PonceInletFL - History of Ponce Inlet

1513	Ponce De Leon explores Ponce Inlet area
1565	Spanish establish St. Augustine, and gain control of Florida, driving out the French.
1763	Spain loses Florida to English at end of French and Indian War.
1768	Dr Turnbbull settles a group of Greeks, Italians and Minorcans in the largest British colonial attempt in North America at New Smyrna.
1783	Turnbull County deserted by indentured settlers who go to St. Augustine.
1790	Spain attempts to settle outlands from St. Augustine, by use of land grants.
1803	Antonio Pons (Ponz or Ponce), a New Smyrna Minorcan, is granted 175 acres on the point where the lighthouse now stands, which he had been farming for 20 years.
1806	Antonio Pons is driven off by the Indians and moves to St. Augustine.
1812	Antonio Pons is killed while serving the King of Spain during the Patriots War, started by the Americans.
1820	Pons' widow receives an additional grant of 230 acres in return for her husband's service to Spain.
1821	Florida ceded to United States by Spain. Live oak lumbering began at Los Mosquitoes (Ponce de Leon Inlet).
1834	First lighthouse built on New Smyrna side of Inlet was destroyed by Indians and a storm.
1842	Bartola Pacetti, descendant of an Italian settler at New Smyrna builds a house of driftwood on fifty acres of Turnbull Grant of the north side of the Inlet.
1860	Mercedes Pacetti gains Ponce Grant from heirs through a tax sale.
1867	Florida Land and Lumber Company establishes the Village of Port Orange near the Ponce Grant . Postal stamp moved to Dunlawton Plantation, present site of that city.
1870	Congress appropriates $60,000 to secure a site and build a lighthouse.
1883	Ten acres purchased from Bartola Pacetti for $400 for lighthouse reservation site.
1884	Major ( formerly Brigadier General ) Orville Babcock, appointed engineer for building the lighthouse and who named the community Ponce ( Pons ) Park, drowns in the Inlet.
1887	Lighthouse goes into service on November 1st of this year.
1890	Nathaniel Hasty files Ponce Park subdivision plat. La Ponce Hotel built on the river shore.
1903	Bert Pacetti, son of Bartola, named Bird Preservation Warden of the Mosquitoe Inlet Sanctuary by President Theodore Roosevelt.
1926	Collapse of Florida Land Boom and work stops on Robert Pacetti's dream . . . "The Inlet Terrace Hotel and Subdivision."
1928	Name of Mosquito Inlet changed to Ponce de Leon Inlet.
1937	Coast Guard takes over U.S. Lighthouse Service and the lighthouse here.
1941	Families moved off lighthouse property with the outbreak of World War II.
1946	Electric power run to Inlet
1960	Hurricane Donna rips through Volusia County and Ponce Inlet with winds up to 100 mph. Electricity went out for 24 hours.
1963	Town of Ponce Inlet incorporated August 20th. First Town Council sworn in at the lighthouse office.
1964	Town leases lighthouse property for $1.00 per year from U.S. Government for a Town Hall.
1969	Water service brought to inlet by the Town.
1970	Light turned off and re-established in New Smyrna Beach across from the Inlet.
1971	First Ponce Inlet police car rolls into service on Good Friday night.
1972	Interior Department, U.S. Government, deeds lighthouse reservation to Ponce Inlet.
1975	Lighthouse open to public daily by preservation society.
1980	Ponce Inlet Government moves into new Town Hall.
1982	New light returned to tower and new balcony opened for public at top.
1999	Hurricane Irene rips through Volusia County and Ponce Inlet with winds up to 100 mph.~ Electricity went out for nearly three days.
2003	New Public Works facility is built at 4875 S. Peninsula, on the site of the old building.~ Dedication takes place November 21, 2003.
2004	Hurricanes Charley, Jeanne, Ivan, & Frances tear through Florida making this an unprecedented Hurricane Season.~ Power poles along Atlantic Avenue are snapped like tooth-picks, there is flooding, several homes are damaged and many trees are destroyed.~ Fortunately, no lives are lost here in Ponce Inlet.~
2005	Ponce Inlet Police Dept. earns State Accreditation.