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Hello, and welcome to Bill Baggs Cape Florida S.R.A. My name is _______________ and I work here as a _______________ and will be your tour guide today.
I want you to have the kind of tour you would most enjoy so I invite you to ask me lots of questions. I could talk for a long time about the things I know, but I would rather tell you what you want to know. What I have planned is this: for the first 20-30 minutes we will go down to the lighthouse where I will give a brief talk at the base and then take up those who wish to go to the top. Next we will go to the keeper's house for 10-15 minutes and then we have a 14 minute video in the theater/cookhouse. If you want to leave at any time you may; the turnstile on your right lets you out, but you cannot come back in. Please let me know when you leave because I set the alarm system when the tour is over and I don't want anyone tripping it. Any questions?
Key Biscayne is the southernmost barrier island on the U.S. east coast. Unlike the rock and reef Florida Keys, it is basically a pile of sand in the Atlantic Ocean and its shorelines change in the course of tides and storms. The lighthouse is on its original foundation, however, the ocean was originally 300 yards further out. It is the oldest structure in South Florida, built in 1825. In August 1992 we were visited by a class 5 hurricane, Andrew, and the park was flattened. We have since planted 125,000 trees and have made quite a comeback.
Humans were in Florida at least 12,000 years ago. A large community of Tequestas, a tribe of the Calusa nation, between 1500 and 2000 years ago. In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon documented the Gulf Stream, laid claim to La Florida, and then sailed south and discovered Santa Marta, later known as Key Biscayne.
As we go down the "Avenue of Coconuts" I want you to imagine stepping back in time to the early 1800's, when the highways were the seas and Key West was the largest city in Florida. The main route was from New York City to Key West and ships were wrecked on the coral reefs. A main occupation was as salvager, with many Bahamians coming over to participate and bring the loot to Key West for trading.
Cape Florida was a natural navigational point, being the northernmost start of the reefs and it made sense that a lighthouse would be sited in this area. Congress appropriated the funds in 1824, and the lighthouse was first placed in service on December 17, 1825. The lighthouse was 65 feet high, and it was raised 30 feet to its current height of 95 feet in 1855. We have renovated the lighthouse to the 1855 time period. Originally 17 lanterns provided the light.
When Florida was returned to Spain in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris, Pedro Fornells applied and was given the first Royal Spanish grant in South Florida receiving 175 acres ("the only cultivatable land") on Key Biscayne in 1805. In 1821 Florida became a territory of the United States William Davis became the Deputy Marshall from the St. Johns River to Cape Florida and his wife Mary Ann began purchasing real estate and bought the Key Biscayne tract from an heir of the Fornells family for $100, confirming the title in 1824.
Because title to Mary Ann Davis' 175 acres was unclear, the 3 acres she offered the U.S. government for a military reservation was not a completed sale until July 1827. A major hurricane in 1835 damaged the lighthouse foundation and tower, and the keeper's house.
As white settlers moved into Florida, they pushed the natives further south and west into the Everglades, with escaped black slaves often joining them. As clashes grew, the Second Seminole Indian War developed in 1835, continuing until 1842. In January 1836, William Cooley's family was killed at their farm on the New River near present-day Fort Lauderdale. Settlers on the Miami River went to Key Biscayne seeking refuge, but deciding it was unsafe went along with the first lighthouse keeper John DuBose his wife and five children to Key West. A boat dispatched from Indian Key discovered the lighthouse in possession of the Indians. Cooley volunteered to take charge of the lighthouse and did so with 5 guards until March when DuBose reluctantly returned to the lighthouse, with the Indians having moved inland.
DuBose hired John W.B. Thompson as his assistant, Aaron Carter (probably Thompson's slave), and another man to guard the lighthouse. DuBose went with the unnamed man to Key West in July 1836 to visit his family and get supplies, while Thompson and Carter stayed. On July 23, while going from the kitchen to the keeper's house, Thompson spotted the Indians and ran for the lighthouse, calling for Carter to follow him. Rifle balls tore his clothes and he was just able to lock the door as the Indians got to it.
Thompson boarded up the lower window, while shots were being fired at all the windows and lanterns. He had sawed off the lower part of the stairs and as tins of oil ignited, he and Carter managed to take a keg of powder with them as they got up the remaining part of the stairs. As the Indians continued the attack all night, the fire inside consumed everything, making the heat in the lantern room unbearable. They crawled out on the platform circling the outside of the tower where Thompson was shot in both his feet and Carter killed. Thompson managed to throw the keg down into the fire, hoping to end his misery, but the tower shook and everything wooden fell down into the fire below. He lay out on the platform and the Indians, thinking him dead, went and set fire to the other structures on the property.
When the men of the U.S. schooner Motto came to rescue him they told him the explosion from the powder had sounded twelve miles out to sea. They were able to shoot a rope up and then haul up a block which Thompson fortified and two men were then able to bring him down. This is probably the most famous attack on a U.S. lighthouse.
Congress appropriated $10,000 to rebuild the lighthouse in 1837, however, due to the Seminole War, the light remained out of service until 1846, when an additional $13,000 was appropriated and Reason Duke was named the new keeper (until 1853) at $600 a year. After the rebuilding the light was relit April 30, 1847. (Florida became a state on March 3, 1845.)
In 1855 when the tower was extended a Second Order Fresnel Lens was installed. At this time the lighthouse sat 100 feet from the Atlantic Ocean. On January 10, 1861, Florida seceded from the Union. In August, three Confederate sympathizers destroyed the lens' prism and reflector, and removed the lamps and burners so that the Cape Florida Light could not be an aid to Union sailors who controlled the waters. It was not until after the war that the light was repaired and relit on April 15, 1866.
The improved Cape Florida Light was visible for 18 miles, but was 3 miles from the reefs edge and over 6 miles from Fowey Rocks. In 1868, Florida was readmitted to the Union. The lighthouse was extinguished on June 15, 1878 when the Fowey Rocks Lighthouse was lit and the Frows were transferred there.
Who wants to try to go to the top of the lighthouse? We will go slowly and you can go at your own pace. Those of you who wish to stay here may sit inside in the coolness or you can walk outside and we will meet on the front porch of the house in about 20 minutes.
Mary Ann Davis' son Waters bought back the lighthouse in 1903 for $400 from the U.S. government. James Deering, the next owner, soon changed his supposed intentions of not disturbing the land and began clearing and dredging as a means for mosquito control, to make way for future development. He discovered the lighthouse had only four feet of foundation and had it fortified by 1919 and also had it repainted. At this time it was only 10 yards from the Atlantic. The expense proved worth it: the tower withstood the great hurricane of 1926, as well as Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
In 1948, Jose and Elena Aleman, Cuban exiles, bought Cape Florida for $1.5 million, substantially more than the $20,000 that Deering spent in 1913. They offered the tower to the National Park Service, but it was rejected as historically insignificant. Elena continued to look for a buyer after her husband's death in 1950, and finally in 1966 the State of Florida bought Cape Florida for $2.5 million in federal funds and $6.2 million from the state.
The park opened on January 1, 1967. Renovation of the lighthouse began in January 1968 and was opened to the public on October 3, 1970. In 1971 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On July 4, 1978, the lantern was relit after 100 years of darkness. In 1990 it was again extinguished. Since 1991 we have been restoring the lighthouse to its 1855 historical condition. With only minimal damage from Hurricane Andrew in August 1992, repairs continued and in August 1996, the lantern was once again relit in conjunction with Miami's 100th birthday celebration.
(On the front porch of the house) We have only two rules inside the house: 1) please don't touch anything as the oils from your skin can add to the deterioration of the artifacts and 2) please stay behind the guardrails. You may go both upstairs and downstairs and we will then go to the cookhouse to view the video.
Note from this photograph that the house built after the Seminole wars in 1847 had three dormered windows in front and one in the back and the porch extended across the front of the house (all were added to the original house in 1830), unlike our replica house built in 1969. There were seven lighthouse keepers and most only stayed for a few years. Life was very isolated on the island and it was difficult. Frow, the last keeper, went to Fowey Rocks when it was built. The house originally had two bedrooms upstairs, but was later divided into three.
We will now view the video. It will take about 14 minutes. Enjoy!
Thank you all for coming. As you leave, notice the outhouse and the cistern (there was no plumbing in the early days, of course). Also there is an interpretive sign in front of the tropical garden and the 1855 survey marker near the sea wall.