South Miami, city (1990 pop. 10,404), Dade co., SE Fla., a suburb of Miami; settled 1899, inc. 1926. It is a commercial and retail center for neighboring Coral Gables.

North Miami Beach, residential and resort city (1990 pop. 35,359), Dade co., SE Fla., on the Atlantic coast; inc. 1931. It is a major office and retail area.

North Miami, city (1990 pop. 49,998), Dade co., SE Fla., a growing suburb of Miami, on Biscayne Bay; inc. 1926. It is mainly residential, but has considerable retail development. Manufactures include boats, wooden furniture, and aluminum products. The city is linked with Miami Beach by a causeway. The Museum of Contemporary Art and a Florida International Univ. campus are located there.

Miami, University of, main campus at Coral Gables, Fla.; partly supported by city, county, and state; coeducational; chartered 1925, opened 1926. Notable programs include a school of marine and atmospheric sciences and a graduate school of international studies. Research facilities include the Center for Theoretical Studies and the Institute for Molecular and Cellular Evolution. The university maintains extension centers throughout the state.

Miami University, main campus at Oxford, Ohio; coeducational; state supported; chartered 1809, opened 1824. The library has extensive collections in literature and American history, including the William Holmes McGuffey Library and Museum and the Edgar W. King collection of children's literature. Other campuses are located at Hamilton and Middletown.

Miami Springs, city (1990 pop. 13,268), Dade co., SE Fla., a residential suburb of Miami; inc. 1926. The wells in the city supply water to much of Dade co. Miami International Airport is adjacent to the city.

Miami Beach, city (1990 pop. 92,639), Dade co., SE Fla., on an island between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean; inc. 1915. It is connected to Miami by four causeways. Miami Beach is a popular year-round resort, famous for its "gold coast" hotel strip, palatial estates, and recreational facilities. The city's chief source of income derives from tourism. The 34,000-seat Convention Hall complex in Miami Beach has hosted several national political conventions. Cultural institutions include the Bass Art Museum and other facilties of the Cultural Park and the Wolfsonian, a museum of design.

The area was originally a mangrove swamp. A wooden bridge was built from the mainland in 1913, but development was slow until the Florida land boom in the 1920s. The glamorous hotel and vacation industry began to decline in the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, large numbers of Cuban refugees from the Mariel boatlift flooded into the area, seeking its cheap accommodations. A spurt in less-expensive development along the ocean road followed and led to the influx of a younger population and to the exodus of many wealthier retirees to other resort cities in Florida. The 1979 designation of an Art Deco section of South Beach as a historic district, however, slowly set in motion an architectural revival of the city. By the 1990s Miami Beach had reemerged as a popular tourist destination. More recently there has been renewed interest in "Miami Modernism," the architectural style that characterizes the city's 1950s hotels.

Miami, group of Native Americans of the Algonquian branch of the Algonquian-Wakashan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). They shared the cultural traits of the Eastern Woodlands area and the Plains area, hunting the buffalo that ranged through much of their territory. In the mid-17th cent. the Miami held land in W Wisconsin, NE Illinois, and N Indiana. In the mid-18th cent., however, the invading northern tribes drove the Miami to NW Ohio. The Miami occupied this territory until the treaty of 1763, when they retired to Indiana. They then numbered some 1,700. The Miami had aided the French in the French and Indian Wars, and they helped the British in the American Revolution. With their chief Little Turtle, the Miami were prominent in the Indian wars of the Old Northwest. By 1827 they had ceded most of their lands in Indiana and had agreed to move to Kansas. Most of them went (1840) to Kansas and then moved (1867) to Oklahoma, where they were placed on a reservation. Since then the land has been divided among them. There is also a group of Miami in Indiana. In 1990 there were some 4,500 Miami in the United States.

Miami. 1 City (1990 pop. 358,548), seat of Dade co., SE Fla., on Biscayne Bay at the mouth of the Miami River; inc. 1896. The region of Greater Miami encompasses all of Dade co., including Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah, and many smaller communities.

The second largest city in the state, a port of entry, and the transportation and business hub of S Fla., it is also a popular and famous resort of the E United States. Tourism remains a major industry, closely followed by manufacturing and commerce. Miami has an international airport and is the principal American port for cruise ships to the Caribbean. The city is also the processing and shipping hub of a large agricultural region and a center for rebuilding and repairing aircraft. Manufactures include clothing, transportation equipment, machinery, plastics, and electronic components. Other industries are printing and publishing, fishing, and shellfishing. Miami is the home to the National Hurricane Center (at Florida International Univ.) and the headquarters of the U.S. Armed Forces Southern Command, responsible for military operations in Central and South America.

Professional football's Miami Dolphins, baseball's Florida Marlins, and basketball's Miami Heat play in the city, and college football's annual Orange Bowl contest is held there. Professional hockey's Florida Panthers play in suburban Sunrise. Miami is the seat of a number of institutions of higher education, including Barry Univ., St. Thomas Univ., Florida Memorial College, Florida International Univ., and the largest junior college in the country (Miami-Dade Community College). The Univ. of Miami is in nearby Coral Gables. The Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, home to the Miami City Ballet and the Florida Grand Opera, is also there. A number of state parks, gardens, and major tourist attractions are in the area.

The first modern settlement was made in the 1870s near the site of Fort Dallas, built in 1836 during the Seminole War, but it was preceded by more ancient settlements, such as the Tequesta site unearthed in 1998. In the 1890s, Henry M. Flagler made Miami a railroad terminus, dredged the harbor, began a recreational center, and promoted tourism. Miami received its greatest impetus during the Florida land boom of the mid-1920s. Since 1959 the large influx of Cubans has created "Little Havana," an ethnic sector that has had sporadic racial unrest; by the 1990 census nearly 50% of the city population was Hispanic, predominantly of Cuban descent.

In Apr., 1980, the U.S. government agreed to allow 3,500 Cuban political refugees into the country; a national announcement by Cuban leader Fidel Castro that those wanting to leave Cuba should gather at Mariel, near Havana, resulted in the boatlift of more than 100,000 Cuban refugees to S Florida. The 1980s and early 1990s were marked by large suburban growth, spurred by the increase of high-technology industries in the Miami area. Metrorail, the city transit system that opened in 1984, has been relatively unsuccessful.

2 City (1990 pop. 13,142), seat of Ottawa co., extreme NE Okla., in the foothills of the Ozarks and on the headwaters of Grand Lake, which provides both electric power and recreation. It is a trade, shipping, and marketing center for a tristate livestock and dairy region where lead and zinc are mined. Manufactures include apparel, metal and leather products, electronic materials, motor coaches, and fiberglass boats.

Miami or Great Miami, river, c.160 mi (260 km) long, formed in W Ohio near Indian Lake and flowing generally SW past Dayton to the Ohio River at the Ind. line. The Miami River system has large-scale flood-control projects. The Miami and Erie Canal (c.240 mi/390 km long; opened in the 1830s) linked the upper Miami River with Lake Erie and was the principal transportation route of W Ohio until the 1850s. The Little Miami River (95 mi/152 km long) to the east and generally parallel, rises SE of Springfield and enters the Ohio River at Cincinnati.

Little Miami, river: see Miami, river.

Great Miami, river: see Miami, river.

City (pop., 2000: 87,933), southeastern Florida, U.S. It is situated on an island across Biscayne Bay from Miami. Until 1912 the site was a mangrove swamp. John S. Collins and Carl F. Fisher pioneered real estate development and built a bridge across the bay; the area was dredged to form an island measuring 7.4 sq mi (19 sq km), with an 8-mi (13-km) beach. The city, incorporated in 1915, is now a luxury resort and convention centre. It is connected with Miami by several causeways and is noted for its Art Deco architecture.

Learn more about Miami Beach with a free trial on Britannica.com.

City (pop., 2000: 362,470), southeastern Florida, U.S., situated on Biscayne Bay at the mouth of the Miami River. The southernmost large city in the continental U.S., it has a beach 7 mi (11 km) long. A Spanish mission was founded near the site in 1567, but permanent settlement did not begin until 1835, when U.S. forces built Fort Dallas for the removal of Seminole Indians to the West. The arrival of the railway in 1896 spurred development, and Miami was incorporated the same year. The city has been damaged by occasional hurricanes, notably in 1926 and 1935. Nearly 300,000 Cuban refugees have arrived since 1959 (see Cuba), establishing “Little Havana” within the city. It is a major resort and retirement centre, and its port handles the world's largest number of cruise-ship passengers. It is also a banking centre. Educational institutions include the University of Miami and Florida International University.

Learn more about Miami with a free trial on Britannica.com.