JUPITER FLORIDA

About Jupiter, Florida

Jupiter is a great place to live, it has so much to offer residents and visitors – in 2016 it was considered  one of America’s “Happiest Seaside Towns”. In addition to great weather and awesome beaches, the  business community is thriving too. Jupiter has strict building codes to limit building heights and controls noise levels. There are mid-century homes mixed in with mansions along the waterfronts and  out west there are large ranch homes catering to equestrian lovers. Each spring, Jupiter hosts major  league baseball spring training camps.

Loxahatchee River

The area where the Loxahatchee River flows out to the ocean has had human activity for thousands of  years. Native Americans lived in the area because of access to plenty of food sources on land and sea.  One of the earlier American settlers was the DuBois family, their homestead still exists at DuBois Park.
Jupiter Lighthouse, established in 1860, is the only lighthouse between Cape Canaveral and Hillsboro.  Until it was dredged and widened, a couple hundred years ago, the Jupiter Inlet was difficult to navigate  and frequently unusable.

Jupiter Parks

Sawfish Bay Park, along A1A, is a great place to learn and see some of Jupiter’s early history. In the 1800’s, this location was known as “West Jupiter” because Jupiter was closer to the ocean. West  Jupiter was the center of pioneer activity with the building of the FEC Railway Depot, a marina, general  store, hotel and the town’s first school, where children traveled to school in a “school boat”. These days  however, “west” Jupiter extends to the Jupiter Farms community, on the edge of the Everglades.

In the last 30 years, the area now known as Riverbend Park has expanded from a small swampy patch  where canoes were launched for paddling down the River of Turtles (a.k.a. Loxahatchee River) with  thousands of cypress trees, plants, turtles, birds and other native wildlife and vegetation. A visit to
Riverbend Park is highly recommended with almost 700 acres of trails to explore on foot, bike, horse, canoe or kayak.

Please plan a visit to the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary which cares for multiple wild animals that have been  injured in the state of Florida. According to their website, the sanctuary “provides free comprehensive medical and rehabilitative care to almost 5,000 injured wild animals each  year.” Their mission is to educate humans on the protection of wildlife in Florida; you can attend multiple programs and tours for free but a donation towards this cause is appropriate.