Ojus is a census-designated place and formerly incorporated town in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The population was 16,642 at the 2000 census. Ojus is bordered by Aventura to the east, I-95 to the west, North Miami Beach to the south and Broward County to the north.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 3.3 square miles (8.5 km2), of which, 2.8 square miles (7.3 km2) of it is land and 0.5 square miles (1.3 km2) of it (14.94%) is water. Elevation is 10 feet.
People have been living in the Ojus area for thousands of years. Paleo-Indians have been documented in south Florida dating back to over 13,000 years ago. Archaeologists have uncovered ancient sites at Arch Creek and along the Oleta River. According to archaeologist Robert Carr, although the largest Tequesta settlement was located at the mouth of the Miami River, by 750 BCE approximately 100 Native Americans routinely inhabited the local area which was just a one-hour canoe trip north of the main settlement. The Oleta River, which cuts through Ojus, was one of the Tequesta’s primary “roadways” for millennia. Subsequent people, to include Seminoles, European explorers, and early settlers, would also use the Oleta River to traverse from Miami to the New River in Ft. Lauderdale.
During the late nineteenth century, settlers established farms along Oleta River. These settlers grew peas, beans, sugar cane, and tomatoes. Seminoles set up a trading post near present-day Greynolds Park to conduct business with the Ojus settlers. In 1897, Albert Fitch named the area Ojus after the Seminole word for "plenty" or "lots of."[22] After the turn of the century, rock was discovered in the area that was ideal for road building. Many of the neighborhood lakes were created during the early part of the twentieth century to support construction of the area’s infrastructure.
Two landmarks were created in the early part of the twentieth century, but only one still survives today. In 1925, Carl Fischer constructed the Fulford-Miami Speedway in the present-day Sky Lake neighborhood. The wooden race track was then billed as the world’s fastest. It was unfortunately destroyed by the devastating 1926 hurricane. One of the region’s most notable features, Greynolds Park, was established in 1936 as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) ‘New Deal’ programs. The park was named after Mr. A.O. Greynolds, owner of the Ojus Rock Company, who donated 110 acres of his property in exchange for naming the park after him. Over the years, the park has expanded to include a golf course, a boathouse, and has even hosted popular musical acts during the 1960s such as the Grateful Dead. Greynolds Park was declared a historic site in 1983.
