Key Biscayne () is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, located between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida, and lies south of Miami Beach 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 now protected as Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, adjacent to Biscayne National Park, one of the two national parks in Miami-Dade County.
Name The Spanish Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda related that a sailor from the Bay of Biscay, in what is now the northern coast of Spain, had lived on the lower east coast of Florida for a while after being shipwrecked. A 17th-century map shows Cayo de Biscainhos, the probable origin of Key Biscayne.
Geography Key Biscayne, although named a "key", is not geologically part of the Florida Keys, but is a barrier island composed of sand eroded from the Appalachian Mountains, carried to the coast by rivers and then moved along the coast from the north by coastal currents. The eastern edge of Key Biscayne is underlain by the Key Largo Limestone, a fossilized ancient reef that is exposed in the upper and middle Florida Keys. Elsewhere, there is no hard bedrock near the surface of the island, only layers of weak sandstone to depths of or more. The coastal transport of sand southward ends at Key Biscayne. In the 1850s, Louis Agassiz noted that "[s]outh of Cape Florida no more silicacious sand is to be seen." (The beaches in the Florida Keys, by contrast, 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 long and wide. The northern end of the island is separated from another barrier island, Virginia Key, 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 to the Ragged Keys, at the northern end of the Florida Keys.
Only Soldier Key, approximately wide, lies between Key Biscayne and the Ragged Keys. The Cape Florida Channel, deep in 1849, and Bear Cut, deep in 1849, are the deepest natural channels into Biscayne Bay. They provided the only access for ocean-going vessels to Biscayne Bay 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 above sea level.
Key Biscayne is located at (25.690329, -80.165118).
History
Early history The first known indigenous inhabitants of Key Biscayne were Tequestas. Shells, bones and artifacts found on the island indicate extensive use of it by the Tequesta. A large community appeared to inhabit 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.
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 in Biscayne Bay from a storm. 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. No other mission was established on the mainland until 1743, and that was withdrawn a few months later.
The first known European settlers on Key Biscayne were Pedro Fornells, his family and household. Fornells and his wife Mariana were Menorcan survivors of the New Smyrna colony in northern Florida. Pedro and Mariana had joined other Menorcans in seeking refuge at St. Augustine after leaving New Smyrna. They stayed in the city after the Spanish regained Florida in 1783. Fornells received a Royal Grant for 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 a caretaker named Vincent on the island.
Territorial years Following the First Seminole War and a treaty with Spain, Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821. Under pressure from US settlers, Seminole and Black Seminoles began to migrate into central and southern Florida. In the early 19th century, African-American slaves and Black Seminoles escaped to the Bahamas from Cape Florida to evade American slaver catchers. In 1820, one traveler reported seeing 60 "Indians", 60 "runaway slaves", and 27 boats of Bahamian wreckers preparing to leave Cape Florida. In a short period before the Cape Florida lighthouse was built in 1825, an estimated 300 Black Seminoles found passage from Key Biscayne to Andros Island in the Bahamas on seagoing canoes and Bahamian boats, settling at Red Bays and Nicholls Town. Although Key Biscayne was less suitable as a departure point after the lighthouse was built, the Bahamas remained a haven for escaping slaves.
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, 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.
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; his black assistant died of wounds. The lighthouse was not repaired and put back into commission until 1847.
A military post was established on Key Biscayne in March 1838. Its first commander was Lt. Col. James Bankhead. The fort was initially known as Fort Dallas or Fort Bankhead, but it was eventually renamed Fort Russell for Captain Samuel L. Russell. He was killed when the Seminoles ambushed two boats on the Miami River in February 1839. In the summer of 1839, a total of 143 soldiers and sailors were 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 be removed to Indian Territory.
A hospital was established at Fort Russell for United States Army, United States Navy, and United States Marine Corps personnel. In 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 at the fort, followed by malaria, tuberculosis, gunshot wounds and alcoholism.
Colonel Bankhead was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel William S. Harney in 1839. Colonel Harney had two earlier 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 (the Harney Massacre) on his camp led by Chief Chakaika. In light of these experiences, Harney instituted an intensive training program 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 continued, Mary and William Davis made plans to develop a town on Key Biscayne. They had a town plan printed in Philadelphia. 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, the county provided that the county court would meet annually on Key Biscayne. 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 that the post office ever opened; in 1842 the Postmaster General noted that the appointed postmaster had not completed any of the requirements for opening the post office. No further sales of town lots were made after Harney's purchase.
A complication 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 the 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. Their older son Edmund J. Davis eventually was elected as governor there.
Surveys and lighthouses
The numerous ship wrecks that occurred 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 cargoes were lost on the reef.
In 1846, the U.S. Congress appropriated $23,000 to rebuild the Cape Florida lighthouse and work was completed in 1847.
In 1849 the United States Board of Engineers conducted a preliminary survey of the coast of Florida. In a report written by Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee in March, 1849, the Board recommended that Key Biscayne be made a military reservation. Later that year, 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 and the Great Florida Reef.