Osceola County

The Curtis portrait is said to be the best likeness of Osceola.

During Taylor's 1837 campaign, there is mention of a large island on Lake Kissimmee with an Indian mound and Seminole villages on it. This would probably be what is today known as Brahma Island.

Cypress Island: (No longer open) was a wildlife attraction in the early and mid-1990's that fell victim to the Disney monster. The Island is 132 acres in the middle of Lake Tohopekaliga. Roaming free on the island were wild ponies, Emu birds, Llamas, and various other exotic animals. In 1998 the owner tried to auction off the land to pay for expenses, where it would become 5 acre plots of expensive homes. The auction didn't happen, and instead the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission purchased it as environmentally sensitive land in 1999.

Coacoochee (Wildcat) by John T. Sprague.

Chief Wildcat, also know as Coacoochee, was born on Cypress Island on Lake Tohopekaliga around 1807. Also known as Makinson Island. He was a Miccosukee Indian; son of King Philip (Emathla), and nephew of Micanopy. A large village was on this island, but was abandoned by the time Colonel Taylor came through in 1837.

Seminole War Forts: Fort Taylor.

On January 12, 1852, Aaron Jernigan, a settler who moved to the area of Fort Gatlin, (what is today Orlando) led a posse of local cowboys on a hunt for Seminoles. They found a Seminole village around Lake Tohopekaliga and killed some of the people they found there. There is no evidence that the Seminoles were causing any trouble or making raids. As far as we know, they were living peacefully until Jernigan and his hoodlums came to kill them. Jernigan's group also killed some of the Indian livestock and took 120 hogs. Several of the local citizens complained to the Governor Thomas Brown, but he was a friend of Jernigan and defended him. Governor Brown said that the Seminoles should not have been that far north of the defined reservation boundary, and that if the Indians had livestock, it must have all been stolen.

During the Third Seminole War, Aaron Jernigan's behavior caused him to be removed as the militia commander of the area. There was a new governor, James E. Broome, who would not save Jernigan this time. Jernigan was always in a state of drunkenness. Complaints reached Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, who had the governor relieve Jernigan of command on charges of alcoholism and neglect of duty.

Many Seminoles came to trade as far north as the town of Kissimmee during the late 19th century.

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