Visit Miami Beach

You may know that Miami Beach is in South Florida, but you may be less familiar with the Tequesta Indians, who discovered the region more than 10,000 years ago. Spain colonized Florida in the 16th Century and eventually ceded what was then East and West Florida to the United States in 1821 under the Adams–Onís Treaty. Enterprising wreckers from the Bahamas came to South Florida and the Keys in the early 19th Century to search for sunken treasure from the ill-fated voyages that ended along the treacherous Great Florida reef.

Bounded by year-round warm waters of the Atlantic and pristine Biscayne Bay, Miami Beach is a human-made treasure. Early pioneers like John S. Collins, Carl Fisher and John Newton Lummus, Sr., employed a combination of clever marketing, salesmanship and a little help from an elephant named Rosie to put Miami Beach on the map. The city’s reputation as America’s winter playground was cemented by the early 1900s and continues to this day.

During the Great Depression, Pan American Airways launched the era of modern aviation with its Flying Clipper service between Miami and Havana. Today, nearby PortMiami is considered the cruise capital of the world and Miami International Airport — with more than 90 airlines — has become America's busiest airport for international passengers and international freight. It offers more flights to Latin America and the Caribbean than any other U.S. airport.

A predominantly Jewish group of small hoteliers is credited with helping Miami Beach emerge from the Depression. The structures these entrepreneurs built would later form the basis of the city’s world-famous Art Deco Cultural District between lower Collins Avenue and Ocean Drive. You probably know it as South Beach.

Between 1942 and 1945 half a million members of the Army Air Corps passed through what some later referred to as the “most beautiful boot camp in America” on their way to far-flung corners of the world to fight for freedom during World War II.

Among those who spent time in Miami Beach during the war was screen legend Clark Gable. A number of the hotels on Miami Beach were converted into barracks in what was dubbed America’s most beautiful boot camp. A number of the young soldiers returned to live in Miami Beach after the war.

When Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1959, Cuban exiles poured into the Miami area, including Miami Beach. The ’60s and ’80s brought these new immigrants the promise of the American dream.

Entertainment productions like the popular “Miami Vice” TV show and major motion pictures during the 1980s and early ’90s brought a multi-billion dollar infusion of investment capital to Miami Beach. The city continues to thrive as it attracts new types of businesses in the financial technology sector, while still attracting great numbers of tourists who can’t wait to visit glamorous Miami Beach.