Biohazard Cleanup Near Riviera Estates Clearwater, FL

Clearwater takes its name from a clear freshwater spring that once flowed near the site of today's City Hall, on a bayfront that was once the homeland of the Tocobaga people.

During the Seminole Wars, the U.S. Army established Fort Harrison on the high bluff overlooking Clearwater Harbor, and the settlement that grew around it became the community's waterfront core.

The first passenger railroad reached Clearwater in 1888 on Peter Demens' line, and the settlement incorporated in 1891 with James E. Crane as its first mayor.

Railroad magnate Henry B. Plant opened the grand Belleview Biltmore hotel just south of Clearwater in 1897, launching the area's career as a winter resort destination.

Clearwater was reincorporated as a city on May 27, 1915, and became the seat of Pinellas County, which had been split off from Hillsborough County in 1912.

Clearwater Beach, a barrier island inside the city limits on the Gulf of Mexico, is anchored by the 1,080-foot Pier 60, where the nightly 'Sunsets at Pier 60' festival has run since March 17, 1995.

The Clearwater Marine Aquarium opened in 1972 inside a former water treatment plant and works to rescue and rehabilitate injured marine animals.

The aquarium's most famous resident was Winter the dolphin, rescued in 2005 after a crab trap cost her her tail; fitted with a prosthetic tail, she starred in the films Dolphin Tale (2011) and Dolphin Tale 2 (2014) before dying in 2021 at age 16.

During World War II, Clearwater served as a major U.S. military training base, and the offshore island of Sand Key was used for bombing practice.

Clearwater is the spiritual headquarters city of the Church of Scientology, whose landmark Fort Harrison Hotel and Flag Building dominate part of the downtown skyline.