Juno once county seat for early Dade County

 

Juno, an oceanside town about 14 miles north of today’s West Palm Beach, served as county seat for 7,200-square-mile Dade County from 1890 to 1900. Juno was the rail connection between north Florida and the southern part of the state. The line ran by the Indian River through Jupiter and southward.

Juno

Juno prospered in the 1890s until railroad builder (and Standard Oil cofounder) Henry Flagler refused to pay an exorbitant right-of-way fee demanded by a group of town landowners. Instead, at great expense, Flagler built his own rail line west of Juno and south to Palm Beach, sending this county seat into steep decline.

Current-day Juno Beach was incorporated in 1953 and again flourishes.

Copyright © 2010. Jane Feehan. 

  

Sources:
The Town of Juno Beach – Web site: http://www.juno-beach.fl.us
  Last Train to Paradise: Standiford, Les (New York, Crown Publishers, 2002), p. 78.

Tags: Juno Beach history, Dade County history, history of Juno Beach

Florida Gov. Kirk, a motorcycle gang and ... a tree nailing incident

Outlaws 1979
State Archives Florida/Thurston

By Jane Feehan 

It’s hard to believe driving through posh Juno Beach today that it was called home by some of the Outlaws motorcycle gang during the 1960s. 

Their hangout drew the personal attention of Florida Gov. Claude Kirk (1926-2011) who rose to the state’s highest office, in part, by claiming to be tough on crime. The flamboyant leader was also known for grabbing headlines for his antics, many unrelated to actual governing.

The Outlaws provided a good crime focus and photo op for the governor during November 1967. Gang members were arrested for allegedly nailing a 19-year-old woman to a tree in Juno. According to news accounts, she may have refused to turn a trick to hand over $10 to her “old man” or boyfriend. They nailed her (with her permission it was reported) to a tree branch with her toes barely touching the ground.

Afterward, news accounts say the cyclists dropped the woman off at a hospital and were thought to have stolen drugs. They were nabbed by police in a camp of trailers and cottages behind Kitty’s Saloon on U.S. Highway 1 in Juno.

The Florida Hotel and Restaurant Commission ordered the bar and camp closed calling it a public nuisance. Law enforcement then led a raid on the site to clean up ongoing gang activities. 

The owner of the saloon who also lived in the camp (and later was arrested on suspicion of running a prostitution ring), told reporters she was sure Gov. Kirk was present during the raid. “I guess you know I’m the governor,” the mysterious visitor told her, shaking her hand.  

He said he didn’t want any publicity.

Three weeks later, Kirk was at the closed Kitty’s Saloon with Palm Beach Sheriff William R. Heidtman to temporarily reopen it for a Life Magazine photographer. Kirk’s photo was taken as part of a story to be published by the magazine about the Outlaws. Also photographed was the saloon’s interior with the sign, "Cycles Rule - Surfers Drool."

Five members of the gang were tried for the nailing incident a year later, the news reported. The Outlaws continued to headline crime news in Florida for twenty more years.

Kirk served one term - 1967 until 1971. He was criticized for not attending to state business but national buzz during those years suggested he could have been tapped as Nixon’s vice-president. To his credit Claude Kirk is recognized as being Florida’s first environmental governor (Grunwald, Michael. The Swamp. New York: Simon & Schuster (2006). 

Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Palm Beach Post, Nov. 10, 1967

Miami News, Nov. 28, 1967

St. Petersburg Times, July 31, 1968

Tags: Juno Beach history, Gov. Kirk, Outlaw gang, Palm Beach history, Palm Beach County crime

Jupiter, the Florida town: How it got its name

By Jane Feehan

Jupiter, Florida was incorporated as a town in 1925. But long before that, the inlet and its surrounds were known by that name.

 
In the 18^th century, an Englishman interpreting a map drawn up by the Spanish during their first rule over Florida (1513-1763) read the name of a local Indian tribe who lived at the mouth of the Loxahatchee River. The Spanish called them Jove but they  were a bit off.

The name of nearby Hobe Sound is thought to be derived from how those Loxahatchee River Indian inhabitants referred to 

themselves.  The Spanish mistakenly referred to them as Jove.

Throw in some Latin, language of the educated those days, and the meaning of Jove is Jupiter, the god of thunder and sky and king of all gods in Roman mythology. 

Nearby Juno (about seven miles south) sprang up in the late 1800s (incorporated in 1953); its founders adopted the mythological name of Jupiter’s consort, Juno, for their town.

Who knew. A bit of Roman culture found its way into Florida history.

Sources: Town of Jupiter, Town of Juno Beach, Wikipedia

http://www.jupiter.fl.us

http://www.juno-beach.fl.us

http://www.wikipedia.org

Tags: How Jupiter got its name, how Jupiter got its name, Jupiter history,Juno Beach history