Editing Polk County, Florida (section)

==History==
{{unbalanced|date=February 2019}}
[[File:JamesKnoxPolk.png|right|thumb|U.S. President James Knox Polk, namesake of the county]]

===Early history===
The first people to inhabit the area now called Polk County were the [[Indigenous peoples of Florida#Paleoindians|Paleoindians]] who arrived in Florida at least 12,000 years ago, late in the [[Wisconsin Glaciation|last ice age]]. With large amounts of water locked up in continental ice caps, the sea level was more than {{convert|150|ft}} lower than at present. The Florida peninsula was twice as wide as it is today, and Florida was cooler and much drier, with few, if any, flowing rivers. Both animals and humans were dependent on scattered water holes, such as [[sinkhole]]s, deep holes in otherwise dry river beds, and rain-fed lakes perched on impervious clay. Most Paleoindian campsites found in Florida have been found at water holes. The largest collection of late (more than 9,500 years ago) Paleoindian [[microlith]]ic tools known from Florida were found in [[Lake Weohyakapka]], near [[Nalcrest, Florida|Nalcrest]] in Polk County.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Milanich|first=Jerald T.|title=Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida|publisher=University Press of Florida|year=1994|isbn=0-8130-1273-2|location=Gainesville, Florida|pages=37–41, 58}}</ref>

As sea levels rose and Florida became warmer and wetter, the Paleoindian period was followed by the [[Indigenous peoples of Florida#Archaic period|Archaic period]], which ended 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, with the emergence of recognizable [[Indigenous peoples of Florida#Post-Archaic period|archaeological cultures]] in Florida. In eastern Polk County, the [[Kissimmee River]] valley was occupied by people of the [[Belle Glade culture]], which persisted from about 3,000 years ago until the collapse of the Native American population in Florida after 1700. Native American people in western Polk County were part of, or influenced by, the [[Manasota culture]], which flourished from 2,500 years ago until around 800 AD, when it was replaced by the [[Safety Harbor culture]], from ''circa'' 800 until after 1700. The [[Peace River (Florida)|Peace River]] valley may have hosted a distinct culture during the Safety Harbor period.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Milanich|first=Jerald T.|title=Archaeology of Precolumbian Florida|publisher=University Press of Florida|year=1994|isbn=0-8130-1273-2|location=Gainesville, Florida|pages=105–109}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Luer|first=George M.|author2=Marion M. Almy |title=Temple Mounds of the Tampa Bay Area|journal=The Florida Anthropologist|date=September 1981|volume=34|issue=3|page=149|url=http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00027829/00017/6j|access-date=August 22, 2018}}</ref>

In 1539, [[Juan Ponce de León|Ponce De Leon]] sent a detachment (between 80 and 180 men) of his expedition from his landing place on [[Tampa Bay]] across northern Polk County to visit [[Urriparacoxi]], a powerful chief based in southern [[Lake County, Florida|Lake County]] or eastern [[Orange County, Florida|Orange County]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Milanich|first1=Jerald T.|last2=Hudson|first2=Charles|title=Hernando de Soto and the Indians of Florida|year=1993|publisher=University Press of Florida|location=Gainesville, Florida|isbn=0-8130-1170-1|pages=57–58}}</ref> [[History of Florida#European contact and aftermath|For the next 280 years]], the Spanish (and, between 1763 and 1783, the British) ruled Florida, but did not venture into the interior of the Florida peninsula south of the [[Oklawaha River]] valley ([[Acuera]] Province). The indigenous peoples of the Florida peninsula declined in numbers, and the people who became known as the [[Seminole#History|Seminole]] moved into central Florida.

===United States control===
{{main|History of Florida#Territory and Statehood}}
In 1821, Florida became a U.S. territory as a result of the [[Adams-Onis Treaty]]. In 1823, the [[Treaty of Moultrie Creek]] created a reservation in central Florida for the Seminoles and other Native Americans in Florida. What is now Polk County was within the boundaries of that reservation. An attempt to remove all Native Americans in Florida to west of the Mississippi River, starting in 1832, led to the [[Second Seminole War]]. Most of the fighting in the early years of the war occurred north of Polk County. By 1837, the Seminoles were being pushed south, and late that year, Colonel [[Zachary Taylor]], as part of a coordinated push against the Seminoles, led a column east from [[Fort Brooke]] (today's Tampa) into what is now Polk County, and then south between the Kissimmee and Peace River valleys, culminating in the [[Battle of Lake Okeechobee]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Missall|first1=John|last2=Missall|first2=Mary Lou|year=2004|title=The Seminole Wars: America's Longest Indian Conflict.|publisher=University Press of Florida|location=Gainesville, Florida|isbn=0-8130-2715-2|pages=138–142}}</ref> By 1843 the few Seminoles remaining in Florida were confined to an informal reservation in southern Florida.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mahon|first=John K.|author-link=John K. Mahon|year=1967|title=History of the Second Seminole War|publisher=University of Florida Press\location=Gainesville,Florida|pages=316–318}}</ref>

While Florida gained statehood in 1845, Polk County was not created until a month after Florida had seceded from the Union. It was formed from the eastern part of [[Hillsborough County, Florida|Hillsborough County]] and named in honor of former US President [[James K. Polk]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Publications of the Florida Historical Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZQ-AAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA33|year=1908|publisher=Florida Historical Society|page=33}}</ref> who had been popular with Southerners for supporting the expansion of slavery<ref name=":0" /> and whose 1845 inauguration was on the day after Florida became a state.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=Rousos|first=Rick|title=How Polk Got Its Name|url=https://bluetoad.com/publication/?i=293252&article_id=2419357}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Kline |first=Jeffrey |date=February 6, 2011 |title=Just Who Was James K. Polk? |url=https://www.theledger.com/article/LK/20110206/News/608072867/LL |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817035228/https://www.theledger.com/article/LK/20110206/News/608072867/LL |archive-date=17 Aug 2021 |access-date=August 16, 2021 |work=The Ledger}}</ref>

Following the Civil War, the county commission established the county seat on {{convert|120|acre|km2}} donated in the central part of the county. Bartow, the county seat, was named after [[Francis S. Bartow]], a Confederate colonel from Georgia who was the first Confederate brigade commander to die in battle. Colonel Bartow was buried in [[Savannah, Georgia]], with military honors, and promoted posthumously to the rank of brigadier general. The original name of the town was Fort Blount. Several other towns and counties in the South changed their names to Bartow to honor the brigade commander. The first courthouse built in Bartow was constructed in 1867.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} It was replaced twice, in 1884 and in 1908. As the third courthouse to stand on the site, the present structure houses the Polk County Historical Museum and Genealogical Library. After the Civil War, some 400 Confederate veterans settled here with families before the end of the century.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

===Post-Reconstruction era to World War II===
In the post-Reconstruction period, black railway workers were among the first African Americans to settle in Polk County, in 1883 south of Lake Wire. The following year, they founded St. John's Baptist Church, which also served as the first school for [[freedmen]]'s children. Other workers arrived for jobs in the phosphate industry. This area became the center of a predominately African-American community later known as Moorehead, after Rev. H.K. Moorehead, called to St. John's in 1906. The community developed its own businesses, professional class, and cultural institutions. Its students had to go to other cities for high school until 1928, when the first upper school to serve blacks was established here.<ref name="monument"/>

White violence rose against blacks in the late 19th century in a regionwide effort to establish and maintain [[white supremacy]] as Southern states [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised most blacks]] and imposed [[Jim Crow]]. Whites [[Lynchings in the United States|lynched]] 20 African Americans in Polk County from 1895 to 1921;<ref name="polk">[http://www.theledger.com/news/20180505/lynchings-klan-activity-part-of-polks-history Kimberly C. Moore, "Lynchings, Klan activity part of Polk’s history"], ''The Ledger'', May 7, 2018.</ref> Three black men, whose names were not recorded, were murdered in a mass lynching on May 25, 1895, accused of rape. While others were killed for alleged crimes (never proven), one black man was lynched for supposedly insulting a white woman. The man, Henry Scott, was a porter on a train from Lakeland to Bartow. While he was preparing a berth for one woman on May 20, 1920, another white woman became angry that he made her wait. She sent a telegram to the next station where he was met by a sheriff, arrested, and then turned over to a mob that shot him 40-50 times.<ref name="Henry Scott NYNW">{{cite news|title=Woman's Impatience Revealed as Cause of Porter's Death|publisher=New York Negro World|date=May 29, 1920|quote="The woman sent a telegram to the next station stating that Scott had insulted her. When the train stopped, Scott was removed by a deputy sheriff. From there the story followed the usual lynching pattern. A mob “over-powered” the sheriff and killed the Negro. The coroner’s jury returned the usual verdict, “Death at the hands of parties unknown.”"}}</ref> [[Columbia County, Florida|Columbia County]] also had 20 such lynching murders; these two counties had the second-highest total of lynchings of African Americans of any county in the state.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

In the first few decades of the 1900s, thousands of acres of land around Bartow were purchased by the [[phosphate]] industry. The county seat became the hub of the largest phosphate industry in the United States, attracting both immigrants and African-American and white workers from rural areas.<ref name="Polk's Profile"/>

Polk County was the leading citrus county in the United States for much of the 20th century, and even the county seat Bartow has had several large groves. In 1941, the city built an airport northeast of town in the county.<ref name="Airport History">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.bartow-airport.com/airhistory.htm
 |title=Airport History
 |access-date=September 12, 2010
|publisher=Bartow Municipal Airport
 |url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204060330/http://www.bartow-airport.com/airhistory.htm
 |archive-date=December 4, 2010
}}</ref> The airport was taken over by the federal government during [[World War II]] and was the training location for many [[United States Army Air Corps|Army Air Corps]] pilots during the war. The airport was returned to the city in 1967 and renamed as Bartow Municipal Airport.<ref name="Airport History"/>

===Mid-20th century to present===
In the 20th century, the [[Ku Klux Klan]] revived and was active in Polk County, even after World War II. Klansmen were photographed in hoods and robes in 1958 in a church in Mulberry. During the 1960s, violence related to civil-rights movement was attributed to the Klan. In 1967, a white man shot and severely wounded a popular African-American high-school football player who was integrating Lake Ariana Beach.<ref name="polk"/> A Klan group marched in Lakeland in full regalia in 1979, their last public march by the Confederate monument in Munn Park.<ref name="polk"/>

[[Fred Rochelle]], 16, was burned alive in a public spectacle lynching before thousands in Polk County, Florida, in 1901.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Cotter|first=Holland|date=June 1, 2018|title=A Memorial to the Lingering Horror of Lynching|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/arts/design/national-memorial-for-peace-and-justice-montgomery-alabama.html|access-date=June 9, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Since the late 20th century, growth in Polk County has been driven by its proximity to both the [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]] and [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]] metropolitan areas along the Interstate 4 corridor. Recent growth has been heaviest in Lakeland (closest to Tampa) and the northeast areas near [[Haines City, Florida|Haines City]] (nearest to Orlando). From 1990 to 2000, unincorporated areas grew 25%, while incorporated areas grew only 11%. In addition to cottage communities that have developed for commuters, Haines City has [[suburban sprawl]] into unincorporated areas. Despite the impressive growth rate, the unemployment rate of Polk has typically been higher than that of the entire state.<ref name="Unemployment Rate Polk County, FL">{{cite news|url=http://www.ledgerdata.com/unemployment|title=Unemployment Rate Polk County, FL|access-date=October 8, 2010|newspaper=The Ledger|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310085431/http://www.ledgerdata.com/unemployment| archive-date = March 10, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> For example, in August 2010, the county had an unemployment rate of 13.4%, compared to 11.7% for the entire state.<ref name="Unemployment Rate Polk County, FL"/>

During the [[2004 Atlantic hurricane season]], three hurricanes, [[Hurricane Charley|Charley]], [[Hurricane Frances|Frances]], and [[Hurricane Jeanne|Jeanne]], all tracked over Polk County, intersecting in a triangle that includes the city of Bartow.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2005/04/Bossakarticle.pdf|title="X" Marks the Spot: Florida, the 2004 Hurricane Bull's-Eye|last=Bossak|first=Brian H.|date=April 2005|work=Sound Waves|publisher=United States Geological Survey|access-date=March 26, 2010}}</ref>

[[Winter Haven, Florida|Winter Haven]] was best known as the home of the [[Cypress Gardens]] theme park, which operated from 1936 to September 23, 2009.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theledger.com/article/20091227/News/608119197|title=Cypress Gardens Closes Once Again; Its Future Is Uncertain|first=Gary|last=White|website=www.theledger.com|date=December 27, 2009|access-date=July 31, 2021}}</ref> [[Legoland Florida]] has since been built on the site of former Cypress Gardens, and has preserved the botanical garden section. Winter Haven was the location of the first [[Publix|Publix supermarket]] ''circa'' 1930; today, Publix's corporate offices are located in Lakeland.

In 2018, the Lakeland City Commission voted to move the Confederate monument from Munn Park, where it was installed in 1910, to Veterans Memorial Park. What is now Veterans Memorial Park was first settled in 1883 as the community of Moorehead, the original African-American community in the area. Owners were bought out in 1967 by eminent domain for county civic development of a conference center and the later Veterans Memorial Park. Some members of the black community have objected to the Confederate monument being relocated to the site of what had been their historic community in Lakeland, saying it would be more appropriate to be located in the cemetery with numerous Confederate graves.<ref name="monument">[http://www.theledger.com/news/20180505/confederate-vets-former-slaves-form-lakelands-history Kimberly C. Moore, "Confederate vets, former slaves form Lakeland’s history"], ''The Ledger'', May 9, 2018; accessed June 27, 2018.</ref>