In 1521, Ponce was back with six heifers and a bull and by 1763, when Spain left Florida for Cuba, herds of horses and cattle were released before the English take-over. The first cowboys in America were in Florida and they were not the John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart types, but were Indians, blacks and descendants of the Spanish.

Florida's Spanish heritage is a long one, for instance, Florida was a part of Spain for nearly 300 years, much longer than it has been a part of the United States.

Florida has the oldest European history of any part of the United States. St. Augustine, founded in 1565, is older than Jamestown, Virginia (1607) or Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts (1620).

The United States purchased Florida from Spain in 1821, for five million dollars and made it the twenty-seventh state in 1845.

The oldest fortified structure in the nation, the Castillo de San Marcos, is in St. Augustine where the first Christmas was celebrated in the new land.

The first underground railroad ran south from  English plantations in South Carolina to St. Augustine where runaway black slaves risked their lives seeking sanctuary from the Spanish colonists. The African born refugees were granted freedom if they converted to Catholicism and fought in the black militia. The population had grown so large that a new town at the fort was established. Known as Fort Mose, it was the first free black community in North America.

The Second Seminole War in Florida was the longest, bloodiest and most costly Indian War in history. Forty million dollars was spent, more than during the American Revolution.

The first war fought over slavery in the United States, was the Second Seminole War, not the Civil War.

The three Seminole Wars cover over forty years, 1817 to 1858. During the Second Seminole War, 40,000 white soldiers fought 1,500 Seminoles with no clear-cut victory or final treaty. It was the only Indian war where the government used all its services, the army, navy and marines.