FORT PIERCE

city, seat (1905) of St. Lucie county, southeastern Florida, U.S., on the Indian River (a lagoon connected to the Atlantic Ocean by inlets), 58 miles (93 km) north of West Palm Beach. The fort, built (183842) during the Seminole Wars, was named for Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Benjamin K. Pierce (brother of President Franklin Pierce), who commanded a detachment. Permanent white settlement began in the 1860s around the fort site, and two fishing villages, Cantown and Edgartown, were established. In 1901 the three communities were merged and incorporated as the City of Fort Pierce. The federally maintained Port of Fort Pierce is on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Commercial fishing, including shrimp, is significant, while the annual Sandy Shoes Festival (January) spotlights the cattle industry, agriculture, citrus groves, and recreation. The city is the site of Indian River Community College (founded 1960), which merged with Lincoln Junior College in 1965. Since 1959 salvaging operations offshore have yielded large quantities of gold and silver coins, bullion, artifacts, and relics from a sunken Spanish Silver Fleet, lost in 1715 during a hurricane. Pop. (1992 est.) city, 38,395; Fort PiercePort St. Lucie MSA, 261,737.