Tropic Moon Media
In 2013, Charles Kropke and Eleanor Goldstein combined their interests to create the company, Tropic Moon Media. Charles has spent more than twenty years creating special tours throughout South Florida. Eleanor has been an educator and publisher of databases used by tens of thousands of institutions worldwide. They share an interest in adventure, ecology, and history that became the foundation of Tropic Moon Media. They have produced books and documentaries about Miami Beach and the Florida Everglades.
The singular most important documentary ever made of the plight, the successes and the prospects for solutions to vexing problems on the Everglades’ restoration.
The Unseen Everglades
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Miami Beach
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Florida’s 13th and 17th Governor was the second to be born in the state
William Dunnington Bioxham was born on a plantation in Leon County, Florida on July 9, 1835, to William and Martha (Williams) Bioxham. To manage George Washington’s plantation, his great-grandfather migrated from England and his grandfather endured adversity due to...
Florida’s Eleventh Governor was the last Reconstruction Governor
Marcellus Lovejoy Stearns was born on April 29, 1839, in Center Lovell, Maine, to Caleb and Eliza Russell Stearns. His mother was a descendant of the Revolutionary War patriot, Major Benjamin Russell, whose portrait hangs in Faneuil Hall. He also published The...
Florida’s Tenth Governor; the first Florida native governor
The tenth Governor of Florida, Ossian Bingley Hart was the first to be born in the state on January 17, 1821, in Jacksonville. He was the son of Isaiah and Nancy Hart. His father was one of the founders of Jacksonville and became one of the largest slaveholders....
Harrison Reed; Florida Ninth Governor and first Republican
One of eight children, Harrison was born to Seth Reed and Rhoda (Finney) Reed in Littleton, Massachusetts on August 26, 1813. In 1836, the family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he and his siblings contributed to the newly developing area and two of his brothers...
David S. Walker, Florida Eighth Governor, work to minimize changes during Reconstruction
David Shelby Walker was born on May 2, 1815, in Logan County, Kentucky. Born into a prominent Kentucky family, he attended private schools in Kentucky and studied law in Tennessee. Politics was in his blood. His father, David Walker served in the US House of...
William Marvin, Florida’s Seventh Governor, but first he was a US District Court Judge
The son of Selden Marvin and Charlotte (Pratt) Marvin, William was born on April 14, 1808, in Fairfield, New York. Raised on his family’s farm, he attended the Homer Academy and after graduating at the age of 15, began teaching school. After studying with a local...
Coffee Table and Historical Books
South Beach
Recently, the Miami Beach Design Preservation League (MDPL) selected “SOUTH BEACH: Stories of a Renaissance” as its feature book for MDPL Reads, a community reading program. The “coffee table” souvenir book was also featured during Art Deco Weekend, an annual event organized by MDPL that brings hundreds of thousands of visitors to Ocean Drive, Collins Avenue, Lincoln Road and the other storied streets of South Beach.
“The book is a treasure trove of stories, photos and original artwork that brings South Beach to life,” says Goldstein, noting it took more than two years of interviews and research to create the book. “We have featured the people who transformed the empty, mosquito infested island of the early 1900s into the most recognized international resort in the world.” Read more
South Beach
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Miami Beach
Noted author and adventurer, Charles J. Kropke traces the Illustrious 100 year history of Miami Beach (1815-2015). The book celebrates the Miami Beach Centennial, tracing the illustrious history of this storied island from the mid-1800s to present. It will highlight the lives of early pioneers and the visionary civic and business leaders who turned an uninhabited sandy island into today’s international visitor destination – and the many booms and busts along the way.
“Miami Beach has welcomed many waves of people through the decades,” Kropke says. In the 1910s and ’20s, tens of thousands of winter visitors from the northern states came each year, and hotels, restaurants and other businesses sprung up to cater to their needs. Read more
Miami Beach
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