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This was one of the US's last frontiers, its populations repeatedly devastated by disease and warfare. At the beginning of the 20th century, Dade County had fewer than 1,000 persons in an area stretching from Indian Key to the Jupiter Inlet, an area that now includes Monroe, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Then visionaries moved in and the world of south Florida would never be the same.

Julia Tuttle was one of those early visionaries, prophesying that a great city would arise and become a center of trade with South America and a gateway to all of the Americas. Across the river lived William and Mary Brickell, who had quickly established themselves as shrewd real estate investors. Julia asked her friend Henry Flagler to extend his railroad down to the old Fort Dallas area, but he said he wasn't interested. Then a freeze destroyed the crops farther north, and Julia was quick to point out to him that their crops were uninjured and continued to thrive. Flagler quickly changed his mind, and negotiated an exchange of prime real estate from Tuttle and the Brickell family for his railroad. He also laid the foundations for the new city of Miami and built a magnificent hotel near the confluence of the Miami River and Biscayne Bay.

In spite of all this, it still took the development of air conditioning systems to make the south Florida climate bearable for most people. Since that occurred, the population has grown to proportions that must exceed even the wildest visions of Julia Tuttle, Henry Flagler, and William and Mary Brickell. Make no mistake, Miami is here to stay!