Temple Terrace, Florida

===Spanish exploration===

[[Image:1757 Celi.jpg|300px|left|thumb|The earliest known map of the Tampa Bay area. It is by Spanish explorer Don Francisco Maria Celi of the Spanish Royal Fleet, 1757. This copy is from the South Florida History Museum; the original is in the Museo Naval de Madrid, Spain. The river on the upper left of the map is the Hillsborough, and the area designated as "El Pinal de la Cruz de Santa Teresa" is today in Temple Terrace. "El Salto" are the rapids at [[Hillsborough River State Park]], where the journey ended.  The map is oriented so that east is to the top.]]
[[Image:Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club.jpg|right|thumb|1920s Temple Terrace postcard]]

Spanish exploration of the Temple Terrace area dates back to 1757 when explorer [[Don Francisco Maria Celi]] of the Spanish Royal Fleet made his way up the Hillsborough River (naming it "El Rio de San Julian y Arriaga") to what is now Riverhills Park in search of pine trees to use as masts for his ships. Here, in the extensive [[longleaf pine]] forest, he erected a cross in what he named "El Pinal de la Cruz de Santa Teresa" (the Pine Forest of the Cross of Saint Theresa). Confirmation of the fleet's travels is found in its map and logbook. A historic marker and a replica of the cross erected to honor St. Theresa are found in Riverhills Park today. Up to 1913, the longleaf pine, [[Quercus geminata|sand live oak]], and cypress trees made the area suitable for [[turpentine]] manufacturing and logging.
[[Image:Bertha Honore Palmer.jpg|112px|left|thumb|Bertha Honoré Palmer]]