Our Parks Worth Fighting for: pt. 2: Treasure of Biscayne Bay
In the early 1960’s Miami was growing. There was a groundswell of opportunity, and big plans for future investments. The biggest industrial seaport in the US had been announced and planned. A massive natural gas refinery was to follow. Hundreds of thousands of people had moved into the city in the last 30 years. The population was nearing a million, which is 994,000 more than there had been in the area at the turn of the century, just 60 years before. (1)
Miami from Boca Chita Key in Biscayne National Park cir. 1992
The once sleepy farming town (and farming islands) which had relied upon shipping lanes to move pineapples, limes, tomatoes and other crops North, had been expanded into a booming city. Wooden sloops had been replaced by motorboats and yachts. TV and film producers came to film the tropical environments. Writers came to highlight the distinct mix of business and seaside. Real estate was expanding. Basically, everything was booming.
But the groundswell wasn’t just for industrial refineries and ports, a deeper, more urgent movement was growing even faster than planned construction. A seemingly small group of fishermen, hunters, outdoor enthusiasts, and environmentalists was pushing back on some of the planned expansions. And not without reason, some had seen the devastating changes to Miami Beach, transforming a wilderness area into concrete, neon, and placid sands. Some wanted to preserve industries often forgotten about in the name of progress, like fishing and sponging. Some wanted to preserve history. Some wanted to preserve the places they had hunted and fished when they were younger. Some saw a chance to protect a small piece of wild. Some saw the future potential in preserving wilderness spaces for future generations.
Whether they wanted, simply, to take their grandchildren fishing in in the same waters where they had fished, or saw portents of how devastating the development of Biscayne Bay could be to wildlife and outdoor industries, this small group began to grow. They did it through postcard campaigns, through news articles, through word of mouth. Those with more means did it through fancy tours. Herbert W. Hoover Jr. (Vacuum magnate not president or president’s son,) would take people on blimp tours over Biscayne, showing them the wild islands and the blue oceans while probably sharing stories of his time in the area as a child.
Modern overhead view, (like the blimp.) View is looking South. Islands are: (in order from left to right (north to south) Soldier’s Key, Boca Chita, Sands Key, Elliot Key, and distantly Adams, Porgy, Old Rhoads Rubicon.)
Public support began to shift in favor of preserving Biscayne. People didn’t move to Miami just for industry. Industry was everywhere. They chose southern Florida in part because of that tropical life. In addition, people were becoming more cognizant of the negative impacts development could have on national resources, and more aware of a need to preserve some of the best, wildest, places before they were gone.
The idea of saving Biscayne became popular. More popular than a port and an oil refinery. More popular than the development of a new ritzy community. And with popular support, some politicians were swayed, and others who shared similar sentiments were embolden. Robert Hardy Matheson ran for County Commissioner on the issue of protecting Biscayne Bay. The oil refinery was stopped.
That wasn’t enough. The community continued to speak. Continued to push for the preservation of Biscayne, not just immediately, but into the future. They had a goal and that goal was to turn Biscayne Bay into a National Monument. With help from politicians, input from the community, and a lot of hard work I’m glossing over, In 1968 Representative Dante Fascell championed the proposal to turn Biscayne into a National Monument in Congress. The measure passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the park into law. Biscayne National Monument was born.
Robert Hardy Matheson is still remembered for his work. There’s a nature preserve south of the entrance to Biscayne named in his honor. The new visitor center in Biscayne, bears Dante Fascell’s. Others associated with the movement to preserve Biscayne are still remembered fondly. Juanita Green is still remembered as a pioneering environmental reporter. One of the boats tourists can take in Biscayne is now christened with the name Lloyd Miller, who helped to organize the early fight for Biscayne, and continued to fight for it throughout his life.
But more importantly, the place they fought to preserve still exists. Through the efforts of a few, to get more interested, to become many, to become a political push, Biscayne National Park now sits south of Miami, a wilderness area of sea and mangrove, for seabird and manatee, and with legends of pirates and pioneers preserved.
It’s a place people can visit. A place where people can still fish for the same fish that Sir Lancelot Jones took multiple presidents out to look for on fishing expeditions. (Last time I was at Biscayne, they were holding a fishing workshop for kids, and I saw a few real in bonefish.) It’s a place where people can snorkel coral reefs, paddle mangrove estuaries, and boat through the same waters that brought those same presidents out to secluded little yacht club on Adams Key.
And that’s what the people who fought to preserve Biscayne would have wanted.
The people fighting to save Biscayne weren’t fighting to preserve it in the way we sometimes think about preservation. National Parks, National Monuments, (the many other designations) aren’t meant to be locked away, fenced off, gated, open to only a few, a few provided, a few who can afford. There are legitimate reasons to limit numbers, or access to some areas. Preservation is a delicate balance but it’s balanced against the other goal of preserving a park. But parks aren’t preserved against the public. They are preserved for it.
Parks are preserved as a legacy into the future, places to be shared by those who appreciate them and want them to be shared for generations to come. Juanita Green, Belle Scheffle, Virginia Tannehill, Sir Lancelot Jones, Dante Fascell, Herbert Hoover Jr., Dante Fascell, Lloyd Miller, and the many other people who fought to preserve Biscayne, and the many persuaded by their fight, saw a place worth fighting for, a place worth sharing.
It’s a place you can visit today. Where even as I write this, kids will be gathering to meet the Lorax and have a fun story time at the park. (If you are reading this it’s probably too late to make that event, but follow Biscayne National Park on social media, they have a lot of cool events.) It’s a place countless kids have come on school trips. It’s a place one kid remembers growing up in, hanging around the office and starting (way early) his procrastination on a future writing career.
That’s me.
I started the Junior Rangers Investigative Club Novels because I love writing. But I also love sharing some of the coolest places I’ve ever been. Including a few I’ve grown up in. Biscayne was one of those parks. And I wrote a book about it.
Treasure of Biscayne Bay is out now. Here is a link to buy it if you would like. Treasure of Biscayne Bay.
But even if you don’t, you should check out Biscayne, Dry Tortugas, Mammoth Cave, Everglades, Big Cypress, Dinosaur, Wupatki, Sunset Crater, Walnut Canyon, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the Grand Canyon, Denali, Yellowstone or any of the other 433 parks that I have written about or may write about in the future. Because each of those parks was identified by a small group of people who spread the word about them causing a groundswell of effort that eventually saved them. All because each of them was worth fighting for.
(1) Population of Miami-Dade in 1900: ~ 4,500. in 1930, ~ 143,000. in 1960, ~ 935,000. Today, 2.7 million. (link)
(2) https://www.nps.gov/bisc/learn/historyculture/the-birth-of-biscayne-national-park.htm?fullweb
(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Fascell
(4) https://www.southdadenewsleader.com/lifestyle/new-excursion-vessel-named-in-honor-of-volunteer/article_f3bba9e6-b39d-11ef-ba2f-dba3453736b8.html
(5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocolobo_Cay_Club