68 Fun Facts About Central Florida

Which nickname did Orlando adopt in 1908, long before Orlando became a theme-park capital?

The City Beautiful: resident Jessie Branch suggested it in 1908, when the mayor's beautification drive asked for a motto to replace 'The Phenomenal City'.

Which 1838 Seminole Wars army post, built just south of today's city limits, marks the start of Orlando's history?

Fort Gatlin was built in 1838 just south of present-day Orlando during the Second Seminole War; the settlement that grew around it, first called Jernigan, was renamed Orlando in 1857.

In one account of how Orlando got its name, Judge James Speer chose a character from which Shakespeare play?

As You Like It: its hero is named Orlando. A rival legend credits a sentry called Orlando Reeves, but historians doubt any such soldier existed.

Orlando International Airport's code is MCO because the airport was built on the site of what?

McCoy Air Force Base: the bomber base was named for Colonel Michael McCoy, killed in a B-47 crash near Orlando, and the airport kept its code when the Air Force left.

Rollins College, founded in 1885, is in which Central Florida city?

Winter Park: each spring Rollins's president sets out a fox statue early one morning and cancels classes, a surprise holiday known as Fox Day.

Which aerospace giant, under an earlier name, set up a missile plant in Orlando in the 1950s?

Lockheed Martin: its forerunner, the Martin Company, was building missiles in Orlando years before Disney announced its park, and the company still makes them there.

Under what name was the University of Central Florida founded in 1963?

It was founded as Florida Technological University in 1963 to supply engineers for the space program, opened for classes in 1968, and took the UCF name in 1978.

What mythological creature appears on the University of Central Florida's official seal?

Pegasus: founding president Charles Millican helped design the seal, and the teams became the Knights of Pegasus after a spell as the Citronaut, an orange-astronaut hybrid.

Which Walt Disney World hotel, opened in 1971, has a monorail running through it?

Contemporary Resort: its rooms were built elsewhere, almost fully furnished, then slid into the hotel's steel frame by crane.

Why did Disney buy more than 27,000 acres of Central Florida through dummy corporations in the 1960s?

To keep land prices low: the secret held until an Orlando Sentinel reporter worked out who the mystery buyer was in 1965, forcing an early announcement.

Who insisted the Florida resort be named 'Walt Disney World' as a tribute to its late creator?

His brother Roy: Roy Disney put off retiring to finish the resort after Walt died, presided at the opening in October 1971 and died that December.

What new name did state lawmakers give in 2023 to the body that governs Walt Disney World's land?

The Reedy Creek Improvement District, created in 1967, became the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District in 2023 under a state-appointed board, ending the company's county-level self-government.

Which Walt Disney World park was the resort's only theme park for its first eleven years?

Magic Kingdom: Florida's high water table meant its service tunnels had to be built at ground level, so the park guests walk through is really the second floor.

EPCOT, which opened in 1982, is an acronym for what?

EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow; Walt Disney pitched it as a real working city with residents and industry, but what opened in 1982 was a permanent world's fair instead.

EPCOT's Spaceship Earth takes its name from a phrase popularized by which 1960s thinker?

Buckminster Fuller: he also championed the geodesic dome, the structure behind the ride's giant sphere, and author Ray Bradbury helped shape its story.

Which children's TV network opened studios at Universal Studios Florida in 1990?

Nickelodeon: young tourists became the contestants and audiences for its shows there, until production moved to California and the studio closed in 2005.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter debuted in 2010 at which Universal Orlando park?

Hogsmeade opened at Islands of Adventure in June 2010; Diagon Alley followed at neighboring Universal Studios Florida in 2014, with the Hogwarts Express linking the two parks.

Kennedy Space Center sits on which Florida island?

Merritt: the space center doubles as a 140,000-acre wildlife refuge laid over NASA's land, and bald eagles nest inside its gates.

Cape Canaveral's name comes from Spanish for a place of what?

Cane: Spanish explorers named the cape in the 1500s, and Floridians had the old name restored ten years after it was renamed for President Kennedy.

Which company took over Launch Pad 39A, where Apollo 11 lifted off, under a lease signed in 2014?

SpaceX: four years later it launched the first Falcon Heavy from the pad, sending a Tesla Roadster out toward the orbit of Mars.

How long does it take to open one of the Vehicle Assembly Building's high-bay doors?

Each VAB high-bay door is 456 feet tall and takes about 45 minutes to open fully, so a stacked Saturn V or Space Shuttle could roll out to the pad on the crawler-transporter.

What was painted 209 feet tall on the side of NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building in 1976?

An American flag: it was added for the Bicentennial, and workers repainted it after the 2004 hurricanes tore panels off the building.

Which telephone area code serves Florida's Space Coast around Cape Canaveral?

321: local resident Robert Osband spotted that the code was unused and petitioned for it because it reads like a launch countdown.

Which 1960s sitcom was set in Cocoa Beach on Florida's Space Coast?

I Dream of Jeannie: its hero was an astronaut, and although the show was filmed in California, Cocoa Beach still named a street I Dream of Jeannie Lane.

What is the longest stretch of undeveloped land on Florida's East Coast, 24 miles from Volusia County to Titusville?

Canaveral National Seashore, created by Congress in 1975, protects 24 miles of beach and much of Mosquito Lagoon; from its southern beach you can watch rockets climb out of Kennedy Space Center.

Who built Daytona International Speedway, which opened in 1959?

Bill France Sr.: the NASCAR founder wanted a permanent home for the race crowds, because hotels were crowding the old course on the beach sand and Highway A1A.

How was the first Daytona 500, run in 1959, finally decided?

A three-day photo-finish review: Johnny Beauchamp was waved into victory lane, but photographs and newsreel film showed Lee Petty had edged him.

Which British driver set a land speed record of 276 mph on the sands of Daytona Beach in 1935?

Malcolm Campbell: the uneven sand cost his car Blue Bird grip, so he took it to Utah's salt flats that year, passed 300 mph, and the record chasers never returned to Daytona.

Which 175-foot lighthouse just south of Daytona Beach is the tallest in Florida?

Ponce de Leon Inlet Light: writer Stephen Crane steered a lifeboat toward it after an 1897 shipwreck, the ordeal he turned into 'The Open Boat'.

Which Volusia County surf town has been dubbed the "shark attack capital of the world"?

New Smyrna Beach: the bites are frequent but rarely serious. Its county logged 94 of them from 2012 to 2021, and not one was fatal.

Andrew Turnbull's 1768 colony on the Volusia coast drew most of its settlers from which Mediterranean island?

Menorca: the colony failed through disease and harsh treatment, and in 1777 the survivors marched north to St. Augustine, where Florida's Minorcan community took root.

Which Volusia County Spiritualist community is known as the 'Psychic Capital of the World'?

Cassadaga: medium George Colby said a spirit guide named Seneca sent him south to Florida, and the camp borrowed its name from a village beside a Spiritualist retreat in New York.

Which animals crowd into the warm spring run at Blue Spring State Park, off the St. Johns River, each winter?

Manatees: the spring stays warm all year, so they swim in from the chillier river, where water below about 68 degrees can kill them.

Which 1946 film was shot on location in the Ocala National Forest?

The Yearling: MGM's first attempt, with Spencer Tracy, was shut down by troubles on location in Florida, so the studio started again years later with Gregory Peck.

Which animal's Florida population is most concentrated in the Ocala National Forest?

Black bear: Florida's bears fell to an estimated low of about 300 in the 1970s, then recovered to more than 4,000 by 2015, with the largest group around Ocala.

Silver Springs, near Ocala, pioneered which tourist attraction in the 1870s?

Glass-bottom boats: in 1878 Hullam Jones set a glass viewing box into a dugout canoe so tourists could look down into the clear springs, and the tours still run.

Which non-native animals have lived wild at Silver Springs since a tour-boat operator released them in the 1930s?

Rhesus macaques: 'Colonel Tooey' put them on a river island for his Jungle Cruise, apparently unaware that they swim well, and they soon spread along the banks.

Which TV series shot underwater scenes at Silver Springs?

Sea Hunt: Lloyd Bridges played scuba diver Mike Nelson in a show the big networks passed on, so it was sold straight to local stations and ran from 1958 to 1961.

Which age-restricted community northwest of Orlando grew from a mobile-home park to span parts of three counties?

The Villages: founder Harold Schwartz sold Florida lots by mail until a 1968 federal law banned it, so he built a mobile-home park on the land he was left holding.

Which Florida spring became famous for live underwater 'mermaid' shows, first staged in the 1940s?

Weeki Wachee Springs: stunt swimmer Newt Perry taught the performers to breathe from air hoses, and audiences watched through windows in a theater sunk into the spring's rock.

Which president dedicated Bok Tower, the "Singing Tower" near Lake Wales, in February 1929?

Calvin Coolidge: Ladies' Home Journal editor Edward Bok built the tower near his winter home, died less than a year after the dedication and was buried at its foot.

At Spook Hill in Lake Wales, cars left in neutral at the marked spot appear to do what?

Roll uphill: the lie of the land hides the true horizon, so a gentle downhill slope looks like a climb, an illusion known as a gravity hill.

What is the highest point on the Florida peninsula, a 312-foot rise in Lake County?

Sugarloaf Mountain: at 312 feet it tops the peninsula, though Florida's true summit, Britton Hill in the Panhandle, is itself the lowest high point of any US state.

A 226-foot observation tower was built in Clermont in 1956 so visitors could do what?

The Citrus Tower opened in 1956 so visitors could look out over miles of orange groves; the Turnpike diverted tourists in 1964, and 1980s freezes killed most of the groves around Clermont.

Mount Dora, in Lake County, is known for which landmark in Grantham Point Park?

A lighthouse: one of the few inland lighthouses in Florida, it stands beside Lake Dora and was built to represent the 'Port of Mount Dora'.

Lakeland's swans on Lake Morton descend from royal birds sent in 1957 by whom?

Queen Elizabeth II: alligators and pets had wiped out Lakeland's swans by 1954, so a resident wrote to the Queen, who let royal swans be captured for the city.

Which supermarket chain is based in Lakeland, where it is also the largest employer?

Publix: George Jenkins left his job managing a Piggly Wiggly to open the first store in Winter Haven in 1930, and moved the headquarters to Lakeland in 1951.

Which MLB team first came to Lakeland for spring training in 1934 and still trains there?

Detroit Tigers: their ballpark stands on the site of a wartime flight school, which is why their Lakeland farm club is called the Flying Tigers.

Florida Southern College holds the largest single-site collection of buildings by which architect?

Frank Lloyd Wright: money was so short that students built the first buildings themselves, trading shifts on site for part of their tuition.

Legoland Florida opened in 2011 on the site of which classic attraction, billed as Florida's first theme park?

Cypress Gardens: Dick Pope Sr. opened it in 1936 and made it famous for water-ski shows and Southern Belles, and Legoland kept its botanical garden and a ski show.

Which 1887-incorporated town near Orlando was one of America's first self-governing all-Black municipalities?

Eatonville, incorporated in 1887, was where Zora Neale Hurston grew up; she set much of Their Eyes Were Watching God there, and the town honors her with the annual Zora! Festival each winter.

The Morse Museum in Winter Park holds the world's most comprehensive collection of which American designer?

The Morse Museum, founded by Jeannette Genius McKean in 1942, holds the world's most comprehensive Louis Comfort Tiffany collection, including leaded-glass windows rescued from his fire-ruined Long Island estate, Laurelton Hall.

The Monument of States, a 1943 pyramid of stones sent from every US state, stands in which Central Florida city?

Kissimmee: physician Charles Bressler-Pettis built it after Pearl Harbor as a symbol of unity, and the city later changed its burial rules so part of his remains could be sealed inside.

Gatorland's alligators doubled as crocodiles in which 1984 adventure film?

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: a second unit filmed at the park's breeding marsh, and its alligators played the crocodiles in the river below the rope bridge.

Which future Hall of Famer did the Orlando Magic take with the first overall pick of the 1992 NBA draft?

The Magic, an expansion team that began play in 1989, took Shaquille O'Neal first overall in 1992; three years later he led them to the 1995 NBA Finals, a sweep by Houston.

Amtrak's Auto Train runs from Lorton, Virginia to which Central Florida town?

Sanford: the train is about three-quarters of a mile long, so long that it has to be loaded on two separate tracks at the station.

Which privately owned railroad began running fast passenger trains between Miami and Orlando in 2023?

Brightline: it was briefly rebranded Virgin Trains USA, but the deal collapsed in 2020 and a court later awarded Virgin $115 million over the split.

Wekiwa Springs State Park takes its name from a word in which language, meaning "spring"?

Creek: Wekiwa means a spring of water, and the river it feeds, spelled Wekiva, was protected by Congress in 2000 as a National Wild and Scenic River.

Florida's Bone Valley region south of Lakeland is mined for which mineral?

Phosphate was found here in 1881 by an Army engineer surveying the Peace River for a canal, but his find drew little attention and mining only began later in the decade.

Central Florida is often referred to as the U.S. capital of which kind of weather?

Thunderstorms build on summer afternoons because sea breezes from the Gulf and the Atlantic collide over the peninsula; the lightning they bring also earned the region the nickname Lightning Alley.

Which businessman financed the 1880s canals dug to drain Central Florida's wetlands for settlers?

Hamilton Disston, heir to a Philadelphia saw works, bought four million acres from Florida in 1881 at 25 cents an acre; the state sold because its land fund was deep in debt and needed the cash.

Which nickname did the Lake Monroe port north of Orlando earn for shipping farm produce?

Celery City: after freezing weather wrecked the port's citrus trade, its growers turned to celery, which became the region's dominant crop.

Which Osceola County town was planned by the Walt Disney Company and welcomed its first residents in 1996?

Celebration was developed by a Disney subsidiary beside Walt Disney World, and its first residents moved in during summer 1996; Disney then sold the town centre to a private investment firm in 2004.

Which three hurricanes struck Central Florida during the 2004 season?

Charley, Frances and Jeanne: Charley crossed from the Gulf coast and was still a hurricane when it reached Orlando, then Frances and Jeanne came ashore on the same barrier island three weeks apart.

Which Volusia County city became the northern end of the SunRail commuter line in 2024?

DeLand was planned as SunRail's northern terminus from the start, yet trains only reached it in August 2024, ten years after the commuter line began running.

Which lake northwest of Orlando was a famed bass-fishing destination before farm runoff degraded it?

Lake Apopka once drew bass anglers from across the country; decades of runoff from the muck farms on its north shore turned it green and shut its fish camps, and in 1996 the state began buying the farms out.

Which county was carved out of northern Orange County in 1913?

Seminole County was split from the north of Orange County in 1913; Orange had itself been called Mosquito County until 1845, when it was renamed for the fruit it grew.

Which seafood restaurant chain began as a single restaurant opened in Lakeland in 1968?

Red Lobster started as one Lakeland restaurant opened by Bill Darden in 1968; General Mills bought the young chain two years later and turned it into a national name.