Dive into Florida’s long arc—from Paleoindian hunters and the shell-built Calusa world, through St. Augustine’s founding and the British interlude, to Seminole resistance, statehood, railroads, and the boom-and-bust storms that reshaped its cities. Along the way: civil-rights flashpoints, the Mariel wave, launchpads that sent crews to orbit, and the vast work to restore the Everglades. This is a fast, date-anchored narrative about how water, migration, and risk forged today’s Sunshine State.