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History of the Sebastian River Area Indian River County and the Treasure Coast 
Sabal palms, live oaks, egrets, pelicans, a river, a lagoon, a seashore - the abundant natural beauties of
Sebastian are in large part why people move here.
Most of early Sebastian was built on land between a river and a lagoon. And it was the proximity of those bodies of water that made the place so attractive to the early settlers. The St. Sebastian River is a freshwater tributary, fed by rainfall and by smaller creeks and rivulets that drain the land between the Atlantic Sand Ridge, which runs more or less parallel to the present day location of US 1 and the Florida East Coast Railway. With prongs running to the north and south, the river drains the basin between those sand ridges. It is the principal tributary of the Indian River lagoon in the Sebastian area. A western prong of the river, which existed when the area was settled, became part of the C54 drainage canal. The Indian River lagoon forms the eastern border of the Sebastian area, and the St. Sebastian River forms the western boundary. 
More than any other event, it was the sinking of the 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet off the coast of Florida that
gave the Treasure Coast its name. A fleet of twelve ships left Havana, heavy laden with Spanish treasure and
was driven into the Florida coast by a hurricane between the St. Lucie and Sebastian Inlets. In 1988, not far
from the Sebastian Inlet, treasure hunters found an estimated $300,000 in pieces of eight, jewelry and other
artifact that had been waiting on the bottom since 1715.
The first settlements in Sebastian date back to the 1880's when 40 pioneers migrated to a village south of the
St. Sebastian River. By the time of the "Gay Nineties" not only Sebastian but Roseland as well had a post office.
With the arrival of Flagler's locomotives along with the development of icehouses for pack, commercial fishing
became a stronghold in Sebastian. Fishing of the subsistence and recreational varieties had flourished in the area
since the time of the Ais Indians. It didn't take long for the fishing business to expand. Sebastian had begun to
emerge as a small fishing village by the end of the century. One of the original commercial fishing families,
Archie Smith and Bascomb Judah still operate from their original fish house located on Indian River Drive.
America's entire National Wildlife Refuge System was first established in Sebastian in 1903, when President Teddy
Roosevelt agreed to protect pelicans and other birds in a sanctuary known as Pelican Island by signing an order
making it the first Wildlife Refuge in the country.
The City of Fellsmere, to the west of Sebastian, enjoys a rich history. Noted as the first city to allow women to vote south of the Mason-Dixon line after the reconstruction and the first in offering the convenience of packaged sugar in the state. Within Indian River County, Fellsmere boasts the first library, the Marian Fell Library, still here today, and the Town of Fellsmere Subdivision, as the first Master Planned Community. Also the first hotel, public school and railroad depot were built in Fellsmere. 
 ©2010 Sebastian River Area Chamber of Commerce.   |
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