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The history of Bartow, Florida spans over 150 years, although humans have inhabited the area for close to 12,000 years. Established in 1851 by Redding Blount, the city has gone from being a small frontier outpost vulnerable to Seminole Indian attack to being the county seat of Polk County, a county with more than half a million people. Located near the geographic centers of both peninsular Florida and Polk County, Bartow has always been in the middle of the big changes which have taken place in Florida even though the city has always tried to maintain the status quo; located at the headwaters of the Peace River less than an hour from the bustling metropolises of Tampa and Orlando, Bartow has remained a small city in spite of the rapid growth around it. Ironically, Bartow may be on the verge of growing just as the rest of Florida's growth is starting to slow down. With the annexation of over 18,000 acres of former phosphate land owned by the Clear Creek Development Company, Bartow has more than quadrupled in size and is projected to triple in population within the next twenty years. There is an old Bartow saying that no town has produced more prominent people per capita since Jamestown.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 History of Bartow )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Bartow History )〕 That may be a point which is open to debate, but there is no doubt that Bartow has produced its share of prominent people in a myriad number of ways; Former Florida governor and U.S. senator Spessard Holland, controversial Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, Playboy Playmate Jaime Faith Edmondson, Tony-winning actress Karen Olivo, Winston Cup Stock Car Driver Rick Wilson, iconoclast Marshall Ledbetter, Pro Bowl linebacker Ray Lewis, motorcross legend Bubba Stewart, and three United States generals are among the people who were born in, raised in, or in some way have a connection with the ''City of Oaks and Azaleas.'' ==Pre-Columbian era to statehood == The physiographic history of the Florida peninsula is one of constant expansion and contraction. At various times in its history, the Florida peninsula has been a series of small island with only small slivers such as the ridges in Polk County above water, and other times a much wider peninsula than it is today. It was during a time when Florida was at its widest that the first paleo-indians probably arrived in the Bartow area as they followed big game such as woolly mammoth southward. At the time, the climate of the area was much different than it is today; cooler, drier- probably similar to that found in the British Isles today. The first Paleo-indians reached the central Florida area near the end of the last ice age, as they followed big game south.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Ancient Native )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Polk County History )〕 These first Floridians were hunters and small gatherers and left little impact on the area. As the ice melted and sea levels rose, these Indians gave way to the first Indians which set up permanent residence. These Indians thrived on the Florida peninsula for thousands of years and it is estimated that by the time the first Spanish conquistadors arrived, there were 250,000 Native Americans living on the Florida peninsula. Some of these first early tribes were the Tocobago, Timucua and the Calusa. In 1527, a Spanish map showed a settlement near the Rio de la Paz.〔〔 The arrival of the Spanish turned out to be disastrous to these Native American tribes. Within 150 years, the majority of the pre-Columbian Native American peoples of Florida had been wiped out. Those who had not succumbed to diseases such as Small Pox or Yellow Fever were either killed or enslaved.〔〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】 The Ancient Ones )〕 Little is left of these first Native Americans cultures in Polk County except for scant archeological records including a few personal artifacts and shell mounds. Eventually the remnants of these tribes would merge with Creek Indians who arrived from the north and become the Seminole Indian tribe.〔〔 Meanwhile, European powers were struggling to establish themselves on the Florida peninsula. The Spanish, French and British all gained and lost control over Florida before the United States finally gained permanent control of the peninsula in 1819. By this time, the Seminoles had established themselves on the peninsula and proved to be an impediment to white settlement of Florida. At first, the United States attempted to force the Seminoles onto a large reservation covering much of Central Florida, which included the land now part of present day Bartow. At the conclusion of the First Seminole War, the United States passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which attempted to remove most of the Seminoles to Oklahoma. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Bartow, Florida」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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