History of Jupiter

The first "tourists" to the Jupiter area were 16th century Spanish explorers in search of treasure. The treasure they discovered was not gold, but golden sunshine, beautiful beaches and tranquil rivers in a lush tropical setting.

A tribe of Jeaga Indians called the Jobes lived on a high shell mound near the inlet in the 1500's. The Spaniards pronounced Jobes "Hoe-bay", and gave us the name Hobe Sound. Remains of the shell mound still exist where the Harry DuBois Home Museum is located at DuBois Park.

Jonathan Dickinson visited the area in 1696 when he was shipwrecked on Hobe Sound Beach. His ship , the Reformation, was on a voyage from Jamaica to Philadelphia when it was driven ashore in a hurricane. The state park that now bears his name was known as Camp Murphy during World War II and housed a radar training school.

The Seminole Indians remained in command of the area until the early 1800's. Their words for turtle, "Lowchow" and river "hatches'' formed the name of the Loxahatchee River.

Fort Jupiter Reservation was formed on 9,088 acres after the Seminole Indian War was fought on the Loxahatchee River in 1838. And in the Fort, between 1855 and 1859, was constructed one of the most famous and lasting landmarks in South Florida - the 105 foot Jupiter Lighthouse, which still warns ships of the dangerous coastal shoals.

The Lighthouse was darkened in 1861 by a band of Confederate sympathizers who dismantled and hid the light so Union ships could not spot the blockade runners. But in 1866, James Armour restored the light and it has only been darkened twice since that time. One two-hour period occurred when an intoxicated assistant forgot to turn the oil on, and during the 1928 hurricane, electrical power was shut off and an auxiliary diesel wouldn't start. Wind gusts reached 200 miles per hour during that hurricane, but Capt. Charles Seabrook, the keeper, could not allow the lighthouse to remain dark. He found the old oil lamps and because he was ill, his 16 year old son, Franklin, climbed the swaying tower to hand turn the mantle throughout one of the worst storms in Florida's recorded history.

Jupiter/Tequesta was famous as the transportation center of southeast Florida. It was a wilderness traveled by Indian River steamers, sailboats, scows and narrow gauge trains and floating hotels. President Grover Cleveland and his wife fished from a floating hotel tied at a dock across from the lighthouse.

Pioneer children attended school aboard a school boat. It was a double ended lifeboat from the U.S. battleship "Maine".

The Celestial Railroad operated from 1888 to 1896 and stopped at stations named Jupiter, Juno, Venus and Mars along the seven-and-a-half mile trip. It was dismantled when Henry Flagler brought his Florida East Coast Railroad to the area.

Pioneer life in the 1800's included pine and cypress logging, fishing, farming pineapples, citrus, dairy herds and flowers.

The census in 1890 gave a population of 861, but by 1910, the population had reached 17,510. Today the Jupiter/Tequesta population is about 50,000.