The Treasure Coast is a region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is located on
the state's Atlantic coast, comprising Indian River, St. Lucie, and Martin, and
in some definitions, Palm Beach counties. The region, whose name refers
to the Spanish Treasure Fleet lost in a 1715 hurricane, evidently emerged from
residents' desire to separate themselves from Miami and the Gold Coast region.
The area includes two metropolitan statistical areas designated by the
Office of Management and Budget and used for statistical purposes by the Census
Bureau and other agencies: the Port St. Lucie, Florida Metropolitan Statistical
Area and the Sebastian – Vero Beach, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Palm Beach county is part of the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach, FL
Metropolitan Statistical Area. History
The area has long been inhabited, but like other of Florida's vernacular
regions, a popular identity for the area did not emerge until the area saw its
initial population boom in the 20th century. It is one of several "coast"
regions in Florida, like the Gold Coast and the First Coast. The term was coined
by John J. Schumann Jr. and Harry J. Schultz of the Vero Beach Press Journal
newspaper shortly after salvagers began recovering Spanish treasure off the
coast in 1961. The discovery of treasure from the 1715 Treasure Fleet, lost in a
hurricane near the Sebastian Inlet, was of major local importance and brought
international attention to the area. Press Journal publisher Shumann and
editor Schultz noted that there was no name for their area, which was between
the well known Gold Coast and the Space Coast. They started referring to their
region as the "Treasure Coast" in the newspaper, and this use spread to the
community. Though some local businesses were using
the term as early as 1966, it spread fairly slowly. The Miami Herald's 1972
Florida Almanac refers to the area from Miami to Vero Beach as the "Tropical
Coast". A 1982 survey of Florida's vernacular regions by geographers Ary J.
Lamme and Raymond K. Oldakowski did not include the "Treasure Coast". The survey
showed that the entire area from Dade County north to Martin County was
considered the "Gold Coast" at that time. However, a 2007 survey by the same
authors found that by then the "Gold Coast" was restricted primarily to
Miami-Dade and Broward counties, while the "Treasure Coast" region had emerged
describing the area from Palm Beach County northward. Lamme and Oldakowski
noted that by that time, "Gold Coast" had acquired some unflattering
connotations. They suggest the communities to the north may have seen
the need to distinguish themselves from the Gold Coast and Miami to promote
their locale as a destination for American tourists and residents,
contributing to the current popularity of the Treasure Coast as a vernacular
region. The Anthony J. Catanese Center for Urban
and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University notes that the
Treasure Coast is becoming increasingly continuous with the rest of South
Florida, with much of its current and projected development being tied to
growth in the urban Miami metropolitan area.
Area Lamme and Oldakowski found that the
Treasure Coast comprises the area from Palm Beach County north to the Space
Coast. They note, however, that Palm Beach County remains part of South
Florida and the Miami metropolitan area. The Treasure Coast Regional Planning
Council, based in Stuart, uses a similar definition and has jurisdiction over
these four counties. Other sources exclude Palm Beach County. A report by
the Anthony J. Catanese Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida
Atlantic University lists the Treasure Coast, including only Martin, St. Lucie,
and Indian River Counties, as a subregion of the wider South Florida
economic region. Metropolitan areas
The Treasure Coast includes two metropolitan statistical areas
designated by the Office of Management and Budget and used for statistical
purposes by the Census Bureau and other agencies. These are:
The Port St. Lucie, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, consisting of Martin
and St. Lucie counties. Port St. Lucie is designated as the principal city. The
two-county metropolitan statistical area was first defined in 1983 as the Fort
Pierce Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 1993, the MSA was renamed the Fort
Pierce-Port St. Lucie Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2006, Fort Pierce
was dropped as a principal city and the name was changed to its present form.
The Sebastian – Vero Beach, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is
coextensive with Indian River County. Sebastian and Vero Beach are designated
as the principal cities. Geography
All of the Treasure Coast is shielded from the Atlantic Ocean by narrow
sandbars and barrier islands that protect the shallow lagoons, rivers, and
bays. Immediately inland, pine and palmetto flatlands are abundant.
Numerous lakes and rivers run through the Treasure Coast, notably the well
known Indian River, a part of the Indian River Lagoon system. At certain seasons
of the year, bridges may impede the red drift algae flow, causing a "rotten egg"
hydrogen sulfide odor in the area. The Treasure Coast is also bordered by the
Atlantic portion of the Intracoastal Waterway, a stretch of closed water from
Brownsville, Texas to Boston, Massachusetts.
Communities A great amount of the Treasure Coast's
population is made up of census-designated places, with almost
all of these in Martin County and Indian River County. Only one city on the
Treasure Coast has a population of more than 100,000 inhabitants, which is Port
St. Lucie in St. Lucie County. Here is the classification of the places of the
Treasure Coast. C for city, T for town. = Place with more than 100,000
inhabitants= Port St. Lucie pop. 174,110 C
= Places with 10,000 to 50,000 inhabitants=
Fort Pierce pop. 43,601 C Sebastian pop. 23,344 C
Stuart pop. 16,197 C Vero Beach pop. 16,017 C
= Place with 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants=
Fellsmere pop. 5,439 C = Places with 1,000 to 5,000
inhabitants= Indian River Shores pop. 4,075 T
Sewall's Point pop. 2,100 T = Census-desigated places=
Palm City pop. 23,120 Vero Beach South pop. 23,092
Jensen Beach pop. 11,707 Hobe Sound pop. 11,521
Lakewood Park pop. 10,458 Port Salerno pop. 10,091
Gifford pop. 9,590 Fort Pierce North pop. 6,474
Indian River Estates pop. 6,220 River Park pop. 5,222
Fort Pierce South pop. 5,062 White City pop. 3,719
North River Shores pop. 3,101 Notes
References "The storm that gave the Treasure Coast
its name". The Miami Herald. June 10, 1996. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
Anthony J. Catanese Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida
Atlantic University. "Charting the Course: Where is South Florida
Heading?". Florida Atlantic University. Retrieved March 27, 2012.
Lamme, Ary J.; Oldakowski, Raymond K.. "Spinning a New Geography of Vernacular
Regional Identity: Florida in the Twenty-First Century". Southeastern
Geographer 47: 320–340. doi:10.1353/sgo.2007.0029.
Tyler Treadway. "Who came up with the 'Treasure Coast' name?". tcpalm.com.
Retrieved March 27, 2012. Further reading
Sharon Lloyd Spence. Florida's Palm Beaches & the Treasure Coast. Hunter
Publishing, 2007. ISBN 1-58843-831-7 Rand McNally. Champion Map Space and
Treasure Coast Cities. 2010. A guide to the Space and Treasure Coast cities.
ISBN 0-528-88232-5 Sandra Henderson Thurlow. Sewall's
Point: The History of a Peninsular Community on Florida's Treasure Coast.
1992. ISBN 0-9630788-0-1 William E. McGoun. Southeast Florida
Pioneers: The Palm and Treasure Coasts. A resource relating the history of the
region. 1998. ISBN 1-56164-157-X