Amelia Island
Amelia Island is just minutes by car from Jacksonville, Florida. But our serene island paradise can make you feel as if you've traveled half a world away. The calm of our beaches, our friendly residents, challenging golf courses, and the relaxed pace adopted by everyone who visits us.
Claimed by the French, fought for by the Spanish and named for an English Princess, Amelia Island has long been sought after. Families enjoying vacations, romantics looking for seclusion, nature lovers seeking adventure, even companies in search of inspiration, return year after year.
The island offers all types of accommodations from world-class resorts and charming bed and breakfast inns to beachfront villas and family-style hotels. A variety of restaurants and shops will meet the needs of the most discriminating traveler or budget-minded family.
After just one visit you'll agree that our 13 miles of beaches, extensive wildlife preserves, and our southern hospitality and charm make Amelia Island the best in Florida travel.
Amelia Island is the only territory in the United States to have been under eight flags of domination during the past five centuries. The island's development from the 16th century is best summed as "the French visited, the Spanish developed, the English named and the Americans tamed".
The seeds of the island's struggle were first planted in 1562 when Frenchman Jean Ribault stepped ashore on "Isle de Mai" (Island of May) and Europe began its coexistence with the Native Americans. Spanish rule followed with intent to Christianize the natives of the island until Spain swapped Florida for Havana with England . British loyalists then diligently established plantations for King George II and dubbed the island "Amelia," in honor of his daughter.
Amelia Island is locked in the charm and enchantment of the Victorian era thanks to Henry Flagler. One of America's premier industrialists, Flagler bypassed Amelia Island when he built his railroad and associated tourist hotels along Florida's East Coast. As a result, mass modernization bypassed the island; a disguised blessing that allowed Amelia to remain an authentic Victorian seaport village.
In the early 20th century, Amelia Island became the birthplace of the modern shrimping industry as innovators replaced rowboats and cast nets with power-driven seines and trawls. Today, nearly 80 percent of Florida's Atlantic White Shrimp are harvested in Amelia's waters and the Burbank Trawl Makers (locals call it the Net House) is still one of the world's largest producers of hand-sewn shrimp nets.
In the mid 1930's, the founders of Afro-American Life Insurance bought 200 acres on the southern end of Amelia Island. The 200 acres became known as American Beach, an oceanfront haven for African Americans during the Jim Crow era of segregation. In its heyday, homes, restaurants and nightclubs attracted the likes of Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and James Brown.
Today, approximately 100 homes remain from the 1940's and 1950's and American Beach is the first stop on Florida's Black Heritage Trail. Though its popularity faded with the advent of desegregation, today it remains a quiet beachfront community.
Island favorite historic activities are listed below:
Amelia Island Museum of History - The history of the Island of Eight Flags comes alive at Florida's only spoken history museum housed in the renovated 1935 county jail. The museum is complete with historical objects and archaeological finds. The museum also conducts walking tours of the historic district.
Amelia Island's 13 miles of scenic, white Appalachian Quartz Sand beaches are spectacular. Perfect for swimming, sunning and wildlife watching, our beaches are known for their beauty throughout the southeast. Amelia's sunrises along the island's peaceful shore framed by 40 foot dunes are an awe-inspiring sight you'll want to experience
Information compliments of http://www.ameliaisland.org/.