After our fun-filled exploration of Cooperstown, New York (The Secret of Mirror Bay), my friend, Pam, and I decided it would be fun to take a look at some books set in my home state of Florida and, if we found any real locations referenced in the books, to take some time out and explore those places! Well, we quickly discovered that there are quite a number of books set in Florida - from Betty Gordon to the Bobbsey Twins; from Connie Blair to the Happy Hollisters; from the Moving Picture Girls to Nan Sherwood; from the Outdoor Girls to Vicki Barr; from the Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew; and quite a few others. We were astounded by how many young sleuths made their way to the Sunshine State for adventure and mystery, and we could not wait to delve into these books and see just what actual places we would find in our reading!
Once we started reading the various books, we quickly realized the best way to do this was to group the books by location, so that we could explore one location at a time. Pam made plans to come down last autumn for our first excursion, planned for Tampa; but our plans got rather sidetracked by that pesky Hurricane Milton! However, we were not waylaid; rather, we simply altered our objective(which, as we learned later, turned out for the best!) and started with a different location - in this instance, we headed over to the East Coast instead of the West Coast and visited some locations that the Hardy Boys, the Happy Hollisters, and Nancy Drew visited in some of their mysteries.
The Happy Hollisters and the Missile Town Mystery, first published in 1961, was the first of our books to feature the Space Coast, as it is referred to here in Florida. In this book, the Hollister family visits their friends, the Davis family, who reside in the town of Cocoa (p. 28), and they make visits to Merritt Island and Cocoa Beach, where Cape Kennedy a/k/a Cape Canaveral is located on one end of the beach (p. 34). The book even discusses Banana River, which runs between the Cape and the town of Merritt Island (p. 94). We drove through these towns and along the river as we made out way down the coast. We visited Cape Canaveral, just like the Hollisters, who learned that "Canaveral" meant "canebrake" in Spanish, referring to the sugar cane that was raised in the area (p. 53). It is likely the Cape looked considerably different back in the early 1960s compared to today, but the location of the Space Center remains the same.
The Hollisters also visited Patrick Air Force Base, located at the other end of the beach (p. 35). Pam and I drove down the causeway, hoping to have an opportunity to visit the base, and we had a bit of difficulty getting in, as the entrance is some bit before the actual base itself. Also, something that threw us off a bit is the fact that the air force based has since been rename - it is now called U.S. Space Force: Patrick Space Force Base! Which just goes to show just how far we have come since the 1960s! Unfortunately, due to security concerns these days, casual visitors are not allowed onto the base, so we were not able to get beyond the welcome center (although I think the servicemen at the desk were taken aback by the idea that the base actually appeared in children's mystery books!).
Following the trail of the Hollisters, our next stop was Cocoa Beach itself. In the book, the Hollister children comb the beach, hoping to find some part of the missile that exploded just after take-off (pp. 35-37, etc). Pam and I did not necessarily search for parts of a missile, but we did search for shells and enjoyed the cool breeze coming in off the Atlantic Ocean!
It is easy to see why the Hollisters had so much fun while in Florida - they got to enjoy the sunny beach, they got to experience the excitement of a missile launch at Cape Kennedy a/k/a Cape Canaveral, and they were able to experience what life is like for those who live here. While Jerry West (Andrew Svenson) did embellish the story, including some fictional locations and events, he did include enough real locations that we were able to follow in the family's footsteps. Sadly, time did not permit us the opportunity to go to the port and see about fishing for shrimp (p. 113) or snapper (p. 147) - perhaps another time!
Moving right along, we look at the next book on our list, which is Nancy Drew's eighteenth mystery,
Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion (revised text), which was published in 1971, just ten years after the Happy Hollisters book. In the revised text of this book, the story for which was completely different from the original, Kennedy Space Center plays a central part of the mystery. Therefore, since Pam and I were already there, we decided to make the most of it!
Nancy and her friends start off at the Visitor's Information Center Op. 30), and so Pam and I began our adventure there, taking note of the mock-ups of missile and rockets (p. 30). Inside the Information Center, there were plenty of toy rockets, mock space candy, and books about the Center and the history of man's reaching for the stars.
The next stop was the Vehicle Assembly Building, which George called "a real skyscraper" (p. 32). There can be no doubt she was correct in her description, as Pam and I had to look way up to see the top of that building, which is a whopping 52 stories high! We would have loved to have gone inside and explored a bit, but unfortunately, time simply did not permit that day (remember, we were doing all of this right before a hurricane was going to cross the state, so there was not a lot that was open!).
At the end of Moss-Covered Mansion, Nancy and her friend were fortunate enough to countdown to the launch of a rocket (pp. 175-76); while we did get to see a huge countdown clock, unfortunately it was not connected to any actual launch that day (I can't begin to imagine them trying to launch a rocket right before a hurricane!).
For the next book on our journey, we had to jump ahead twelve years to 1983, with the publication of The Hardy Boys No. 79, Sky Sabotage. In this book, Frank and Joe do quite a bit of traveling around Central Florida, from Orlando over to the Space Coast, then back inland, then down to south Orlando, and back to the Space Coast. While the timing of all that travel is quite a bit off (trust me I've driven those distances, and there is no way those Hardy Boys could have made it in the times they did!).
This book only contained a few real references, the first being the boys' arrival into Florida at the Orlando International Airport. This is the same airport into which Pam flew down from Canada, and I can promise you that the OIA (as it is referred to here in Central Florida) is quite a bit different and much, MUCH larger than it was back in 1983. It is doubtful the boys would have had as much difficulty as travelers today have in navigating the terminals.
In their travels throughout the book, the brothers make a stop at the police headquarters in Melbourne (p. 76), a city that is south of Cape Canaveral and Patrick Space Force Base (but still located in the same county). In our own travels, we learned that the City of Melbourne has built a new headquarters since then, so the police station there now would not have been the one the Hardy Boys visited during their trip.
Probably the biggest nod to a real location in the book is when the boys pay a visit to "Fantasieworld" theme park (pp. 104, 107, and 108), in which they see rides such as "Outer Space Planet," "Deep Sea Submarine Ride," "Bear Dance," Island Pirates," and "Haunted House" - all of which are obvious takes on Walt Disney World and its famous rides, Space Mountain, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Country Bear Jamboree, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion. We did not go inside of Disney (do you have any idea the cost of tickets these days? egads!), but we did find it amusing how conspicuous the ghostwriter made the names of those rides.
Now, for the last book on this jaunt, we only had to jump ahead two years, to 1985, when the Hardy Boys once again visited Florida in The Skyfire Puzzle (which was originally going to be titled The Mystery of the Space Shuttle). This book finds the brothers experiencing way more of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral than we ever could, since they were not only able to explore a lot of secure areas, but they actually get to go up into space in a shuttle! I do not think either Pam or I was ready for that!
Since the boys were invited to parts of Cape Canaveral that is only open to employees, Pam and I thought we would try and sneak a peak at one of those "crew member" only areas. We got to take a peak through the fence before a very nice employee led us away and to the actual guest entrance.
In the book, the Hardys were able to tour " detailed mock-up of the shuttle" (p. 84), as well as visit the Vehicle Assembly Building (p. 86). As indicated above, we did not get to see the inside of the Vehicle Assembly Building, but we did get to see a number of missiles on display at the Space Center.
And last, but not least, we did pass by the same Mosquito Lagoon that Frank and Joe saw in the book (p. 26) as they were making their way to Kennedy Space Center. We learned that this lagoon is one of the least developed regions along the East Coast of Florida and it actually has a population of bottlenose dolphins that take up residence there. We were not lucky enough to see any of those dolphins as we passed by the lagoon. Kennedy Space Center, along with the cities of New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater, adjoin the lagoon.
Pam and I had a grand time exploring the Space Coast region, searching out the locations that the Hollisters, Nancy, Frank, and Joe visited in their books. We know that Andrew Svenson actually visited the area prior to his writing of the Happy Hollisters story, which is why that book has the most accurate depictions of the area (at the time). Harriet Stratemeyer Adams is credited for writing the revised Nancy Drew book, and Neal Barrett, Jr. is said to have written The Skyfire Puzzle for the Hardy Boys. Both of those books have at least some semblance of real locations within the stories. The other Hardy Boys mystery, however, has very few real locations referenced, and I was unable to find the identity of the ghostwriter - leading one to believe that the writer may not have had a much knowledge of Central Florida and the Space Coast as the others did.
Having now toured the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, and its surrounding areas for these four books, we wondered where our next adventure (after the hurricane passed through!) would take us...
COMING SOON: Exploring Series Books in Florida - Part 2 (St. Augustine)!
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