Key Biscayne, Miami

Key Biscayne is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay 29. It is the southernmost of the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida, and lies south of Miami Beach  2  and southeast of Miami. The Key is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originally built in 1947.

The northern portion of Key Biscayne is home to Crandon Park, a county park. The middle section of the island consists of the incorporated Village of Key Biscayne. The southern part of the island is in Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, and is adjacent to Biscayne National Park, one of the two national parks in Miami-Dade County.

Geography

Key Biscayne, while named a 'key', is not geologically part of the Florida Keys 33, but is a barrier island composed of sand eroded from the Appalachian Mountains, carried down to the coast by rivers and then moved down the coast from the north by coastal currents. There is no hard bedrock close to the surface of the island, only layers of weak shelly sandstone to depths of 100 feet (30 meters) or more. The coastal transport of sand southward ends at Key Biscayne. In the 1850s Louis Agassiz noted that south of Cape Florida no more silicacious sand is to be seen. (The beaches in the Florida Keys 33 consist primarily of finely pulverized shells.) Geologists believe that the island emerged around 2000 BCE, soon after the sea level stopped rising, as the sand built up to form new barrier islands on the southern Florida coast.

Key Biscayne is elongated in the north-south direction, tapering to a point at each end. It is approximately five miles (eight kilometers) long and one to two miles (one-and-a-half to three km) wide. The northern end of the island is separated from another barrier island, Virginia Key 27, by Bear Cut. The southern end of the island is Cape Florida. The Cape Florida Channel separates the island from the Safety Valve, an expanse of shallow flats cut by tidal channels that extends southward about nine miles (fourteen-and-a-half km) to the Ragged Keys, at the northern end of the Florida Keys 33. Only Soldier Key, just three acres (about one-and-a-quarter hectares) in area, lies between Key Biscayne and the Ragged Keys. The Cape Florida Channel (ten to eleven feet three to three-and-a-half meters deep in 1849) and Bear Cut (four feet a little more than one meter deep in 1849) are the deepest natural channels into Biscayne Bay 29, and provided the only access for ocean-going vessels to Biscayne Bay 29 until artificial channels were dredged starting early in the 20th century. In 1849 the island had a fine sandy beach on the east side, and mangroves and lagoons on the west side. The average elevation of the island is less than five feet above sea level.

Key Biscayne is located at (25.690329, -80.165118)1.

History

Early history

The first known inhabitants of Key Biscayne were Tequestas. Shells, bones and artefacts found on the island indicate extensive use of it by the Tequesta, and there are indications of an large community on the island between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago. In 1992 Hurricane Andrew scoured much of the vegetation from the southern end of Key Biscayne. An archaeological survey of the exposed ground found evidence of extensive habitation, indicating that Key Biscayne once held the largest known Tequesta community.

Juan Ponce de León charted Key Biscayne on his first mission to the New World in 1513. He christened the island Santa Marta and claimed it for the Spanish Crown. He reported that he found a fresh water spring on the island. Ponce de León called the bay behind the island (Biscayne Bay) Chequescha, a variant form of Tequesta.

The next European known to have visited the Key Biscayne area was Pedro Menéndez de Avilés.
In 1565 his ship took refuge from a storm in Biscayne Bay 29. Relations were established with the Tequesta, and in 1567 a mission was established on the mainland across the bay from Key Biscayne. The mission was abandoned three years later, in 1570. A second mission was established on the mainland in 1743, but was withdrawn a few months later.

Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda related that a sailor from the Bay of Biscay called the Viscayno or Biscayno had lived on the lower east coast of Florida for a while after being shipwrecked, and a 17th century map shows a Cayo de Biscainhos, the probable origin of Key Biscayne.

The first known European settlers on Key Biscayne were Pedro Fornells and his family and household. Fornells and his wife Mariana were Minorcan survivors of the New Smyrna colony in northern Florida. Pedro and Mariana had joined other Minorcans in seeking refuge at St. Augustine after leaving New Smyrna, and stayed in the city after the Spanish regained Florida in 1783. Fornells received a Royal Grant for 175 acres (about 71 hectares) on the southern end of Key Biscayne in 1805. The grant required Fornells to live on the island and establish cultivation within six months. He moved his household to the island, but after six months the family returned to St. Augustine, leaving only a caretaker named Vincent on the island.

Territorial years

Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821. In 1824 Mary Ann Channer Davis, who had moved to St. Augustine with her husband in 1821, bought the Fornells claim to Key Biscayne from one of the Fornells' heirs for US$100. Mary and her husband William Davis, a deputy U.S. Marshal, probably were aware of plans to build a lighthouse on the Florida coast somewhere between St. Augustine and Key West 32, and knew that Key Biscayne was a likely location for it. Mary and William sold three acres (about one-and-a-quarter hectares) of their newly acquired land at the southern tip of the island (Cape Florida) to the U.S. government for US$225. The federal government built the Cape Florida lighthouse on that land in 1825.

During the early 1820s an estimated 300 Black Seminoles and runaway slaves found passage from Key Biscayne to Andros Island in the Bahamas on seagoing canoes and Bahamian boats. In 1820 one traveler reported seeing 60 "indians", 60 "runaway slaves", and 27 boats of Bahamian wreckers preparing to leave Cape Florida. Although Key Biscayne was less suitable as a departure point after the lighthouse was built, the Bahamas remained a haven for excaping slaves. In a notorious case in 1844, Jonathan Walker was caught "within sight of Cape Florida" with seven runaway slaves on his boat. His punishment included having his hand branded with the initials SS (for slave stealer). John Greenleaf Whittier's poem The Branded Hand was inspired by this incident.

The first U.S. citizens to take up permanent residence on Key Biscayne were Captain John Dubose, his wife Margaret and their five children in 1825, when Dubose became the first keeper for the new Cape Florida Light, a post he held until the lighthouse was burned in 1836. The family was also accompanied by two former slaves of Margaret's brother. The Dubose household grew during that time and was reported in 1833 to consist of eleven whites and several negroes. During his tenure as lighthouse keeper, Dubose received hundreds of plants and seeds from Dr. Henry Perrine, United States Consul in Campeche, Mexico, which he planted on the island. In 1835 a major hurricane struck the island, damaging the lighthouse and the keeper's house, and putting the island under three feet of water, which killed almost all the plants that Dr. Perrine had sent from Mexico.

War with the Seminoles

In 1836, during the Second Seminole War, Seminoles attacked and burned the Cape Florida lighthouse, severely wounding the assistant lighthouse keeper in charge, and killing his black assistant. The lighthouse was not repaired and put back into commission until 1846. (See Cape Florida Light#Attack on the lighthouse)

A military post was established on Key Biscayne in March 1838. It's first commander was Lt. Col. James Bankhead, and it is variously reported that the fort was initially known as Fort Dallas or Fort Bankhead, but it was eventually renamed Fort Russell for Captain Samuel L. Russell, who was killed when the Seminoles ambushed two boats on the Miami River in February 1839. In the summer of 1839 there were 143 soldiers and sailors stationed at Fort Russell. Some of the Seminoles captured during the war were held at Fort Russell until they could be placed on ships to take them to western lands.

A hospital was established at Fort Russell to care for U.S. Army, Navy and Marine Corps personnel. In the month of August, 1840, the Army surgeon at the hospital treated 103 patients, including 23 for fever and 26 for dysentery. Dysentery was the leading cause of death, followed by malaria, tuberculosis, gunshot wounds and alcoholism.

Col. Bankhead was replaced by Lt. Col. William S. Harney in 1839. After two encounters with Seminoles, the first a battle in which Chief Arpeika eluded capture, and a second in which Harney escaped in only his shirt and drawers from an early morning attack on his camp led by Chief Chakaika, Harney instituted an intensive training progam in swamp and jungle warfare for his men. After Chakaika led the raid on Indian Key in August 1840, Harney set out into the Everglades after Chakaika, and killed him in his own camp. The war quieted down after that, with active pursuit of the Seminoles ending in 1842, although some of the Seminoles remained hidden in the Everglades.

While the war against the Seminoles was proceeding, Mary and William Davis made plans to develop a town on Key Biscayne. They had a plan for the town printed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The island was touted as an ideal destination for the recovery of the health. When Indian Key had been named the seat for the newly created Dade County in 1836, there had been a provision for the county court to meet on Key Biscayne once a year. In late 1839 the United States Postmaster General approved a post office for Key Biscayne. The first two lots of the new town were sold to Lt. Col. Harney for a total of US$1,000. There is no evidence, however, that the post office ever opened, and in 1842 the Postmaster General noted that the appointed postmaster had not completed any of the requirements for opening the post office. There were no further sales of town lots after Harney's purchase.

A complication in the Davises' plans arose when Venancio Sanchez of St. Augustine purchased for US$400 a half share in the old Fornells grant from another surviving heir, who lived in Havana. A feud quickly developed between Sanchez and the Davises, with Sanchez demanding a division of the property, and the Davises refusing to acknowledge that Sanchez had any claim to 'their' island. The Davises had hoped that a restored lighthouse would be the centerpiece of their town, but all attempts to repair the lighthouse failed while the war was on. Shortly after the end of the war, the Davises gave up on Key Biscayne and moved to Texas, where their older son, Edmund J. Davis, eventually became governor.

Surveys and lighthouses

The large number of ship wrecks along the southeast coast of Florida from Key Biscayne to the Dry Tortugas was a cause for concern. Between the late 1840s and the late 1850s more than 500 ships were wrecked on the Florida reef. The Assistant United States Coast Surveyor reported that in the period from 1845 through 1849 almost one million (United States) dollars worth of vessels and cargos were lost on the reef. In 1849 the United States Board of Engineers conducted a preliminary survey of the coast of Florida. In a report written by Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, the Board recommended that Key Biscayne be made a military reservation, and the United States Secretary of War so ordered in March 1849. Later in 1849 the United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers set up a camp with an astronomical/magnetic station to serve as a datum base for a survey of the Florida Keys 33 and the Great Florida Reef..

The triangulation survey was conducted by the U.S. Coast Survey with men detailed from the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy. There were approximately forty men based at Cape Florida working on the survey when Alexander Dallas Bache, Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey, went to Key Biscayne in 1855 to take personal charge of the survey. The survey eventually included Key Biscayne, Biscayne Bay 29, the Florida Keys 33 from south of Key Biscayne to the Marquesas Keys, and Florida Bay from the Keys to Cape Sable. The survey base marker at Cape Florida eventually ended up under water as the south end of the island eroded away, although it could still be seen at low tide as late as 1913. In 1988 the Cape Florida base marker was recovered from under water and moved inside the Cape Florida lighthouse. The north base marker for Key Biscayne was discovered in 1970 as workers were clearing land. It was at first mistaken as a gravestone for someone named A. D. Bache.

To learn more about the Great Florida Reef that paralleled the Florida Keys 33 and was so dangeous to shipping, Alexander Bache invited Louis Agassiz to study the reef. The U.S. Coast Survey sent Agassiz to Key Biscayne in 1851. He wrote a detailed report for Bache on the reefs stretching from Key Biscayne to the Marquesas Keys.

In 1846, US Congress appropriated $23,000 to rebuild the Cape Florida lighthouse and work was completed in 1847. In 1861, Confederate militants sabotaged the lighthouse so that it could not guide Union sailors during the blockade of Confederate Florida. The lighthouse was repaired and re-lit again in 1866. In 1878 the Cape Florida Light was replaced by the Fowey Rocks Light, seven miles southeast of Cape Florida. From 1888 to 1893, the Cape Florida lighthouse was leased by the United States Secretary of the Treasury for a total of US$1.00 (20 cents per annum) to the Biscayne Bay 29 Yacht Club for use as its headquarters. It was listed as the southernmost yacht club in the United States, and the tallest in the world. After the lease expired, the yacht club moved to Coconut Grove 16, where it still exists.

In 1898, in response to the growing tension with Spain over Cuba that resulted in the Spanish-American War, the Cape Florida lighthouse was briefly made U.S. Signal Station Number Four, one of 36 along the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast from Maine to Texas. The Signal Stations were established to provide an early warning of any approach of the Spanish fleet.

'Improvements'

Key Biscayne and coconuts have had a strong connection. The earliest possible mention of coconuts on Key Biscayne is a Spanish account from 1568, although the reference may be to cocoplums rather than coconuts. It is recorded that mature coconut trees were on Cape Florida by the 1830s, likely grown from coconuts sent from Mexico by Henry Perrine to the first lighthouse keeper, John Dubose.

In the 1880s Ezra Asher Osborn and Elnathan T. Field of New Jersey started an enterprise to "improve" the Florida coast from Key Biscayne to Jupiter by clearing native vegetation, leveling Indian mounds and beach dunes, and planting coconuts. Osborn and Field imported 300,000 unhusked coconuts from the Caribbean, of which 76,000 were planted on Key Biscayne. Unfortunately for the planters, most of the shoots from the coconuts on Key Biscayne were eaten by rats and marsh rabbits (Sylvilagus palustris). As a result of their "improvements", in 1885 Osborn and Field were allowed to purchase Key Biscayne and other oceanfront land from the Florida Internal Improvement Fund for 70 cents an acre.

Mary Ann Davis, who had bought the Fornells grant on Key Biscayne in 1821, died in Galveston, Texas in 1885. Her son Waters Smith Davis began taking steps to assert the family title to the island. In 1887 he purchased the rights of the other Davis heirs and received a new deed in his name. He could not get a clear title, however. Venancio Sanchez still claimed a half share of the Fornells Grant, two of the town lots had been sold to William Harney around 1840, and Osborne and Field had their deed from the Florida Internal Improvement Fund. Davis received quitclaims from Osborn and Field, and on the Harney lots, but was unable to settle with Sanchez. He finally received a patent from the United States government for his land in 1898. In 1903 Davis bought the abandoned Cape Florida lighthouse from the United States Treasury for US$400.

Davis started a pineapple plantation on Key Biscayne; six acres (two-and-a-half hectares) had been cleared and planted in pinapples in 1893-94. Davis also directed his caretaker to plant one-half to one acre (two-tenths to four-tenths of a hectare) of bananas. By 1898, a great variety of tropical fruit trees had been planted on the island. Davis also had a large dwelling built for his use. It was a two story cottage with five bedrooms and verandas on three sides, raised ten feet above the ground on pilings to protect against storm surges.

In the late 1890s Davis hired Ralph Munroe to oversee his Key Biscayne property. Munroe had begun visiting Biscayne Bay 29 in 1877. He soon built a home, the Barnacle, on land on the mainland in Coconut Grove 16 that he bought from John Frow, keeper of the Cape Florida Light and Fowey Rocks Light. Munroe engaged in wrecking in the waters around Key Biscayne, built sailboats, worked as a pilot for the Cape Florida Channel and opened a pineapple cannery, to which Davis sent his pineapples. Before mail service to the Miami area improved, Munroe would camp out on Key Biscayne every Tuesday evening so that he could sail out to the edge of the Gulf Stream early Wednesday morning to retrieve a package of newspapers and magazines dropped for him in waterproof pouches by a passing steamship. Munroe was also one of the founding members of the Biscayne Bay 29 Yacht Club.

In 1896 Henry Morrison Flagler brought the Florida East Coast Railway to Miami. Mary Ann and William Davis had dreamed of building a city on Key Biscayne. Now their son Waters was a retired millionaire, and interested only in preserving Key Biscayne as a quiet retreat for his family. For a while Flagler's arrival did disturb their quiet, as Flagler brought in dredges to deepen the Cape Florida Channel and the approaches to the mouth of the Miami River, muddying the formerly clear waters of Biscayne Bay 29. Soon, however, a shorter route from the ocean to Miami was dredged through the southern end of what is now Miami Beach  2 , at Government Cut, and the Cape Florida Channel was allowed to return to a natural state.

Coconut plantation and would-be resort

In 1902 William John Matheson, who had made his fortune in the aniline dye business, visited Biscayne Bay 29 on his yacht. He soon built a winter home in Coconut Grove 16 overlooking Biscayne Bay 29. In 1908 Matheson began buying up the property on Key Biscayne north of the Davis holdings, all the way to Bear Cut, over 1,700 (about 690 hectares) acres. Matheson created a plantation community, employing 42 workers by 1915, and 60 later. There was housing for the workers and their families, packing houses, docks, a school, a big barn, windmills, and 15 miles (24 km) of (unpaved) roads. The plantation had 36,000 coconut trees, and a variety of other tropical fruits. In 1921 Matheson introduced the Malay Dwarf coconut to the United States. This is now the most common variety of coconut found in Florida, after lethal yellowing killed off most of the Jamaican Tall coconut trees and many other varieties. The Matheson coconut plantation was at least twice as large as any other in the United States. By 1933, the world price for coconut products had dropped to about two-fifths of its 1925 level, and the plantation stopped shipping.

Waters Davis decided to sell his Key Biscayne property in 1913 (he died the following year). He appointed Ralph Munroe to act as his broker. Although William Matheson bid on the property, Munroe arranged a sale, for US$20,000, to James Deering, International Harvester heir and owner of Vizcaya in Miami. In 1914 Deering decided to develop his new land on the island as a tropical resort. He felt that Cape Florida's future lies in making sales for homes. Land was cleared and marshes and mangroves were filled in. Jetties were built on the ocean side in the belief that they would protect the beaches from erosion.

One stipulation that Waters Davis had made in the sale to Deering was that the Cape Florida lighthouse be restored. Deering wrote to the U.S. government seeking specifications and guidelines for the lighthouse. Government officials were taken aback by the request, wondering how a lighthouse could have passed into private hands. It was soon discovered that an Act of Congress and two Executive Orders, in 1847 and 1897, had reserved the island for the lighthouse and for military purposes. Patient legal work eventually convinced the U.S. Congress and President Woodrow Wilson to agree to recognize Matheson's and Deering's ownership of Key Biscayne.

In 1920 the heirs of Venancio Sanchez filed a lawsuit against James Deering, claiming an undivided half interest in his Cape Florida property. This brought development of the resort on Cape Florida to a halt. After many legal battles, the suit was finally decided in Deering's favor by the United States Supreme Court in 1926. The decision came too late for Deering, however; he had died the previous year.

1920s to 1950s

In February 1926 William Matheson entered into an agreement with D. P. Davis (a land developer, not related to Waters Davis) to develop and re-sell the northern half of Key Biscayne, including all of what is now Crandon Park and about half of the present Village of Key Biscayne. Davis had experience with turning submerged or partially submerged land into prime real estate, having created the Davis Islands in Tampa and Davis Shores near St. Augustine. Later in 1926 the City of Coral Gables incorporated with Key Biscayne included in its boundaries. There were dreams of a bridge to the island, making Key Biscayne the seaside resort for Coral Gables that Miami Beach  2  had become for Miami.

Obstacles to the project soon appeared. In March 1926 the U.S. government auctioned off some lots on Key Biscayne that had been retained when the rest of the island was transferred to the State of Florida. The Mathesons wanted to have clear title to all of their land, and determined to outbid other interested parties for the land. They ended up paying US$58,055 for a total of 6.84 acres (2.77 hectares) of land, a record price per acre for the auction of U.S. government land up to that date. Then, on September 18, 1926, the Great Miami Hurricane crossed over Key Biscayne on its way to Miami. While no lives were lost on the island, most of the buildings on Key Biscayne were destroyed or badly damaged, and many of the plantings were lost, including half of the coconut trees.

The Mathesons rushed to restore their plantation, replanting and buying new equipment to replace what was lost in the hurricane, and soon had 30,000 coconut trees replanted on 900 acres (365 hectares). Unfortunately, D. P. Davis was not able to meet his end of the contract; he declared bankruptcy and then disappeared en route to Europe by ship. The Florida Land Boom was over. There was no bridge built and no land development on Key Biscayne for the next two decades. William Matheson died in 1930, leaving the island to his children. There was a flurry of interest in 1939, when the U.S. Navy approved a proposal to develop Virginia Key 27 as an air base and sea port. There was even talk of putting an air base on the north end of Key Biscayne, as well.

In 1940 William Matheson's heirs donated 808.8 acres (327.3 hectares) of land (including two miles (3.2 km) of beach on the Atlantic Ocean) on the northern end of Key Biscayne to Dade County to be used as a public park (Crandon Park). The county commissioner who negotiated the gift, Charles H. Crandon, had offered for the county to build a causeway to Key Biscayne in exchange for the land donation. Planning for the air and sea complex on Virginia Key 27 was still proceeding, and construction on a causeway to Virginia Key 27 started in 1941. The Attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into World War II stopped all work on the causeway and the development of Virginia Key 27.

During the war Key Biscayne's tropical ambience was put to use by the film industry, with the island standing in for the Philippines in all of the exterior shots in They Were Expendable. The final scene in the movie depicts a C-47 flying past the Cape Florida lighthouse.

After the war Crandon pushed on with the project. He got financier Ed Ball to buy six million (U.S.) dollars worth of bonds financing the construction of the causeway. The causeway was named for Eddie Rickenbacker, World War I flying ace and founder and president of Miami-based Eastern Air Lines. Starting in 1951, the Mackle Construction Company offered new homes on the island for US$9,540, with just US$500 down. A U.S. Post Office contract branch was opened, the Community Church started holding services, and the Key Biscayne Elementary School opened in 1952.

Cape Florida becomes a state park

In 1948 José Manuel Áleman, who had fled Cuba in the wake of scandals surrounding his service as education minister in the administration of Ramón Grau San Martín, bought the Cape Florida property from the Deering estate. His offer to donate the lighthouse and ten acres (four hectares) of land around it to the National Park Service was not accepted.

In 1950 the Dade County Planning Board announced a plan to build a highway connecting Key Biscayne with the Overseas Highway on Key Largo. The project envisioned a series of bridges connecting artificial islands, to be built on the Safety Valve, and existing small keys to Elliott Key and on to Key Largo. Áleman was expected to donate the right-of-way for a road running down down the middle of the island to the first bridge at Cape Florida. With the prospect of a major highway passing through his property, Áleman rushed to prepare his new property for development by having it completely cleared, leveled and filled in. A seawall was constructed along all of the western (Biscayne Bay) side of the Cape Florida property.

Áleman died in 1951, and the County soon backed down from the plan. Áleman's widow, Elena Santeiro Garcia, added to her Cape Florida property by buying an ocean-to-bay strip that had been part of the Matheson property. This strip included a canal that had been dug by William Matheson in the 1920s, and which extended from the bay across most of the island. The land north of this canal was developed as part of what is now the Village of Key Biscayne. Garcia sold the Cape Florida property in 1957 for US$9.5 million, but the buyer defaulted and died the next year. Garcia sold the property again, this time for US$13 million. Development started on a model community of luxury homes and resort properties. By 1962 the new developers were in financial trouble, and the property reverted again to Garcia in 1963. Dade County began considering the purchase of fifty acres around the Cape Florida lighthouse for a park in 1964. Bill Baggs, editor of The Miami News, started campaigning for all of the Cape Florida property to preserved in a park. U.S. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall inspected the property and recommended that it be preserved, although not with Federal funds. In 1966 Bill Baggs brokered a deal between Elena Santeiro Garcia and the state of Florida, in which Florida bought the property for US$8.5 million, of which US$2.3 million came from the U.S. government. This land became Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, which opened January 1, 1967.