Flagler and a woman named Julia Tuttle stand at the center of the story: The importance of Flagler’s East Coast Railroad and Royal Palm Hotel led some residents to propose naming the city after him, and he is often depicted as the city’s “father.” Tuttle, a businesswoman who lured Flagler to Miami and otherwise promoted the region during the 1890s, earned the title of “Mother of Miami.” But Tuttle and Flagler did not create something out of nothing. This legend, repeated for more than a century, blends truth with fiction, and reminds us that history is as much about forgetting as it is about remembering. Onlookers marveled as the “metropolis” seemed to emerge overnight from the “wilderness.” Miami’s population boomed, from roughly 300 in 1896 to nearly 30,000 in 1920. From their vantage point, South Florida was the Wild West-and Miami could only exist if incoming settlers were able to tame it. Visitors from across the country were lured to this extravagant five-story hotel, at the edge of the nation’s southernmost frontier. Miami is widely known as the “Magic City.” It earned its nickname in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, shortly after the arrival of Henry Flagler’s East Coast Railroad and the opening of his opulent Royal Palm Hotel in 1897.
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