West Palm Celebration
by Karen Wiles
Title
West Palm Celebration
Artist
Karen Wiles
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
WEST PALM CELEBRATION by KAREN WILES
Like a fourth of July fireworks celebration, the blooming palm trees of West Palm Beach celebrate the season with a burst of orange blooms igniting the trees with a fiery display of dynamic color and beauty! The trees are the reason, or rather their coconuts were the reason West Palm was named after it's gorgeous landscape of trees that so vividly dot the beautiful coast of West Palm Beach, Florida!
In January of 1878, the brig Providencia was bound from Trinidad to Cadiz, Spain. Its cargo contained about 20,000 coconuts.
It turned out the sailors had dipped into the grog a bit during the voyage. So when the ship grounded on the coast of what is now Palm Beach, the tipsy crew thought it had landed in Mexico.
Once they realized where they were, they decided the ship could not go on with its cargo.
The few local residents who lived in the "lake region" know at the time rushed to meet the newly landed ship.
“I was greeted by the mate of the vessel, with a bottle of wine and a box of cigars, as a sort of olive branch,” pioneer Will Lanehart wrote. “There were 20,000 coconuts, and they seemed like a godsend to the people. For several weeks, everyone was eating coconuts and happily drinking wine.”
Lanehart and fellow pioneer H.F. Hammon took the nuts as salvage and sold them for 2 1/2 cents each. Within a decade, the area was filled with palm trees, and the island had a new name, which we now know today as West Palm Beach!
Uploaded
August 22nd, 2016
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