The Canaveral National Seashore is a National Seashore located between New Smyrna Beach and Titusville, Florida, in Volusia and Brevard Counties. The park, located on a barrier island, was created on January 3, 1975, by an act of Congress. Canaveral National Seashore celebrated its 25th birthday on January 3, 2000; however, the concept for the park actually originated 44 years earlier. This 25 miles of pristine Atlantic Ocean beach, dunes and Mosquito Lagoon is the longest expanse of undeveloped land along the East Coast of Florida and as a federally protected area will remain primarily as it is today.
During 1955, a National Park Service survey team visited the Turtle Mound area and "found the seashore a priceless scenic and scientific resource for which there is no substitute". Ten years later, T. C. Wilder, president of the New Smyrna Beach Chamber of Commerce, organized a Seashore Park subcommittee, acting on a recommendation by the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council to follow up on the NPS report. The committee included several former presidents of the NSB Chamber of Commerce. They were Dr. Cook, John Deal, and Walter Mulbury.