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    Key Biscayne
    Key Biscayne
    Key Biscayne
    Ebook228 pages1 hour

    Key Biscayne

    By James A. Kushlan and Kirsten N. Hines

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    *Best Nonfiction Book about Florida Award for 2015 from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association*

    Key Biscayne is an island paradise umbilically connected to Miami by a three-and-a-half-mile-long causeway. Its recorded history is one of the longest in North America, starting five centuries ago with Juan Ponce de Le n s arrival, the second official landing of Europeans in North America after Columbus. For centuries, Key Biscayne was an important landmark for Gulf Stream mariners, and the Cape Florida Lighthouse, built in 1825, is the oldest remaining structure in the region. The key was the site of an infamous Indian attack, a Second Seminole War military base, scientific expeditions, a Civil War raid, a tropical plantation, and finally a residential village and county, state, and national parks. When the key served as Richard Nixon s vacation White House, its worldwide fame grew. Key Biscayne now hosts a multinational community and hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateDec 8, 2014
    ISBN9781439648872
    Key Biscayne
    Author

    James A. Kushlan

    James A. Kushlan is a biologist, conservationist, author, and former trustee of HistoryMiami Museum. Kirsten Hines is an environmental educator, writer, and wildlife photographer. They are authors of Arcadia Publishing's Key Biscayne and Biscayne National Park. They live in Coconut Grove, Florida.

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      Book preview

      Key Biscayne - James A. Kushlan

      127.

      INTRODUCTION

      Sun and sand, sky and water, people and parks, shops and hotels, houses and condos, very old and very new, Key Biscayne is today an island paradise intertwined with the densely populated and socially complicated Miami megalopolis by a 3.5-mile-long causeway crossing Biscayne Bay and neighboring Virginia Key before bridging Bear Cut onto the key itself. Once, Key Biscayne was a sandy barrier island cloaked with nearly impenetrable scrubby saw palmettos and mangroves. To the east, beaches lined its Atlantic shore, and, to the west, the mangrove swamps graded into Biscayne Bay. Its southern tip, Cape Florida, was for centuries a landmark for traveling mariners on the Gulf Stream.

      Key Biscayne’s story starts in prehistory. About 10,000 years ago, with sea levels lower than today, South Florida extended eastward toward the edges of the continental shelf, likely edged by barrier islands. As the sea level rose gradually, barrier islands migrated landward. Roughly 5,000 years before the present, the key had achieved its current shape. The sea level stopped rising, and an equilibrium settled in (although it is presently being undone by global warming). Key Biscayne is where the sand stopped—quartzite sand flowing southward on longshore currents originating in the long-eroding Appalachian Mountains. By the time this sand reached Key Biscayne, it was augmented by locally produced carbonate sand derived from marine shells, corals, and algae. This mix formed the island, which sits on top of a coral backbone that is an extension of the Florida Keys.

      The human story of Key Biscayne also starts in prehistory. Although hard evidence is understandably lacking on sandy islands, Archaic Native Americans certainly used the key. Indian occupancy of the Biscayne Bay area can be dated for certain to 2,500 years ago, so, by the time Europeans arrived, Key Biscayne had been used by humans for millennia, although that history is mostly lost to us.

      Native Americans, including the Tequestas of the contact period with Europeans, and their descendants, as well as, eventually, the Seminoles, Spanish, and English, all contributed to Key Biscayne’s recorded history, which, nearly uniquely in the United States, spans over 500 years. The Tequestas’ culture stretched back 1,000 years to 500 BC. In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon made Key Biscayne his second landing site in North America, ushering in centuries as a Spanish possession, except for two decades under Great Britain, during which the key and its surroundings were mapped carefully for the first time. In its second period, Spain awarded the first private land grant on Cape Florida. Key Biscayne became an American island in 1819, when Spain gave up trying to maintain authority in the face of increasing pressure from neighboring Americans, ending three centuries of European influence. Soon after the transfer, in 1825, the United States built the Cape Florida Lighthouse at the southern tip of the key. An attack on the lighthouse during the Second Seminole War brought the military to the island. Renovating the lighthouse and charting the coast followed, as did the Civil War. Although it was restored several times, relit, and, once, elevated, it was replaced by one on Fowey Rocks in 1878, after which government interest waned and local development bypassed the key.

      By the late 1800s, settlers had begun to populate the region, and, as it was increasingly civilized, Key Biscayne attracted the attention of families of wealth, influence, and ambition. After becoming a short-lived coconut plantation, the key came into the possession of private owners, notably Waters Davis, the son of the first American owner, William J. Matheson, and, later, James Deering. The island became a private reserve for the families and a tropical garden and plantation. This basic situation changed only in the 1940s, when the Matheson family gave the northern part of the island to the county, and the county built a causeway to the key that opened in 1947. From Miami, the causeway passed first through government-owned Virginia Key, opening that island to development, which was primarily for public, educational, and scientific purposes. The attractions brought in crowds of visitors.

      Key Biscayne’s development took a different route. The northern part of Key Biscayne was transformed into Crandon Park. In addition to two miles of oceanfront beach, this car-friendly park included a marina, a golf course, picnic areas, an amusement park with a miniature train and a carousel, a zoo, an environmental education center, and, eventually, a controversial tennis center.

      The southern portion of the key, initially under development-minded private ownership, eventually became Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. Its beach, which had always attracted visitors, is regularly rated as one of the best in the country. The Cape Florida Lighthouse, closing in on 200 years of age and the oldest structure in the county, was restored and relit, becoming the symbol not only of the park but also of the entire island of Key Biscayne.

      Between the two parks, privately owned land was transformed into a community of residences, shops, community facilities, and visitor accommodations. Initially, the post–World War II development focused on a planned community for new home owners. Development evolved towards larger homes on larger lots and expanded to condominiums and hotels that lined the beach. A beach club, a yacht club, and annual events such as an art show and a Fourth of July parade followed. The key came to international attention when Pres. Richard Nixon chose it as his vacation White House, attracting not only attention but also, in time, new residents from around the world. As years went by, following Miami as a whole, the key’s residents became more international, especially Hispanic.

      In 1991, the town incorporated as the Village of Key Biscayne, which was followed in 1992 by Hurricane Andrew. The state park landscape and lighthouse underwent restoration, long-term businesses changed, and the original hotels were replaced by upscale condominium complexes. The years of 1991 and 1992 provided a transition point, leading to the key’s evolution into the vibrant and diverse community of today.

      Today’s Key Biscayne is home to about 13,000 residents drawn from around the world. The key also hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to its public beaches, hotels, and sports facilities. Few communities can boast of sharing

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