Emerging as Florida's largest inland city, Orlando in its infancy more resembled the Old West than the Old South-a frontier town born in the days of the Seminole Wars. The free-spirited early years of cattle ranching and cowboys on the palmetto prairie gave way to a series of booms throughout the city's history. Whether it was railroads, real estate, citrus, or tourism, Orlando has been a community able to cultivate growth through big dreams and an ambitious attitude.

Joy Wallace Dickinson, Florida history columnist at the Orlando Sentinel, peruses the legends and stories of the City Beautiful and the struggles it overcame while slowly metamorphosing into an iconic city at the turn of this new century. This captivating narrative thoroughly explores how influences such as agriculture, race relations, and modern tourism have molded metropolitan Orlando into the template of the American dream.