A Land Remembered has been ranked #1 Best Florida Book eight times in annual polls conducted by Florida Monthly Magazine. In this, Florida's favorite novel, Patrick Smith tells of three generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family battling the hardships of the frontier. Tobias and Emma MacIvey arrive in the Florida wilderness in 1858 with their son, Zech, to start a new life. Zech learns to ride like the wind through the Florida scrub on Ishmael, his marshtackie horse, his dogs, Nip and Tuck, at this side. His parents scratch a living from the land, gathering wild cows from the swamp and herding them across the state to market. Zech learns the ways of the land from the Seminoles, with whom his life becomes entwined as he grows into manhood. With the birth of Zech and Glenda's son, Solomon, a new generation of MacIveys learns to ride horses, drive cattle, and teach rustlers a thing or two. Sol and his family earn more and more gold doubloons from cattle sales, as well as dollars from their orange groves.

They invest it in buying land, once free to all.