Buddy Mills with Spur and the book by Jon Kral

Horse featured on Cracker book cover dies at 37

Spur, the horse in Jon Kral’s iconographic photograph on the cover of his book Cracker: Florida’s Enduring Cowboy, has died at the age of 37. Kral took the photograph of cowboy George Harrison “Junior’’ Mills atop Spur while Junior was cowboying in 1989. Besides serving as the horse for the storied cowboy Mills and appearing on Kral’s book cover, Spur also helped develop world title holder team steer roper Jessy Remsburg, even after surviving a lightning strike... Read more...

Sailfish fountain in Stuart

Accolades stack up for Stuart, named among ‘South’s Best Small Towns’ by Southern Living

“Happiest.” “Most Charming.” “Most Beautiful.” It’s a good thing the City of Stuart stays true to its humble roots, otherwise this steady stream of compliments could really go to its head.

The latest adjectives of adoration officially awarded to... Read more...

Space Coast Living Magazines

Indian River Media Group buys Space Coast Living Magazine

Indian River Media Group, publisher of Indian River Magazine and six other publications, has purchased Space Coast Living Magazine and will relaunch it in Brevard County in June.

The asset purchase agreement between Indian River Media Group and Space Coast Magazines LLC and principals Joe Duda and Eric Wright was executed on April 8. Terms were... Read more...

downtown stuart

Historic Downtown Stuart crowned winner of ‘Great Places in Florida’ contest

The people have spoken, officially designating Historic Downtown Stuart winner of the Great Places in Florida Award.

Stuart’s historic downtown claimed the People’s Choice Award in the annual contest organized by the Florida chapter of the 2020 American Planning Association (APA).

The City of Stuart teamed with Martin County’s Tourism Development Board to spread the word about... Read more...

Bee Haydu

Female pilots performing flyover for esteemed woman aviator, 99, in assisted living

She’s among the most accomplished women in aviation but now 99 years old, in assisted living and far removed from her favored pastime of piloting planes. Sunday, her spirits are sure to soar as more than 20 female pilots perform a “flyover” in her honor.

Dr. Bernice “Bee” Falk Haydu will watch from Water’s Edge Extended Care in Palm City as women pilots with the Treasure Coast Ninety-Nines do a flyover to recognize her service to the country, the military and aviation. Read more...

Rooster, Braford reopen as new restaurants

The Rooster in the Garden and the Braford Steakhouse have reopened in downtown Fort Pierce but with different names and concepts.

The sister restaurants, in Pierce Harbor at the Galleria at Orange Avenue and South Second Street, opened two years ago in a partnership with Pierce Harbor at the Galleria developer Gus Gutierrez and Adams Ranch Inc. to much fanfare, with the restaurants featuring all-natural beef from Adams Ranch west of Fort Pierce. But the restaurants were closed for nearly three months during the coronavirus pandemic. The restaurants recently reopened as The Rooster in the Garden Ristorante and The Braford Presents The Fort Steakhouse but without the operational involvement of Adams Ranch Inc. The steakhouse, however, is retaining the name Braford, a breed of cattle developed by Adams Ranch founder Alto Lee “Bud’’ Adams Jr.

“Regarding The Fort Steakhouse, the Adams Ranch is still involved with the meats but no longer...

Former Fort Pierce woman joins global voyage to fight plastic pollution

Growing up on Hutchinson Island with the Indian River as a playground, Rikki Grober Eriksen relished long sails with her father, the late and loved orthopeadic surgeon Ron Grober, and developed a love of all things marine.

Little wonder that she became a marine scientist, earning her phD and going on to hold her current position of marine ecologist at the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation. And next week she will embark on a leg of a journey, leaving the Azores Oct. 27 and arriving in Antigua Nov. 18, that is taking women on a voyage around the world to raise awareness of plastic pollution and its effect women’s health. Read more...

a thrip feasts on a Brazilian peppertree leaf

Insect released at Adams Ranch will target Brazilian peppertree

Mike Adams spends $250,000 every year to manage Brazilian peppertrees spread over the family’s 40,000 acres of ranches in Osceola and St. Lucie counties, where his family has developed the Braford breed of cattle. Adams, whose family ranch was founded in 1937, recounts years when the invasive tree from South America overtook natural areas on the ranches, pushing out pasture and grasslands. Read more...

Dot AdamsTribute to Dot Adams

As we prepare on Wednesday to celebrate the life of Dorothy Snively “Dot Adam,’’ wife of late iconic rancher Bud Adams, we pay tribute to her pioneering spirit. Dot was a Cypress Gardens Belle from Winter Haven attending Florida State University when she met Bud, a student attending rival University of Florida. Bud called her “the best looking girl at FSU.’’ After they married in 1949, they made their home at Adams Ranch west of Fort Pierce, where Dot embraced the rugged lifestyle. Read more...

Ray Adams

Vero Beach Choral Director to Make Carnegie Hall Debut

NEW YORK, NY, February 13, 2019 – Ray Adams has been conducting choirs in Vero Beach for 35 years, preparing them on several occasions to sing at New York’s Carnegie Hall for other conductors. But on Sunday, March 31 at 2 pm, as part of MidAmerica Productions’ 36th annual concert season, he will ascend the fabled podium for the first time to lead a choir of more than 140 voices – including singers from two Vero Beach groups – and the New England Symphonic Ensemble, in the exuberant Gloria by British composer John Rutter. Read more...

hurricane irma

Last-minute hurricane tips you might not have thought about

I wasn’t on the Treasure Coast for the last two major hurricanes, Jeanne and Frances, in 2004, but I did make it through a tornado that destroyed my home in Tuscaloosa, Ala., six years ago.

As we prepare for a hit from Hurricane Irma, here are some things I learned from that experience that you may not see elsewhere. Read more...

J. Marshall Adams

Backus Museum changing leadership

With pride and gratitude for 18 years of service, the Board of Directors of the A.E. Backus Museum announces the retirement of Executive Director Kathleen Piowaty Fredrick at the end of September, followed by the appointment of J. Marshall Adams as the new Executive Director. Read more...

Tim Tebow

Tebow takes Treasure Coast by storm

Nearly 600 people turned out today for the first day of former football star Tim Tebow's practice with more than 50 other aspiring New York Mets for the team's three-week instructional league at Tradition Field. Read more...

Indian River wins best writing and three other statewide awards

Indian River Magazine won the best overall writing award during the Florida Magazine Association's annual Charlie Awards presentation held over the weekend at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples. Read more...

President George Herbert Walker Bush

George Bush’s sign off

I guess you could say I felt a familial sense of loss with the death Nov. 30 of former President George Herbert Walker Bush. That’s because for a few months back in 1989 my father, Bob Enns, the late Fort Pierce News-Tribune (Fla.) editor, had a correspondence with Bush that resulted in my dad referring to the newly minted president as Cuz Bush — a reference that prompted a personal hand-written letter from the president.

Now for some background... Read more...

charlie awards 2016

Indian River wins two statewide awards as it celebrates 10th anniversary

Indian River Magazine has won two statewide awards as it celebrates its 10th anniversary.

The magazine was honored with two Charlie Awards during the Florida Magazine Association’s annual conference in Orlando on Sept. 23 and was the only Treasure Coast magazine receiving awards. Read more...

grave of Lucia Zora

Celebrated circus performer gets grave marked after 81 years of anonymity

After 81 years, celebrated circus performer Lucia Zora, known as “the bravest woman in the world,’’ no longer lies in an unmarked grave.

Mayor Linda Hudson on Monday unveiled a grave marker during a dedication ceremony at Riverview Memorial Park in Fort Pierce. The marker, purchased by Indian River Magazine, bears Zora’s name, years of birth and death, and brandishes the epitaph, “The Bravest Woman in the World.’’ Read more...

Josh Fisher Abt

Mel Fisher's grandson finds 1715 Fleet gold

FORT PIERCE, June 23, 2016 – When Josh Fisher Abt (left) was growing up, his grandfather, Mel Fisher, would throw modern coins into a pool and challenge all the grandchildren to see who could find the most. That training came in handy when, this June, Abt, now 34, paid homage to his grandfather’s legacy by recovering his first gold coin from the 1715 Fleet on the Douglass Beach Wreck. Read more...

Jimmy Willis and sister Eileen Snow

Family from Treasure Coast hoping hurricane casualty is not their brother

A family with deep ties to the Treasure Coast is hoping to make contact with their brother from whom they haven’t heard since Hurricane Irma swept through the Florida Keys last weekend.

Jimmy Willis, a Vietnam veteran who grew up in Fort Pierce, lived aboard a boat off Stock Island near Key West. Authorities have reported finding the body of a man in his 60s with gray hair and a beard in a partially sunken boat in Cow Key Channel off Stock Island. Read more...

Michael and Jimmy Willis

Family en route to Keys in search of former FP man

Siblings of Jimmy Willis are headed to the Florida Keys today in hopes of discovering what happened to their brother, a former Fort Pierce man who has been missing since Hurricane Irma sank his boat near Key West.

With the reopening of the Keys today to traffic, Michael Willis of Jacksonville and Eileen Snow of St. Lucie West are en route to Key West. They plan to stop first at the morgue for the Monroe County Medical Examiner to determine whether the body of a man found last week in a partially submerged boat is that of their brother, a Vietnam veteran who grew up in Fort Pierce. Read more...

Galleria of Pierce Harbor in downtown Fort Pierce

2 new restaurants to open in downtown Fort Pierce

Two new restaurants are planned for Fort Pierce in a partnership that includes the Adams Ranch, a downtown Fort Pierce developer and a Vero Beach restaurateur.

The restaurants will be in downtown Fort Pierce at the Galleria of Pierce Harbor at the southeast corner of Second Street and Orange Avenue in Fort Pierce. Read more...

lighthouse

Treasure Coast cities rank on top 100 retirement list

The Treasure Coast is well represented this year on TopRetirements.com’s 2016 list of the 100 Most Popular Places to Retire. Stuart, Port St. Lucie, Vero Beach and Jupiter are among the 25 Florida cities in the top 100.

The rankings were based on the number of online visitors to the 1000+ cities reviewed on the site during the second half of 2015.

Jupiter is one of six new cities to make the list this year. Here’s how our cities ranked and how they are described: Read more...

Walking Tree Brewery

Walking Tree Brewery Taproom to open June 23

VERO BEACH – A new craft brewery, Walking Tree Brewery, will be opening its taproom beginning June 23 and hosting a grand opening celebration July 16 from 2 to 8 p.m.

Business partners Alan Dritenbas, 33, and Mike Malone, 35, Vero Beach and Fort Pierce natives, started home brewing beer and entering competitions five years ago.

After experiencing the satisfaction of seeing others enjoy a keg of their brews, the two began to... Read more...

McKee Botanical Garden

Coastal Living includes McKee Botanical Garden on new list

VERO BEACHCoastal Living Magazine has included McKee Botanical Garden on its list of top ten coastal botanical gardens as an honorable mention.

The writer references McKee's history and... Read more...

Stuart Main Street recognized as community of the month

TALLAHASSEE – Secretary of State Ken Detzner announced today that Stuart Main Street has been designated the June 2016 Florida Main Street Community of the Month. Communities are selected based on their developmental achievements and participation in the Florida Main Street Program. This program was designated in 1987, displaying 29 years of public/private reinvestment totaling $4.2 million, with over 137 projects that has created over... Read more...

Tradition

Where to Retire to feature Port St. Lucie

Port St. Lucie’s making national news again. This time the city is set to be featured in the upcoming issue of Where to Retire Magazine, available June 14.

Editor Annette Fuller said Port St. Lucie possesses qualities important to today’s retirees.

“Port St. Lucie, on Florida’s southeastern coast, is a less expensive alternative than... Read more...

Indian River State College

Indian River State College ranks top on BestColleges.com

BestColleges.com has once again ranked Indian River State College (IRSC) in Fort Pierce as the top two-year college in Florida in their 2016 report.

At IRSC students can earn associate degrees, technical certificates or applied technology diplomas. The school has been ranked the 3rd most affordable college in the United States by the U.S. Department of Education.

IRSC offers over 150 programs with... Read more...

stuart fishing

Stuart vs. Ocean City, Md.: Which area does fishing best?

Marlin Magazine recently pitted Stuart against Ocean City, Maryland, anglers to determine which sporting fish capital produces the best fishermen.

Why? Because “Both locales have a strong history of turning out some of the best in the business who have gone on to set multiple world records, win the biggest money in tournaments and... Read more...

Ed Drondoski

Photographer represented heart and soul of our magazine

It is with tremendous sadness that we share with you our readers, advertisers and — especially the people whose photos by him have appeared on our pages — the news of the death of our friend Ed Drondoski, our chief photographer and one of our key players in the creation of this magazine 11 years ago.

Ed, 57, died suddenly Tuesday at his home west of Fort Pierce of an apparent heart attack after doing yard work. He leaves behind his wonderful wife, Barbara, and three grown children, Ed, John and Lara, all of whom made him feel extremely blessed. Read more...

Port St. Lucie named worst city for skin

WalletHub has released results for its 2016 Best & Worst Cities for Your Skin report and Port St. Lucie came in last.

Analysts compared the 150 most populated U.S. cities across four areas: 1) skin-cancer prevalence and contributors, 2) pollution and smoking, 3) climate and 4) skin health and care. They focused on cities and not their surrounding metro areas. Read more about the metrics used... Read more...

Zoe Leurie Burney Kmart Mother's Day commercial 2016

Treasure Coast native stars in Kmart TV ad

Did you see this Kmart Mother’s Day commercial? One of the child stars, eight-year-old Zoe Burney, is a Treasure Coast native.

She is daughter of Fort Pierce natives Michael and Michelle Burney (Michelle is the design editor of Indian River Magazine, so excessive talent obviously runs in the family). They currently live in Los Angeles. Her grandparents are Michael and Gail Moore of Fort Pierce and Sigrid Hullet of Lakewood Park.

In the commercial,... Read more...

Vero Beach Hotel and Spa

Examiner.com calls Vero Beach "Florida's Secret Resort"

Journalists keep sharing Treasure Coast secrets. Today (May 18), Examiner.com published a piece proclaiming Vero Beach “Florida’s Secret Resort.”

In the article writer Terry Zinn defines a great resort destination as a place with “gourmet dining, beautiful ocean front vistas and upscale comfortable resort hotels.” He praises Vero Beach Hotel and Spa, where... Read more...

diet coke

Local child stars in Diet Coke commercial

VERO BEACH – Riverside Children's Theatre announced on Facebook yesterday (May 9, 2016) that student Jessah Moore is the new star of a Diet Coke commercial. In the footage, she dresses as Cinderella and attempts to entice her busy dad into having a tea party with her.

As it turns out, theatrically, the trick to getting his attention is... Read more...

Looking back at Back Country by Bud Adams

For 10 years Bud Adams has been providing Florida back country photography for the back page of Indian River Magazine. His images capture natural scenes and wildlife on his St. Lucie County ranch.

In March 2016, Adams was recognized by the Pegasus Foundation and Treasured Lands Foundation for his lifelong legacy of loving and protecting Florida's natural habitats. His photos are certainly proof of ... Read more...

Meet Blondie, An affectionate lemon shark

JUPITER – This “Shark Love” video, posted April 16 on YouTube channel Shark Addicts by Jupiter resident Mickey Smith features Blondie, an 8-foot 200-pound lemon shark who seems to enjoy an affectionate rub on the face.

In the video’s description Smith assures viewers that ... Read more...

Tradition

Port St. Lucie Ranks Among Top 30 Happiest U.S. Cities

Treasure Coast communities keep proving how happy they are. Port St. Lucie recently ranked 24th in the annual Well-Being Index by Gallup-Healthways.

The report looks at 190 of the biggest communities in the U.S. to determine those whose citizens have the highest rates of ... Read more...

gatsby house

Going Once... Will Vero's Gatsby House Sell?

VERO BEACH – Inspired by "The Great Gatsby" when it was built in 2001, Palazzo di Mare will be auctioned Saturday, April 30, at 11 a.m.

The 28,000-square-foot beachfront home boasts six bedrooms, ten bathrooms, 32-foot ceilings, stained glass (there’s the Gatsby influence), a gourmet kitchen, a sound-proof movie theatre, a library, a game room, a rooftop solariam, elevators (yes, that’s plural), a 14-car garage, a helipad, a wine vault and – get this – a Venetian-inspired pool with ... Read more...

Treasure Coast Mermaid Bridgette Earney making waves

Bridgette Earney’s dream job sounds like a childhood fantasy-come-true. She gets paid to wear a very realistic mermaid costume and attend events. “I decided to make my dream a reality,” says the 28-year-old of Sebastian.

As a side gig, a tail-clad Earney shows up to meet and greet events with kids, pirate festivals, birthday parties and the like. Additionally she makes crowns and headbands which she sells through her Etsy shop TCMermaidCrowns. Her “merwrangler,” boyfriend and photographer Brian Storey, keeps her stocked with great Instagram fodder and she announces public appearances on her Facebook page. Earney hopes to increase her mermaid role to become ... Read more...

Lucia Zora

Unmarked grave of ‘bravest woman’ circus performer Lucia Zora to be dedicated Monday in Fort Pierce

Since 1936, Lucia Zora, a circus animal trainer billed as “the bravest woman in the world,’’ has lain in an unmarked grave at Riverview Memorial Park in Fort Pierce.

That will change Monday, when a grave marker bearing her name is unveiled and dedicated by Fort Pierce Mayor Linda Hudson. Read more...

Rev. Charles Joseph Duster

Missionary priest, frequent visitor to Fort Pierce, dies at 82

OMAHA — The Rev. Charles Joseph Duster, a Catholic missionary priest who worked in ministries in Japan and the Fiji Islands, died Tuesday (March 7, 2017) at a hospital near Omaha after a two-week illness. He was 82.

Father Duster was born Sept., 15, 1934, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where his parents, Charles and Cleo Duster, operated the Duster’s Supermarket.

Despite world travels, he made... Read more...