Ron Miller

Ron Miller

BY DICKIE ANDERSON PHOTO BY STEVE LEIMBERG, UNSEENIMAGES.COM

When Ron Miller greets you with his signature smile, you instantly want to get to know him. It doesn’t take long to learn that he has enormous passion for the history of Amelia Island, especially its African American history. This self-styled historian has used his knowledge and his own personal history in American Beach to create a new business called Coast One Tours. Miller’s comprehensive tours offer an in-depth look at not only American Beach, but also Kingsley Plantation, Fernandina Beach, and Old Town.

Growing up in Jacksonville, Miller visited American Beach often. In those years, it was one of the only Florida beaches where African Americans were welcome. He would stay at the home of the son of A.L. Lewis, one of the founders of American Beach. The elder Lewis is a legend. With only an elementary school education, he helped found the Afro-American Life Insurance Company, became Florida’s first African American millionaire, and in 1935, he and his business partners established American Beach. The A. L. Lewis Museum, founded in 2014, celebrates the history and legacy of American Beach.

Growing up and spending a lot of time in American Beach, Miller remembers when visitors would come from all over the country and stay at one of the many motels close to the beach. There was surf fishing, shell gathering, beauty contests, and car races on the beach.

Miller remembers climbing Nana Dune, the tallest natural sand dune on Florida’s coast before it was protected landmark. It is now part of the National Park Service, thanks largely to the efforts of MaVynne Betsch, “the Beach Lady.” The Evans Rendezvous and Ocean-Vu-Inn offered dining and dancing. American Beach hosted many celebrities during this period, including Zora Neale Hurston, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, and Billy Eckstein. It is said that James Brown was actually turned away from performing outside Evans Rendezvous.

Miller, a retired railroad conductor for CSX, was a baseball umpire for both high schools and college for more than 40 years. He was head umpire for the City of Fernandina Beach and

Church League softball. As a youngster, he competed in every sport. What is his favorite sport? Probably basketball, he shares.

Active in the American Beach community, Miller is in touch with people who have lived in the community through the years and know its history and personalities well. In addition to the history of American Beach, his tours include a stop at Kingsley Plantation on Fort George Island, a working plantation before the end of slavery, and stops along the Amelia River in Fernandina Beach and Old Town, where participants learn the tragic history of the slaves offloaded on Amelia Island as part of the Middle Passage, the forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World.

What does Miller do for fun? With a big grin, he is quick to say surf fishing. He especially likes to drive his truck on the beaches at the south end of the island, where he hopes to find the whiting are biting. Miller and his wife, Avis, have a blended family of four children and seven grandchildren.

Miller hopes that his tours will help educate and preserve the treasured history of American Beach and the many contributions of African Americans to Amelia Island. For more information or to schedule a tour, visit coastonetoursllc.com.