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Rex Beach

#HistoryTuesday - Tuesday December 09TH 2025

Rex Ellingwood Beach (1877-1949) was born in Atwood Michigan near the northern shoreline of Lake Michigan. He was an Olympic silver medalist in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis Missouri. He was a member of the U.S. water polo team. He was also a great best-selling novelist. Many of his 30+ novels became stage plays and motion pictures played at America’s theatres from coast to coast.

One of his novels - "The Spoilers" - was one of the best-selling novels of 1906. It's based on a true story of gold mines being seized or "despoiled" in Nome Alaska during the Gold Rush. Rex Beach witnessed it himself while he was prospecting for gold. The story became a stage play, and then it became a movie - 5 separate times over the next 50 years. The most popular version of the movie was in 1930 - starring Gary Cooper. A 1942 version of the movie starred John Wayne.

Rex Beach lived in West Central Florida (near Tampa) since he was a kid in the 1880s. He lived here in Sebring with his wife Edith in their spacious Northeast Lakeview Drive house from the Roaring 1920s until his death late in 1949. In fact - he claimed his own life 76 years ago this week - on December 07TH 1949. (He had fallen into a deep depression after the death of his wife 2½ years earlier.)

He and his wife are buried on the campus of Rollins College in Winter Park Florida where he attended as a 17-to-19-year-old. (He left during his Junior year.)

We have a small display honoring Rex Beach in our living room here at our Charles F. Weigle House Museum & Gift Shop.

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