Books
Amelia's Gold
High-adventure historical fiction. A story of romance, ruin, resolve and redemption in the Civil War. As the Confederacy's hopes wane, young Amelia Beach finds herself escorting a shipment of family gold to safety in the neutral Bahamas. Crises ranging from sabotage to shipwreck compel Amelia to summon an undiscovered reservoir of courage and conviction.
La Florida
Spanish explorers landed in La Florida seeking treasure and converts to Catholicism. Instead, they discovered a fiercely proud Calusa kingdom that had endured longer than Spain itself. An historical novel true to actual dates and events, told from the perspectives of both combatants. (Winner of the Florida Historical Society’s Patrick Smith Award for best Florida fiction.)
The Faith and the Power
A documentary story of the first Christians and how they survived the madness of Rome in the first forty years after the crucifixion. A chronological account showing how early followers of “The Way” were influenced by their Roman, Jewish and Greek neighbors. How they laid the foundation for the next 2,000 years of Western civilization.
Winner of the Benjamin Franklin Silver Award for best book on religion, 2005
Life and Death on the Loxahatchee
Part biography, part murder mystery, the real-life legend of Vince “Trapper” Nelson still captivates people along Florida’s first official “Wild and Scenic” river. Trapper, hunter, alligator wrestler, woman charmer, host of his legendary “Zoo and Jungle Garden,” this real-life Tarzan’s life ended as mysteriously as he had lived it. Who would want to kill Trapper Nelson? Maybe Trapper himself.
Five Thousand Years on the Loxahatchee
A pictorial history of Jupiter-Tequesta, Florida (276 images). How a river spawned indigenous people to settle over 5,000 years ago and how a lone lighthouse became the foundation of a community now approaching 100,000 residents. Can a delicate watershed continue to tolerate the demands of those who come to share in its abundance?
Jonathan Dickinson
The struggle of a shipwrecked Quaker merchant as his party of survivors who made their way up Florida’s east coast amid cruel treatment by the hostile Indians they encountered along the way. Dickinson’s true story is intertwined with the struggle of both the native Americans and their colonial overlords to survive during the desperate dying days of Spanish Florida.
Black Gold and Silver Sands
A pictorial history of Palm Beach County, Florida (250 images) from the days when mules plowed the black muck in the western portion and growers lined the silvery coastal sands with pineapple plants. It’s the story of how, in just over a century, farmers overcame floods, frosts, disease, hurricanes and drought to build one of the nation’s largest the bustling agribusiness industry that today makes Palm Beach one of the nation’s leading agribusiness counties.
A Light in the Wilderness
The story of Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and the Southeast Florida frontier. With 75 rare photos, maps and letters, the book tells how today’s coastal strip of nearly 8 million residents began just a few generations ago when bears, panthers and alligators ruled the land. How an isolated lighthouse became a magnet for a succession of hunters, surveyors, Civil War blockade runners, Union gunboats and pioneer farmers.
A Trip Down the Loxahatchee
Imagine yourself taking a leisurely boat float down this centuries-old waterway. You’ll appreciate its mystery and majesty through more than 160 paintings and photographs. Fifty- two of the area’s leading artists combined their insight and imagination to show the river and its history in a kaleidoscope of styles and shades. Included are images of historic scenes never before depicted.