The small towns on the island vanished with the coming of the Space Age, and now only live on in the names of streets and historic churches. To this day, the northern portion of the island remains slightly less developed, with a few areas remaining as cattle pasture or citrus land. Construction of a barge canal to the Intracoastal Waterway from the Atlantic Ocean (for power plant oil shipments) cut off the northern half of the island for many years. The island's population grew in the 1950s and 1960s as the Space Race began and nearby NASA expanded.
Freed slaves constructed small towns in the area after the Civil War, including Haulover, Clifton, and Shiloh. Freezes destroyed the local pineapple industry in the late 1890s. The Indian River oranges and grapefruit come from this sandy area. Merritt Island's recent history dates back to the mid-19th century and centers on the growth of citrus, stressing the cultivation of pineapples and oranges. In 1837, Fort Ann was constructed on the east coast of Merritt Island near the present day Haulover Canal, to protect the area against the Seminoles. He reported discovering the flag or bigflower paw-paw, Asimina obovata ( Annona grandiflora (Bartr.)). He wrote a letter on April 24, 1788, from St Augustine. In April 1788, French botanist André Michaux traveled in Merritt Island, near Cape Canaveral. Remains of the plantation can be found in the Wildlife Refuge. In the 1760s, the Elliott Plantation grew sugar and milled it. Within a few years, all but a handful of these natives were dead from an epidemic that plagued the area after the arrival of a shipwrecked British merchant. Merritt Island is the prominent island on a color map he drew of the area, a copy of which is in the archives at the Library of Congress and the archives in Seville, Spain. He called the local tribe of Ais people, part of the native province of Ulumay. In 1605, Spanish explorer Álvaro Mexía visited while on a diplomatic mission to the local tribes living in the Indian River area. Their mounds populated the lagoon margin. īy at least 800 to 900 BC, permanent Native American structures occupied the area. This megafaunal extinction coincided roughly with the appearance of the big game hunting Clovis culture, and biochemical analyses have shown that Clovis tools were used in hunting camels. Possibilities for extinction include global climate change and hunting pressure from the arrival of the Clovis people, who were prolific hunters with distinct fluted stone tools which allowed for a spear to be attached to the stone tool. Their extinction was part of a larger North American die-off in which native horses, mastodons and other camelidaes also died out.
Pre-Columbian Īrchaeological excavations have uncovered the fossils of extinct animals such as mastodons, giant land tortoise, camel, glyptodont, horse, mammoth, giant armadillo, peccary, and tapir, which lived in the area up to 11,000 years ago. The entire island was part of a land grant given by the King to a nobleman named Merritt. Merritt Island owes its name to the King of Spain.
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