Some historians believe the earliest Spanish influence was adventurer Juan Ponce De Leon and that he explored the region in 1521 in search of a fountain of youth. Stronger evidence does confirm the exploration of two other Spaniards a few years later-- Pantilo de Narvaez in 1528 and Hernando de Soto in 1539. De Soto, as did de Narvaez, sailed into the area in search of gold. The region then was known as "Tanpa" -- Native American for "sticks of fire." The explorers would change the middle of that spelling to the contemporary "Tampa."

De Narvaez and de Soto called the area "punta pinal," which means point of pines, and it eventually would became Pinellas. That's the name of the county in which Clearwater and St. Petersburg sit today.

It was another two centuries before other non-natives arrived in the region. Bernard Romans, a Dutch mapmaker, gave the name of Hillsborough to the river, county and upper arm of Tampa in 1772, in honor of Lord Hillsborough, secretary of state for the colonies. The area with its Fort Brooke attracted traders of the time.

The Timucuan Indians gave the United States territorial rights to the area after the Seminole Wars of 1835-42 and withdrew to the Everglades. It was about this same time that white settlers ventured into Florida's west coast region, including Odet Philippe, a French surgeon who built a plantation where Philippe Park stands in Clearwater today. Philippe later would be known for introducing grapefruit trees to Florida.

Fort Harrison, named after the eventual ninth president of the United States, was built in 1841 on bluffs that overlook Clearwater Harbor. It was abandoned after the Indian wars ended about a year later, and the U.S. government opened up the area for homesteading. One of the first to take stead was James Stevens, known as the "Father of Clearwater," who grabbed the Fort Harrison site and hundreds of acres surrounding it. Eventually, that tract would become downtown Clearwater.

Later in the 19th century, Henry B. Plant, Peter Demens and Don Vicente Ybor, in separate endeavors, would change the face of the Tampa Bay area.

Plant extended his railroad to Tampa in 1884 and started a steamship line from Tampa to Key West to Cuba. Together, the rails and steamers became known as "the system," which served Tampa's growing fish business. In 1891, Plant opened the Tampa Bay Hotel, which cost $3 million and attracted entertainers, sports figures and dignitaries from around the world. Later, it would serve as Spanish-American War headquarters for Teddy Roosevelt and his Roughriders. The hotel building with its distinctive minarets now serves mostly as the University of Tampa but also includes the Henry B. Plant Museum, which is a must trip for anyone interested in the area's history.

A year after Plant brought his rails and ships, Don Vicente Ybor, a cigar maker and Cuban exile, moved his business from Key West to an area just east of Tampa. The next year, the first cigar factory opened and would lead to thousands of Spanish and other immigrants to Ybor City. The cigar industry in Tampa thrived until Fidel Castro emerged and Cuban tobacco was embargoed in the mid-20th century. Ybor City may have been down at the time, but has certainly proven since then that it's not out. It has enjoyed a renaissance as a historic district with artisan galleries, shops and nightclubs.

St. Petersburg was promoted by pioneer and railroad magnate Peter Demens, who brought a railroad system to that city in 1888. The town was called St. Petersburg -- named after Demens, whose birthplace was St. Petersburg, Russia.

Tourist excursions to St. Petersburg began in 1890 when the population was 273, with the Orange Belt Railroad bringing them to the new town.

Orange Belt also was a key player in one of the city's first industries. Mackerel and snapper were shipped in large quantities to cities along the eastern seaboard, via the railroad. By the 1890s, nearly 3 million pounds of fish were shipped from St. Petersburg annually.

Construction of a sea wall and brick-paved road along Hillsborough Bay and development of Davis Islands, both in the early 1900s, helped Tampa's growth to continue.

The airline industry was born in Tampa in 1914 when Tony Jannus was the pilot of the first regularly scheduled commercial flight, from St. Petersburg to Tampa.

Tampa became a shipbuilding center in both world wars, the second of which also brought the opening of MacDill Air Force Base.

Clearwater grew slowly until 1880 when the first hotel, the Orange Bluff, was built, beginning it's role as a resort community. In 1896, Plant followed his impressive Tampa Bay Hotel with the Belleview Hotel in Clearwater. The Biltmore chain bought the property in the 1930s. Today, the Belleview Biltmore is reputedly the largest occupied wooden structure in the world still in use today for the same purpose for which it was originally built.

St. Petersburg's attraction as a spring training site for major league baseball began in 1914, when the St. Louis Browns tried out the city for spring training and found a home. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays now train in St. Petersburg. They are the first team with spring training in its home city since 1919. Their spring training home is Florida Power Park at Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg.

Construction of St. Petersburg/Clearwater International Airport in 1939 led to steady growth for both of those cities -- a growth that continues to this day.