New Smyrna Beach, situated between Cape Canaveral to the south and Daytona Beach to the north, may be a part of Florida's "Space Coast," but the city is hardly "new," as its name suggests. The city's long history dates back to 1768, when a Scottish physician named Andrew Turnbull convinced London investors to finance an experimental Florida community that he called "New Smyrna."

The doctor recruited 1,400 indentured servants, mostly from the island of Minorca but also from Greece and Italy. He believed that these workers, already accustomed to a hot climate, would labor effectively in the fields of indigo, rice, cotton, and grapes that he planned for Florida. Turnbull transplanted 21,400 grape vine cuttings from around the Mediterranean for his New-World vineyards.

In less than a decade, however, British Governor Patrick Tonyn, Turnbull's political nemesis in Florida, dissolved the community. And the majority of the laborers relocated to St. Augustine. In the nineteenth century, the American Civil War brought stability and growth to New Smyrna, as almost 2,000 Confederate blockade runners found refuge in the region's complex system of rivers and bays. In the early twentieth century, the city became a stop on Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad, which linked central and south Florida to the rest of the country.

The city got its modern name "New Smyrna Beach" in 1937 when Coronado Beach and New Smyrna combined. Less than three decades later, the community entered the space age with the establishment of Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Today the city of New Smyrna Beach and its 24,000 residents savor the area's historical past while rocketing into the future.

The city boasts two historic districts, the New Smyrna Beach Historic District and the Coronado Historic District, and several museums, including the New Smyrna Museum of History, the Black Heritage Museum, and the neighboring Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse and Museum. Nearby Canaveral National Seashore has a massive Indian shell mound, known as Turtle Mound, which dates back some 1,200 years. The landscape around New Smyrna Beach is dotted with archaeological remains and standing ruins from 18th and 19th century plantations, including that of Dr. Andrew Turnbull, the Scottish physician who saw such great potential in this area of Florida.

This podcast was made possible through a grant from the Florida Humanities Council. Script written by Roger Smith. Narrated by Kevin Blackwater.