1,300 miles of coastline, and 30,000 lakes, water was an abundant resource. Through the wealth of images in this book, Kilby shows how Florida's natural wonders were promoted and developed as restorative destinations for America's emerging upper class. The rapid growth in tourism infrastructure that began during the Gilded Age lasted well into the twentieth century, and Kilby explains how these now-lost resorts helped boost the economy of modern Florida. Today, these splendid health spas and elaborate bathing facilities have been lost, replaced by recreational amenities for a culture more about sun and fun than physical renewal. In this book, Kilby emphasizes the value of honoring and preserving the natural features of the state in the face of continual development. He reminds us that Florida's water is still a life-giving treasure.

This book chronicles a paddling expedition down the restored Kissimmee River, exploring the history and ecology of the region while highlighting the most successful restoration project of its kind in the world.