Why Cocoa Beach worked, the editorial premise
What this site covers: Cocoa Beach from Oceanus and the 1925 incorporation through the Air Force base next door, the space-age boom, the pier, the beach and its turtles.
Cocoa Beach began as Oceanus, a settlement of freed slaves after the Civil War, according to UCF’s RICHES archive. Cocoa men bought the land in 1888, Gus C. Edwards bought out his partners in 1923, and the town was incorporated on June 5, 1925. The Air Force base next door and then NASA nearly tripled it in the 1960s, from 3,475 people in 1960 to 9,952 in 1970.
This site covers that history: the founding, the base, the 1960s, the restaurants and motels, the pier, the hurricanes, the beach and its sea turtles, Kelly Slater, and the Astronauts Memorial.
It isn’t a news site or a travel guide. Corrections and pointers to primary records are welcome through the contact page.
Sources
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