Starter chapter
Seeded from public sources. Members can add sourced detail. Corrections welcome under wiki-style rules — no fighting.
Miami’s story begins long before the modern city. The Miami River and Biscayne Bay were part of the homeland of the Tequesta and other Indigenous peoples, whose presence is reflected in archaeological places such as the Miami Circle. These are living histories as well as archaeological records, and cultural sites should be treated with care.
The modern municipality incorporated in 1896. Miami-Dade County’s history notes the city’s incorporation on July 28 of that year. The arrival of Henry Flagler’s railroad in the 1890s helped connect the growing settlement to other parts of Florida and supported rapid development. That growth brought opportunity and also reshaped land, communities, and labor. Miami has continued to grow through migration and the contributions of people from across the state, the Caribbean, Latin America, and beyond. A useful local-history question is not only “when was Miami founded?” but also “whose work and whose earlier history made this place?”