Markham County Park, Sunrise, Florida
Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment. ~ John 7:24
5:30am.
That’s what time you have to be on the road to get anywhere on time around southern Florida. It was dark, but blissfully absent of heavy traffic. Especially since we really ventured out and took a longer day trip than we’ve ever done before.
Not sure you can call it “rush” hour. No one is rushing anywhere. . . .
Since John Pennecamp was a bust for snorkeling, we read about another place – Indian Key State Park. It’s actually a State Historic Park, and has been uninhabited for quite a while now.
Three hours after we left home, we were on our way across the Atlantic Ocean! The water was a little choppy, but our new vessel sailed right through it, the only problem being some splashing over the side, and that wasn’t really a problem per se, just inconvenient as my shorts got pretty wet. 😊
They were in the large cooler we keep in the Jeep.
I love it when he forgets stuff, because it’s so rare. Unlike me who forgets stuff all the time. : )
Before we docked, we decided to paddle around the 11-acre island to get a look at it. Very nice! We felt like real explorers!
Especially once we docked and realized there was quite literally no one else on this Key!
We placed our requisite $2.50 a person in the box, and began our exploration. They have signs up all over – both street signs and interpretive signs, which were very helpful since we knew nothing about the place. Hard to imagine an entire town sitting on this small bit of coral reef called land.
So how did it come to be? And what happened to everyone?
Native people lived in the Florida Keys thousands of years before explorer Ponce de Leon discovered Florida in 1513. These early inhabitants took advantage of the dangerous waters and hurricanes and were the first known “wreckers”, or those who profited from the salvage of sunken vessels. By the 18th century, the Keys’ inhabitants consisted mostly of Bahamian fisherman. These fishermen and turtlers soon found that the wrecking business was more lucrative than the fishing industry and wrecking became a very profitable business for these settlers.
In the early 1820’s, Florida was transferred from Spain to the United States, beginning America’s governance of the Florida Keys. The Bahamian wreckers were driven out of the Keys and Americans took over the wrecking business, with the only real wrecking Key of that time being Key West. One wrecker named John Housman, originally from Staten Island New York, was one of the largest wreckers on Key West. Because of his underhanded practices and shady dealings, Housman was largely considered a cheat and his contentious relationships in the community caused him to look for opportunities for business outside of Key West. Remember the Housman name as he becomes prominent in the history in about 10 years.
Silas Fletcher settled on Indian Key in April 1824 to sell goods to mariners for Solomon Snyder and Joshua Appleby of Key Vaca. It was decided to build a house and a store, for which, a Joseph Prince was hired as an assistant. Silas, his wife Avis, and two children, William and Abigail, used the house.
Evidently, Silas and Prince formed a partnership and purchased the holdings of Snyder and Appleby in January 1825. For reasons unknown, Joe Prince decided to leave a few months later (May) and according to Silas Fletcher, Joe Prince sold to him his half of the partnership’s business interests. Later Silas purchased from Prince the building that housed the store.
Silas did not have a commercial monopoly for long, as Joe Prince returned in 1826 and opened a competing store. This indicated that there was enough business on Indian Key for two stores. Remember that all of this happened some 65 years before Miami was incorporated. Key West was incorporated in 1828 and had a U.S. Superior Court. Silas Fletcher sold all his Indian Key property to Thomas Gibson for $2,500 and departed Indian Key in 1826. All of these property transactions are recorded in Monroe County Deed Books A, B and C in Key West. No other island name other than Indian Key is mentioned. Prince and Gibson are shown in the 1830 census, and Fletcher is not, as should be.
Jacob Housman purchased many properties on Indian Key during the 1830s because it too was surrounded by dangerous waters and were susceptible to hurricanes, perfect conditions for his wrecking business. Housman began to develop the island became a thriving port with a store, hotel, dwellings with cisterns, warehouses and wharves. Housman began to develop the key and constructed many buildings, including a country store, a hotel, and homes for the workers. He continued to invest in Indian Key and soon became the predominant landlord and community leader.
It was home to a community of wreckers — folks who salvaged goods off the many ships that ran afoul of the nearby reefs. It had two-story houses, a hotel where John Audubon stayed, a post office, stores and warehouses.
Driven by ongoing wrecking competition between Indian Key and Key West, Housman aimed to advance the prominence of Indian Key in regards to local government. In 1836, Housman was successful in convincing the Florida Council to establish Indian Key as the county seat of Dade County.
In 1938, Dr. Henry Perrine moved to Indian Key with an interest in tropical plants. He planted hemp, tea, coffee, bananas and mangos, as well as the Sisal that you’ll read about later.
The Second Seminole War which began in 1835, posed a new threat to the community of Indian Key. On March 16, 1840, a Mr. Downing presented to the governor and legislative council of Florida Jacob Housman’s proposition to catch, or kill, all the Indians of South Florida for $200 each. (See the Journal of the House of Representatives, Monday, March 16, 1840, page 612.) Action on the proposal was referred to the committee of military affairs. Whether the above had any adverse effect or not is conjecture.
Early in the morning of August 7, 1840, despite protection from the government and increased militia presence, Indian Key was attacked by a large party of Spanish-speaking Indians. It is a long story, but in summary on August 6, 1840, Lt. Rodgers departed neighboring Tea Table Key for the west coast of Florida with all military personnel capable of service. This left only the civilians on the island as the defenders. At about 2 A.M. on August 7, Chief Chekika and his group of warriors landed on the west coast of the Key and were shortly discovered. Taken by surprise, most of the 50-60 inhabitants of the island escaped thanks to an early warning from a lookout, but 10-15 people were killed and the island and all the buildings were set ablaze. One of the prominent residents, Dr. Henry Perrine was “hacked to pieces” for his attempt to reason with the Indians, but his family escaped by hiding in a turtle crawl under the house. Housman and his family escaped without harm.
After selling the island, he moved back to Key West. Housman never returned to Indian Key while living. He was later killed during a wrecking operation in 1841. Housman’s wife returned his body to Indian Key for burial. His grave was vandalized, but a replica is still in place today.
The country was so enraged by the attack on Indian Key that they sent Lt. Col. Harney from Fort Dallas (Miami) to catch Chekika. His band was surprised in the Everglades by Harney and his troops. Chekika was killed, scalped, and hung from a tree for all to see. This even broke the back of much of the Indian resistance in the area.
After the 1840 massacre, the Florida Squadron of the Navy moved to Indian Key, but only stayed there until the end of the Second Seminole War in 1842. The island was sold at public auction on January 15, 1844 to Messrs. Mowry and Lawton, mortgage holders from Charleston, S.C. for $355. The Great Hurricane of 1846 did considerable damage to the structures that the Navy had left. (Indian Key had been lucky as from 1820 until 1846 no significant storms had made contact.) W. H. Hilliard is thought to have operated some kind of a store after the hurricane. Hilliard acted as the agent to lease the island to the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers for 15 months at $20 a month for the construction of the Carysfort Lighthouse. George Meade revealed the negotiation in his letter of June 30, 1851. Indian Key itself had been suggested for the location of a lighthouse at one time.
What you’ll find on the Florida Keys island now is an evocative scene — ruins overgrown with jungle-like vegetation, streets signs marking paths that follow the grid of original streets and crumbling foundations of buildings. ~ keyshistory.org, Michael Woodfin, ghosttowns.com, floridarambler.com, and a little of myself to piece the three accounts together. 😊
Indian Key was purchased by the State of Florida in 1971. I couldn’t discover from whom, so there’s roughly an eighty-year lapse in information, however I did see where it was inhabited until the early part of the 1900’s and then abandoned completely. I didn’t dig any further. It was listed on the Register of Historic Places in 1972.
Let’s begin, shall we?
There were signs that they’re working on it.
On the bottom is a Latin phrase that means “Thus passes the glory of the world”.
About 10am, we were at the top of the Observation Tower and it was here we made our first sighting. Our own private paradise was no longer private. ☹ Three State Park Rangers and one volunteer had shown up via boats to do some work. We chatted a bit and asked a few questions, and continued our exploration.
The rangers finished their work and were gone by noon.
However, one bit of information we were disappointed with – no snorkeling. At least not what we’d anticipated based on our research. We were under the impression that you could just snorkel right off the shore of the island. Not so. Well, you can, and we did, but the real snorkeling is a ways off the coast, and you have to have a dive flag, or you get fined. Plus, if we took the kayak out there, there’s nothing to tie it to, which means either we snorkel one at a time, or the boat floats away. Not an ideal situation.
So instead, we just played around with what we had.
Not much, but at least we used the equipment we drug out there.
We did see a couple of fish and one especially interesting thing. An opaque, willowy, thing. When I managed to pick it up, it was slimy, but didn’t seem like something real. More like a long, drippy piece of snot – like when a kid has a runny nose. Gross! But it was definitely a living organism of some kind. We saw several and watched them undulating on the shallow ocean floor. I tried Googling it, but found nothing, and this is the best I can do for pictures/videos.
Any ideas about what this thing is?
We left our little island around 1:15pm. On the way back, we saw a couple of other paddlers on their way over. Guess we left just in time. 😊
After some discussion, and noticing that it was now 2pm, we decided to just drive back home before the heavy traffic hit. It’s a long enough drive without having to deal with that.
Burgers and fries for dinner! And since we were in the exploring mood today, I tried making them in a different way. Turned out really good! Recipes to follow!
BURGERS:
1 ½ # hamburger
1 piece white bread, crust removed and cut into ¼” pieces
8 t. milk
1 ¼ t. Kosher salt
¼ t. pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
¾ T. Worcestershire sauce
1 T. ketchup
Mash together the milk and bread until lumpy, add remaining ingredients except meat. Mix well. Add meat and mix carefully, but thoroughly. Form into loose balls, then flatten.
Grill
CRISPY BAKED FRIES:
2 Idaho potatoes
Salt (or other seasonings as desired)
Cut potatoes into 1/4” sticks. Put potatoes in a large bowl and cover with HOT tap water to an inch over potatoes. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, cover a baking pan with about 1 T. olive oil and set oven temperature to 450.
Drain and dry with a towel. Return potatoes to the bowl and drizzle with 1 T. olive oil and sprinkle with salt (or other seasonings if using). Mix well. Spread in single layer and bake 15-20 minutes. Flip and re-spread to single layer. Bake an additional 15-20 minutes.