Kissimmee, Florida
| Kissimmee, Florida | |||
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| City | |||
| City of Kissimmee | |||
The Osceola County courthouse in October 2009
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| Motto: "A community of neighborhoods for families!" | |||
 Location in Osceola County and the state of Florida |
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 U.S. Census Map |
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| Coordinates: 28°18′14″N 81°24′46″W / 28.30389°N 81.41278°WCoordinates: 28°18′14″N 81°24′46″W / 28.30389°N 81.41278°W | |||
| Country |  United States of America |
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| State |
 Florida
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| County |
 Osceola
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| Incorporated | 1883 | ||
| Government | |||
| • Type | Council-Manager | ||
| • Mayor | Jim Swan | ||
| • City Manager (1984–2010) | Mark Durbin | ||
| • City Manager (2010-present) | Mike Steigerwald | ||
| • City Attorney | Don Smallwood | ||
| Area | |||
| • City | 17.32 sq mi (44.8 km2) | ||
| • Land | 16.68 sq mi (43.2 km2) | ||
| • Water | .64 sq mi (1.6 km2) 3.7% | ||
| Elevation | 49 ft (15 m) | ||
| Population (2012) | |||
| • City | 66,400 | ||
| • Density | 3,800/sq mi (1,500/km2) | ||
| • Metro | 2,267,846 | ||
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) | ||
| ZIP code | 34741-34747, 34758-34759 | ||
| Area code(s) | 321, 407 | ||
| FIPS code | 12-36950 | ||
| GNIS feature ID | 0285145 | ||
| Website | http://www.kissimmee.org/ | ||
Kissimmee (/kᵻˈsɪmiː/ kə-SIM-ee) is a city in Osceola County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 59,682. It is the county seat of Osceola County. Kissimmee is a Principal City of the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2010 population of 2,134,411.
The area was originally named Allendale, after Confederate Major J. H. Allen who operated the first cargo steamboat along the Kissimmee River – the Mary Belle. It was renamed Kissimmee when incorporated as a city in 1883. The name, Kissimmee, came from 'Cacema', a Native American name meaning 'long water'. Its growth can be credited to Hamilton Disston of Philadelphia, who based his four-million acre (8,000 km2) drainage operation out of the small town. Disston had contracted with the financially wobbly state of Florida to drain its southern lands, for which he would own half of all he successfully drained. This deal made Disston the largest single landowner in the United States.
Disston's dredging and land speculation required a small steamboat industry to transport people and goods along the new waterway. The Kissimmee shipyard was responsible for building most of these large steamships, which were just one jump ahead of civilization—with Kissimmee as the jumping off point. Concurrently, the South Florida Railroad was growing and extended the end of its line from Sanford down to Kissimmee, making the town on Lake Tohopekaliga a transportation hub for Central Florida. On February 12, 1885, the Florida Legislature incorporated the Kissimmee City Street Railway.
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