North Miami is a suburban city located in northeast Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, about north of Miami. The city lies on Biscayne Bay and hosts the Biscayne Bay Campus of Florida International University, and the North Miami campus of Johnson & Wales University. Originally the town of "Arch Creek", the area was incorporated as the "Town of Miami Shores", which was renamed the "Town of North Miami" in 1931. It was reincorporated as a city in 1953. The city is also home to the Oleta River State Park, which is the state's largest urban park. , the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 60,191. North Miami is the seventh largest city in Miami-Dade County. History Early history In the final phase of Indian inhabitation of the area that eventually became "North Miami", United States Army soldiers in 1856 cut a Military Trail through nearly impassable thickets and rivers connecting Fort Lauderdale to Fort Dallas at the mouth of the Miami River. This eight-foot trail, Dade County’s first roadway, crossed a unique natural bridge—a natural limestone bridge spanning across the creek that no longer stands in Arch Creek Memorial Park—in an area that would attract a settlement that early on would be known as "Arch Creek". Even before 1890, a handful of adventuresome pioneers spent brief periods around the Arch Creek Natural Bridge, a centuries-old Indian settlement. In 1891, Mr. Ilhe was the first to put down roots in the Arch Creek vicinity. He purchased from the State of Florida at one dollar an acre in the area of today’s N.E. 116th Street and Biscayne Boulevard. The place was so remote that his nearest northern neighbor was thought to live in Ft. Lauderdale. Mr. Ihle built a temporary palmetto frond shelter. During the next 27 years he grew shallots, coontie, squashes, bananas, sugar cane, Puerto Rican pineapples, lemons, guavas, limes, rose apples, Jamaican apples, and tomatoes. By 1905 the area surrounding the nine-year-old Arch Creek Railroad Depot had become the community’s hub. It was located at 125th Street and the F.E.C. tracks. That year a post office and a school were opened nearby. By 1912, eighteen homes, a church, a general store, a blacksmith shop, and two tomato packing houses were located around the railroad. The population was estimated at less than one hundred. Farming was still the principal occupation. The Florida land boom that was underway in