Sarasota, Florida was not always the thriving urban community that residents know today.
This popular tourist destination on the Gulf Coast began its course of modern development with the Homestead Act of 1862 and a promise to the inhabitants of Scotland that the land awaiting them in Florida was one of "milk and honey where gold grew on trees." Little did the first settlers know that within a hundred years the deserted land they then called home would transform itself not only into a bustlin.
Sarasota, Florida was not always the thriving urban community that residents know today