 Dr. Washington Kilmer of Cincinnati was the first person of European background to settle into the area "circa" 1870, and he named the area Altamont (minus the "e" from the present spelling) after Altamont, New York, an area near his childhood home.In 1882, the Altamonte Land, Hotel and Navigation Company, founded by Thomas C. Simpson and four other Massachusetts businessmen, gave the area its present name