History

Biscayne National Park was established to preserve its history, both human and natural. On nearly every island in the park there is evidence of how native peoples used the land. Shipwrecks rest on the ocean floor, telling their own history. More than 10,000 years ago, Paleo-Indians migrated down the Florida peninsula, at the time likely twice as wide as it is today, to the area in which the park is found. As the Ice Age ended, the waters filled up the bay, leaving the remains of any civilization under water. As little as 2,500 years ago, as people became less nomadic, they settled in the area. Because the local people, now known as Tequesta, harvested the sea for food instead of growing crops, they were more active in art and religion. In the 16th century, European explorers arrived, bringing diseases that essentially wiped out native populations. In more recent history, 1897 to be exact, African-American Israel Jones bought his first piece of land at the southern end of what is now Biscayne National Park. For nearly a century the Jones Family thrived on the islands. Eventually, the Jones Family's farm became one of the largest producers of pineapples and limes on all of Florida's east coast. And more recent still, in 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill establishing Biscayne National Monument to protect "a rare combination of terrestrial, marine and amphibious life in a tropical setting of great natural beauty," as described by Rep. Dante Fascell, who led the movement to establish the park and for whom the visitor center is named. The protected area expanded over the next few decades, and in 1980 it was re-designated as Biscayne National Park.