VIDEO: Documentary Details Early Merritt Island History, NASA Development of Space Center
By Space Coast Daily // July 14, 2016
protected as National Wildlife Refuge
ABOVE VIDEO: “The Merritt Island Adventure,” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is a documentary of the lives of the homesteaders living on Merritt Island in Florida, in the area that is now owned by NASA operating the Kennedy Space Center and also managed as the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
BREVARD COUNTY • MERRITT ISLAND, FLORIDA – “The Merritt Island Adventure,” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is a documentary of the lives of the homesteaders living on Merritt Island in Florida, in the area that is now owned by NASA operating the Kennedy Space Center and also managed as the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
NASA used eminent domain to acquire property in Merritt Island in the late 1950’s – 60’s and in this documentary, the focus is on the stories of how people lived very primitively on the land and what happened when they were forced to move.
Some early Merritt Island settlers are able to visit their home sites where the land is open to the public. however, some have never had access to their home site because it lies within the security area of Kennedy Space Center.
Many residents are proud that their land went to support a successful space program that sent man to the moon.
Although residents were forced to move, they are happy the land is protected as a National Wildlife Refuge and not developed like so much of the Florida coastline. The refuge remains pristine and very similar to how they remembered growing up there.
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