The city was planned by the Tropical Florida Development Company (later Poinciana Development Company) of Miami in 1925, Onion Key was chosen as it was covered by a
midden, lifting it 5 feet above the water. The origin of Onion Key's name is disputed; local Totch Brown claimed it was from Gregorio Lopez eating his last onion there, while Charlton Tabeau claimed it was from an unidentified man who homesteaded the island with his wife and grew onions. Because of these campaigns, the company was able to sell almost 9,000 road that would have gone from the new city to what is now Loop Road (County Road 94). The road's construction was highly sought after to encourage settlement, with county engineers even joining the project. Poinciana was staffed by salesmen and the company brought potential customers on a road and boat trip to the city, however it is believed most customers never did actually visit the property. Company president William G. Blanchard and his family visited the town in June 1926, taking a committee from the county commissioners to review the planned site of the Poinciana Trail. but it is unknown if this was connected to the development. The
hurricane of 1926 destroyed all structures at Poinciana, and despite attempts to rebuild and continued newspaper advertising, the project was subsequently abandoned. A few employees moved the island's small electric station to a stretch of coast just north of the Lostmans River mouth and built some
tar paper shacks around it, but nothing became of this. In 1929, company official E. S. Rood was arrested and held for $1,000 bond on 5 charges of
mail fraud from deceptive promotional fliers the company distributed in the mail. He was scheduled to be tried before the
United States District Court in Miami on April 22 that year. During the land acquisition process for the
Everglades National Park in the 1950s, the
NPS was hindered by the many real estate title issues at the property; in 1958, the
Miami Herald reported that 1,350 people were still paying taxes on land owned in the "phantom town", and over 2,000 lots were still privately owned in 1960. The site was eventually made part of the park, Onion Key being used as a wilderness campsite before being made off-limits to the public. The second site of the electric station was later used as a
ranger station but this too no longer exists. == References ==