Native American Origins

• In the 1980s, ancient human remains were discovered in a nearby peat bog, believed to be around 7,000 years old and from a migratory Native American tribe.
  
  

Early Europeans

• Ponce de Leon explored the Cape Canaveral area in 1513 but was quickly driven away by local Native Americans. The first instance of the name Canaveral is on a Spanish map in 1564.
  
  

1500s-1800s

• The cape was an important landmark for ships, but remained unsettled, only briefly occupied by the French in the 1560s (uprooted by the Spanish) and held by the British from 1763 until the Revolutionary War.
  
  

Permanent Settlement

• Cape Canaveral Lighthouse (photo by Elinor DeWire, NOAA Photo Library)
  
  In the 1840s, the cape was finally settled. The lighthouse was completed in 1847.
  
  

Modern Development

• After WWII, the cape was used as a missile test range. In the 1960s, the base was expanded to Merritt Island, and the present-day launch facilities began to develop.