![]() Beginning in the 1890s local interests promoted the construction of a causeway to the mainland. The undeveloped keys south of Key Biscayne were viewed as prime development territory. During the 18th century, Elliott Key was the reputed base of two different pirates, both of whom were called Black Caesar, commemorated by Caesar’s Creek between Elliott and Old Rhodes Key.Īs modern communities continued growing in and around Miami, developers looked to southern Dade County for new projects. 43 wrecks are included on the National Register of Historic Places in the Offshore Reefs Archeological District, which extends for 30 mi (48 km) along the seaward side of the Biscayne National Park keys. The discovery of the ship in 1975 resulted in a landmark court case that established the wreck as an archaeological site rather than a salvage site. HMS Fowey was wrecked in 1748 in what is now Legare Anchorage, at some distance from the Fowey Rocks. The Spanish galleon Nuestra Senora del Popolo is believed to have been wrecked in park waters in 1733, though the site has not been found. At least two 18th-century Spanish ships were wrecked in the park area. There are 44 documented shipwrecks in the park from the 16th through the 20th centuries. Spanish treasure fleets regularly sailed past the Florida Keys and were often caught in hurricanes. The present name has been attributed to a shipwrecked Basque sailor known as the “Biscaino” or “Viscayno” who lived in the area for a time, or to a more general allusion to the Bay of Biscay. Ponce de León referred to the bay as “Chequescha” after its inhabitants, becoming “Tequesta” by the time of Spanish governor Pedro Menéndez de Avilés later in the century. The then-Spanish government resettled the Tequesta in the Florida Keys, and the South Florida mainland was depopulated. ![]() Other Spanish explorers arrived later in the 16th century, and Florida came under Spanish rule. Juan Ponce de León explored the area in 1513, discovering the Florida Keys and encountering the Tequesta on the mainland. A total of fifty significant archaeological sites have been identified in the park. A site on Sands Key has yielded potsherds, worked shells and other artifacts indicating occupation from at latest 1000 AD to about 1650, after contact was made with Europeans. The Tequesta were a sedentary community living on fish and other sea life, with no significant agricultural activity. The Glades culture was followed by the Tequesta people, who occupied the shores of Biscayne Bay. The earliest evidence of human presence in Biscayne dates to about 2500 years before the present, with piles of conch and whelk shells left by the Glades culture. The Cutler Fossil Site, just to the west of the park, has yielded evidence of human occupation extending to at least 10000 years before the present. ![]() Archaeologists believe that any traces left by the peoples of that era are now submerged none now exist on dry lands in the park. Water levels rose from about 4000 years ago and inundated the bay. Native Americans were present in lower Florida 10,000 years ago, when ocean levels were low and Biscayne Bay was comparatively empty of water. As an extension of the Everglades ecosystem, much of the park was initially proposed to be included in Everglades National Park but was excluded from obtaining a consensus for the establishment of the Everglades park in 1947. Only 9,075 acres (3,673 ha) of the park’s area are on land, with the offshore keys comprising 4,250 acres (1,720 ha) and mainland mangrove swamps account for the remaining 4,825 acres (1,953 ha). The park abuts the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary on the east and south sides of the park and John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park to the south. The southern portion of Biscayne Bay extends between Elliott Key and the mainland, transited by the Intracoastal Waterway. The southwestern boundary adjoins the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station and its system of cooling canals. The only direct mainland access to the park is at the Convoy Point Visitor Center, adjacent to the park headquarters. ![]() The park’s western boundary is a fringe of property on the mainland, extending a few hundred meters inland between Cutler Ridge and Mangrove Point.
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