Thirty years ago, Joan Gill Blank published “Key Biscayne: A History of Miami’s Tropical Island and the Cape Florida Lighthouse.” Meticulously researched and lavishly illustrated, the book is a veritable “Who’s Who” and “What’s What” of Key Biscayne’s rich history.
It opens with a vivid description of the geological forces that created our island: “…the quartz in the Carolinian sand that had washed down from rivers some thousand miles to the north tumbled together with trillions of particles of shells, sparkling in the sun like bits of magic crystal.” Noting the impermanence of a barrier island, Ms. Gill Blank writes,“There is no way to stabilize the fragile line where sand and water meet. On calm days they kiss like blithe lovers. In storms, when winds are rough, the angry ocean tears at the shores, and islands are defenseless.”
In a voice both poetic and precise, she carefully walks through 4000 years of Key Biscayne history. The attentive reader can’t help but notice how shifting visions for Key Biscayne parallel its shifting sands.
She describes how the island was used by early indigenous peoples and notes that the 16th Century Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon named the island “Santa Marta” and claimed it for Spain. Neither the name nor the Spanish flag stuck.
Land ownership on the Key has a tangled history, and the book does an admirable job untying the knots. It examines the key roles played by the Davis, Matheson, Deering, and Aleman families and delves into the history of the U.S. government’s presence on the Key. Ms. Gill Blank explains with a wink how a military fort was once constructed near the lighthouse, though neither its name nor location was ever fixed: “The fort on Cape Florida became a peripatetic fort, like the mangroves, ever walking.”
Even readers already steeped in island history will learn something new. The book describes proposals by Dr. Henry Perrine to develop a health resort, by Mary Ann Davis (“The Mother of Key Biscayne”) to divide Cape Florida into 264 housing plots, and by James Deering to dredge canals to provide waterfront property for all homeowners. Other little-known nuggets include Ralph Munroe’s five-year lease of the lighthouse as headquarters for the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club (1888 to 1893) and an account of a 19th Century “sandnapper” from Key West arriving to swipe sand from Key Biscayne’s beaches.
Following an overview of W.J. Matheson’s legacy and the creation of Crandon Park, the book glides through the construction of Rickenbacker Causeway, development of the Mackle Brothers houses, and the creation of Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. It wraps up in the 1990s, with the establishment of the Village of Key Biscayne and the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.
Local author and historian Cesar Becerra sings the book’s praises. “The book reads like a romantic fable of an enchanting island. It is the bible of understanding about the Key yet never gets mired down, opening hundreds of off ramps for future researchers to dig in even deeper.”
No other book has so thoroughly and captivatingly preserved the island’s history, and it is a must read for anyone wanting to understand where we come from. Joan Gill Blank will celebrate her 98th birthday in April.
For the last Lighter Side column, click here.