Mayport to Vilano: Help name that island

[iMarvin]

I've always thought that this island should be named:

After 99 years as an island, is it time to stick a name on that sandy coastal acreage that stretches from Mayport in Duval County to Vilano Beach in St. Johns County?

Many out there already casually call it the island, in a lower-case kind of way. But an informal group at the Beaches thinks it's at least worth considering giving it a name of its own.

Kurtis Loftus of the Kurtis Group, a public relations, advertising and design company, is meeting Thursday with other Beaches residents for what he stresses is simply an exploratory meeting that has nothing â€" nothing at all â€" to do with secession or trying to disrespect Jacksonville or anything like that.

It's just that, as a marketing guy, he thinks it would help small businesses and would brand the area as the island it is â€" and who doesn't like islands?

Of course it wasn't until 1912 that it became an island, when work finished on a cut made in Palm Valley to connect the San Pablo River to the north with the Tolomato River in the south, notes Neil McGuinness, a Beaches historian. Voila: Our section of the Intracoastal Waterway was created, making everything to the east an instant island.

McGuinness, author of "The Beaches: A History and Tour," figures that 2012, then, would be an appropriate time to finally put a name on it. Any and all names are on the table, he says, but there is a strong historical precedent for the name San Pablo Island.

There was a Spanish mission there called San Pablo as far back as 1587, though its location is still a puzzle. In the 1790s, there was a plantation by that name, from Fleet Landing in Atlantic Beach to Fourth Avenue South in Jacksonville Beach. There was briefly a town called Pablo at A1A and the Wonderwood Expressway. Jacksonville Beach used to be Pablo Beach. And of course there's the San Pablo River on the Intracoastal.

This isn't a new idea: The Atlantic Beach City Commission in 2009 approved a resolution supporting the name, but it doesn't look to have gone any further.

As someone who crosses the Ditch on a daily basis â€" and who loves a good evocative place name probably more than most (I can happily spend hours wondering about the names in a book of maps) â€" I too say sure. Give the island a name.

Why not? How could it hurt? As long as it's not some cheesy developer-style thing like Paradise Oaks Island or Briny Breezes Island or Salt Life Island or some such nonsense. San Pablo Island, I think, seems solid. Relevant. Descriptive. Not silly.

What do you think? Do you like San Pablo Island? Is there a better suggestion? Or should it just be left as it is? Chime in.

By the way, Times-Union Beaches reporter Maggie Fitzroy will be at the meeting. She'll post a report on Jacksonville.com afterward.

Read more at: http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/403251/matt-soergel/2011-06-23/mayport-vilano-help-name-island

[Tacachale]

My vote has always been for San Pablo Island. It's the only thing remotely historical that the land has ever been called.

As the article mentions, the name derives from a Spanish mission to the Timucua. San Pablo was one of several visitas, or satellite missions, of the much larger mission San Juan del Puerto on Fort George Island. The chain of missions tied to San Juan del Puerto served the Saturiwa, the Timucua tribe who lived in modern Jacksonville and coastal north Florida.

Notably, the mission doesn't appear to have been located on the current island. A mission site thought to be San Pablo has been found on the other side of the Intracoastal, along what boaters will know as Chicopit Bay. There's a map of where the site is in this paper by UNF anthropologist Kieth Ashley.

http://www.unf.edu/~kashley/Other%20Files/Ashley%20-%20Chapter%205.pdf

The mission's name was then applied to the river it was on, the San Pablo River, which makes up the northern run of the current Intracoastal Waterway between mainland Jax and the Beaches. From there it was used for a plantation (that was on the current island), a development in Mayport, and "Pablo Beach" was a former name of Jacksonville Beach.

If they do end up naming it, I hope it's this.

[iMarvin]

I like San Pablo Island, but not for the whole thing. There's a nice ring to it, but if there's no history of 'Pablo' in the St. John's County area, I don't think it should be called that. I haven't done research so I could be wrong, but until then...

[Tacachale]

^I don't think there'd be much point in naming only part of an island. If you're going to bother it at all, name the whole thing. As the island currently has no name whatsoever, I don't think it's a problem. And as this name has been used for this vicinity for hundreds of years, so it's probably as good as they're going to get.

[iMarvin]

^Obviously the whole island would be named whatever they come up with, but if there is a more fitting name for the whole island (Mayport to Vilano - that's a long stretch of island) that history can reveal (which I'm starting to doubt, btw), then that should be the name. I do like San Pablo Island a lot though.

[buckethead]

Buckethead Isle sounds real pretty.

[billy]

They could sell the naming rights.

[copperfiend]

Timucua Island

[Tacachale]

Timucua Island

To my mind, this is one of the least appropriate islands to name "Timucua". Unlike very many other islands in this area (Fort George, Big Talbot, Black Hammock, Amelia, and Cumberland), there aren't any significant (known) Timucua sites or missions on the island itself.

If we were going to name anything Timucua Island, it should be Fort George, where Mission San Juan Del Puerto and the major village of Alicamani (or Alimacani) was located.


Correction- I just realized there ARE significant Indian sites on the island - in Guana State Park. One of them is probably the remains of the village of Tolomato and Mission Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Tolomato. That island is really big.

[Tacachale]

Buckethead Isle sounds real pretty.

I like that, but it doesn't have the ring to it that Tacachale Island does.

[wsansewjs]

My vote would be Alicamani Island or San Pablo Island.

-Josh

[Tacachale]

My vote would be Alicamani Island or San Pablo Island.

-Josh

As a note, the village of Alicamani wasn't on this island, it was on Ft. George Island.

[billy]

Salt Life Island! Isle De la Bud Light Lime!

on a serious note I would agree about the historic validity of where the Timucua
actually hung out....I like San Pablo Island

[Todd_Parker]

Any votes yet for Fantasy Island?

[Tacachale]

More from the FTU:

The area encompassing the Jacksonville Beaches from Mayport south to Vilano Beach became an island in 1912, when two rivers along the western border were connected by the creation of a 10-mile, man-made canal between today's Palm Valley Bridge and Marsh Landing.


The unique barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway includes Mayport, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, Palm Valley and Vilano Beach.


But the seven diverse communities have never had a collective identity, much less a name.


A group of Beaches citizens wants to change that.


To celebrate next year's 100th year anniversary of being an island, they have started a campaign to name it San Pablo Island.


They held their first meeting Thursday night at the Holiday Inn Express in Jacksonville Beach. Their next step is to draw up an official document to gather public support for the idea.


The initiative would not require any legislation or changes in governments. Using the name on brochures or documents would be voluntary.


The idea is to brand the island, to give it an identity like islands to the north and south, said Kurtis Loftus of Jacksonville Beach, who led the meeting.
In a power point presentation, he showed maps of the Jacksonville-area coast with named islands including St. Simons, Jekyll and Cumberland in Georgia and Amelia, Big Talbot, Little Talbot and Anastasia in Florida. But the island encompassing the Beaches communities has no name.


"I think it is a wonderful thing for the area," said John Meserve, former mayor of Atlantic Beach. Meserve, who tried to start a similar campaign about eight years ago, said "most people don't realize this is really an island."


For marketing purposes, "islands sell," he said. The word island "has a nice ring to it" and would help sell the area nationally.


Having a collective island identity would help property values, tourism and identification, Meserve said. The individual cities would not need to change their names, and use of the name San Pablo Island would be optional on brochures or any other documents, so it wouldn't cost money.


Loftus, president of a Jacksonville Beach advertising, design and public relations company, volunteered to create a blog so people can go to it and learn more about the project and express their opinions.


The group discussed several name possibilities, including Pablo Island, The Beaches Island and Paradise Island. But they settled on San Pablo Island because the name has historical significance to the area.


A Spanish mission called San Pablo existed on the coast as far back as 1587, though its location remains unknown. In the 1790s, there was a plantation by that name, from Fleet Landing in Atlantic Beach to Fourth Avenue South in Jacksonville Beach. A town called Pablo was nestled in the area near today's Wonderwood Expressway. Jacksonville Beach used to be Pablo Beach.


In addition to Loftus and Meserve, the group includes Neil McGuinness, area historian and author; Linda Lanier, executive director of Jax Kids; John Bryan, director of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce Beaches Division; Shawn LeNoble, general manager of the Holiday Inn Express; Maarten van de Guchte, executive director of the Beaches Museum & History Center; and Phyllis Tousey of Atlantic Beach.


They plan to meet again in two or three weeks, after McGuinness creates a one- or two-page document summarizing the proposal. He said with documented community support, which could include residents' signatures, the island could be officially named through a government naming organization.


Tousey, a lifelong Beaches resident whose great-grandparents settled in the area in 1915, said she is excited about the island having a name.


When friends visit and walk on the beach, they ask, "What is the name of this island?" she said.


It's "embarrassing" to tell them it doesn't have one, she said. "So I'm glad somebody's going to do something about it."

http://jacksonville.com/news/florida/2011-06-24/story/group-begins-process-name-beaches-island#ixzz1QDu9SBVL

Looks like this group's pushing for San Pablo Island.