From literary giant Zora Neale Hurston, who spent her final years in Fort Pierce, to Governor Dan McCarty, the city has produced and harbored figures of national importance. Discover the pioneers, visionaries, and everyday citizens who shaped Fort Pierce history.
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The devastating 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane, the secret World War II training of the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams on Fort Pierce beaches, and the civil rights struggles that reshaped the city. These defining moments forged Fort Pierce’s character.
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Walk the streets of historic downtown Fort Pierce, gaze across the Indian River Lagoon, and visit the landmarks that tell the story of a city where Florida’s frontier past meets its coastal present. Every corner holds a chapter of history.
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Citrus groves once stretched to every horizon. Commercial fishing boats crowded the inlet. These industries didn’t just employ Fort Pierce — they defined it. Trace the economic forces that built the Sunrise City from the ground up.
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People
Before she was rediscovered as one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century, Zora Neale Hurston spent her final decade in Fort Pierce, Florida. She arrived in 1957, largely forgotten by the literary establishment, and took work as a substitute teacher at Lincoln Park Academy while continuing to write. Her years in Fort Pierce were marked by quiet determination and creative resilience, even as poverty and illness closed in. Today, a memorial garden, an annual festival, and a profound civic pride honor the woman who wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God in the voice of the Florida she knew so intimately.
Fort Pierce History · People
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Events
In 1943, the U.S. Navy chose the beaches of North Hutchinson Island near Fort Pierce as the training ground for its newly formed Underwater Demolition Teams. These elite swimmers would clear beach obstacles ahead of amphibious landings at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and across the Pacific. Their legacy endures as the direct ancestors of today’s Navy SEALs.
Events · World War II
Events
On the night of September 16, 1928, the most catastrophic hurricane in Florida history slammed into the Treasure Coast. Fort Pierce took a direct hit before the storm continued inland to Lake Okeechobee, where the ensuing flood killed an estimated 2,500 people. The storm reshaped policy, infrastructure, and memory across South Florida.
Events · Natural Disasters
Places
The blocks of downtown Fort Pierce contain some of the oldest commercial architecture on the Treasure Coast. From the 1908 P.P. Cobb building to the beautifully restored Sunrise Theatre, the historic district tells the story of a city that boomed with pineapples and citrus, weathered hurricanes, and reinvented itself for a new century.
Places · Architecture
Industries
By the 1920s, St. Lucie County was one of the leading citrus-producing regions in the state. Packing houses lined the railroad tracks in Fort Pierce, and the Indian River name became synonymous with premium oranges and grapefruit. The citrus industry shaped the city’s economy, demographics, and physical landscape for more than a century.
Industries · Agriculture
“Fort Pierce is where the real Florida begins — not the Florida of theme parks and cruise ships, but the Florida of working waterfronts, weathered docks, and families who have fished these waters for generations. It is a city built by the hands of those who harvested its land and sea.”
— The Fort Pierce Annals
People
Daniel Thomas McCarty grew up in the citrus groves of Fort Pierce and rose to become the 31st Governor of Florida in 1953. A decorated World War II veteran and tireless advocate for education and conservation, McCarty’s tragically short tenure left a lasting mark on the state.
People · Politics
Industries
Long before tourism arrived on the Treasure Coast, Fort Pierce was a fishing town. Commercial fishermen worked the Indian River Lagoon for mullet and the Atlantic for mackerel, snapper, and grouper. The Fort Pierce Inlet, completed in 1921, transformed the city into a major fishing port on Florida’s east coast.
Industries · Maritime
Places
The Indian River Lagoon stretches 156 miles along Florida’s east coast, and Fort Pierce sits at its heart. This biologically diverse estuary — home to more species than any other estuary in North America — has sustained human communities for thousands of years, from the Ais people to today’s fishermen and researchers. Learn more about this vital ecosystem at Treasure Coast Ecosystems.
Places · Natural History
Explore the Full Story of Fort Pierce
The Fort Pierce Annals is a growing collection of original, well-researched articles covering the people, events, places, and industries that have defined Fort Pierce, Florida, since its founding as a military outpost during the Second Seminole War in 1838. Fort Pierce history spans the frontier era, the great Florida land boom, the devastation of the 1928 hurricane, the secret military operations of World War II, the citrus and fishing booms, and the ongoing revitalization of its historic downtown.
Our sister publication, Saint Lucie History, covers the broader history of St. Lucie County, including the communities, landscapes, and events beyond Fort Pierce’s city limits.
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