History of Volusia County and Fast Facts
History of Volusia County
Explore the trails that lead to Volusia County's colorful past:
Volusia County: Fast Facts
More than 500,000 people call Volusia County home. Situated on the east coast of Central Florida, our 47 miles of Atlantic Ocean beaches are a world-class playground, with beachfront cities including Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach and New Smyrna Beach.
Water sports are plentiful, but Volusia's oceanfront communities are most famous for land sports. Early automotive pioneers such as Louis Chevrolet and Henry Ford enjoyed their leisure time in the sun and found that the hard-packed sand, gentle slope and wide expanse of Volusia's beach was the perfect proving ground for early auto racing. Ormond Beach, in fact, is known as the "Birthplace of Speed."
The racing tradition continues today at Daytona International Speedway, one of the world's finest racing facilities and the home of the world-famous Daytona 500, an event larger than the Super Bowl.
Jackie Robinson Ballpark, located a mile from the beach, features a museum, a minor league baseball team, and a lot of history. It was the first place in Florida to allow Jackie Robinson to play in a game during 1946 Spring Training, a year before Jackie broke the color barrier in Major League baseball. The stadium changed it's name to honor the event in 1989 and is currently the home to the Daytona Tortugas.
The scenic St. Johns River, famed for its bass fishing, links magnificent parks with wildlife preserves along the county's western border. True southern charm can be found in DeLand, the county seat. This unique city features an award-winning downtown filled with antique shops and quaint restaurants, surrounded by stately historic homes and buildings.
Florida Trend’s list of the 350 biggest companies in Florida includes four Volusia County firms: NASCAR, Brown & Brown, International Speedway Corp. and Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. TopBuild Corp., representing the assets and operations of the former Masco Installation and Other Services businesses with combined 2014 revenue of $1.5 billion, became an independent, publicly-traded company on June 30, 2015. The defense arm of Sparton, the largest producer of sonobuoys in the world is based here in Volusia County. Teledyne Oil and Gas, the world leader in subsea electrical and fiber optic interconnect systems for offshore oil and gas, defense, oceanographic and telecommunication applications is based in Daytona Beach, and Hawaiian Tropic sun care products are manufactured in Ormond Beach. Boston Whaler, Edgewater Power Boats and Everglades Boats are all based in Edgewater. Raydon, one of the world’s leading developers of simulation training products and solutions is headquartered in Port Orange. Medtronic, a global healthcare products company, and Frontier Communications’ Florida Contact center are located in DeLand, which is also home to some of the world’s leading parachute manufacturers.
Our institutions of higher learning -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Stetson University, Bethune-Cookman University, Daytona State College and the University of Central Florida -- have a national reputation for excellence.
Volusia County is about an hour's drive north of Disney World and the Kennedy Space Center. It's also within a few hours' drive of other major Florida communities, such as Tampa (139 miles), Miami (253 miles), or Jacksonville (89 miles).
Volusia County consists of 1,207 square miles. Elevation begins at sea level and rises to a high elevation of 110 feet.
