New Smyrna Beach [key], city (1990 pop. 16,543), Volusia co., NE Fla., on Indian River (a lagoon; part of the Intracoastal Waterway) and on Ponce de Leon Inlet of the Atlantic Ocean; inc. 1903. It is a center for citrus-fruit packing and has commercial fishing and seafood-processing industries as well as varied light manufacturing. It is also a tourist city, with 8 mi (11.3 km) of white sand beaches. A Spanish Franciscan mission was established there in 1696. Colonists arrived in 1767, but the settlement did not prosper until the advent of the railroad in the mid-19th cent. Of interest in the area are a huge Native American mound made of shells and artifacts, and the ruins of a Spanish fort (c.1565).
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