"Grant and Valkaria are two small communities on the lagoon, south of Melbourne. You might drive right past them on U.S. 1 and never know they were once someone's big dream. But these little places have a story — a frontier story, a dream story, and a story about what happens when a town stays small while the world around it explodes."
Frontier Beginnings
The frontier beginnings of Grant and Valkaria: Grant and Valkaria are two small unincorporated communities in southern Brevard County, along the Indian River Lagoon, between Melbourne and Sebastian. Today they're a quiet stretch of U.S. 1 with modest homes, oak trees, and a few historic buildings. But their story goes back to the 1880s frontier era. The land: The area was originally pine flatwoods and oak hammock along the lagoon's western shore, home to deer, wild turkeys, otters, and abundant fish and shellfish in the lagoon. The soil was sandy but the hammocks (areas of richer soil under oak trees) were good for growing citrus, pineapples, and vegetables. Early settlement: Settlers began arriving in the 1880s, drawn by the Homestead Act (which offered free land to anyone who would live on it and improve it for five years) and by the lagoon's transportation potential. The early settlers were pioneers — they cleared land by hand, built rough cabins, fished and hunted for food, and shipped their first crops north by boat. Life was hard and isolated. The nearest town was miles away, reachable only by boat or a rough trail through the scrub. These early homesteaders were the beginning of what would become Grant — a small community with big dreams on the lagoon.
