Orlando, Florida City Guide
For over 20 years, Pamela Lanier's Orlando, Florida Travel Guide has been your connection to Orlando's tourism community with invaluable details on local attractions, restaurants, shopping, museums, history, outdoor recreation and more.
Orlando History
 In 1838 during the peak of the Seminole War, the U.S. Army built Fort Gatlin near present-day Orlando. Within two years a community around the Fort began forming and called itself Jernigan after a local family. By 1850, Jernigan established a post office and within six years had changed its name to Orlando. The town of Orlando was officially incorporated in 1857. Many stories are told about why the community of Jernigan changed its name to Orlando, with one story pertaining to a Judge naming the town after a man who once worked for him or instead naming the town after a character from Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It.” The most common story involves a soldier named Orlando Reeves guarding his camp near Lake Cherokee during the Seminole War. He saw a log floating downriver and thinking it was an Indian disguise, he fired his gun as a warning to fellow soldiers. Indians ambushed the soldier, and Orlando Reeves’s friends later buried him on the south side of Lake Eola. Today, the city of Orlando thrives as a bed and breakfast vacation paradise complete with world-class restaurants, thrilling theme parks, sublime outdoor adventures, sensational shopping, and much more! |
