Saltwater Railroad Before the Lighthouse was built, the Cape Florida Light was one of the places where
slaves and
Black Seminoles boarded ships for the Bahamas. This was known as the
Saltwater Railroad, a migration that began when Spain transferred its Florida territory to the United States. Under the Spanish, many blacks were free, a right they feared would end under American rule.
Spanish Florida had been a slave refuge until
President Andrew Jackson, a strong supporter of slavery, invaded in 1818. When the Americans took over in 1819, the
Adam-Onis Treaty prompted hundreds of blacks to begin migrating to the British-held
Bahamas. This was the beginning of a decade's long movement. Enslaved people in the south had limited options for escape, northern states and British Canada, where slavery was either abolished or restricted by the 1820s. This made the Bahamas a much more viable option for those in Florida as the nearest island was 154-miles away. During the early 1820s an estimated 300
Black Seminoles found passage from Key Biscayne to
Andros Island in the Bahamas on seagoing canoes and Bahamian boats. In 1820 one traveler reported seeing 60 "Indians", 60 "runaway slaves", and 27 boats of Bahamian
wreckers preparing to leave Cape Florida. When construction began in 1825 on the lighthouse the Saltwater Railroad was compromised by the bright light. While the lighthouse was helpful to sailors offshore it proved a setback to those seeking to escape Florida at night. Although Cape Florida was less suitable as a departure point after the lighthouse was built, the Bahamas remained a haven for escaping slaves. Five days later, on July 23, 1836, a band of Seminole attacked the lighthouse. Thompson and Carter reached the lighthouse tower; Thompson later recounted feeling rifle balls go through his clothes and hat. The Seminoles grabbed the door just after he turned the key to lock it. Thompson exchanged rifle fire with the Seminoles from upper windows in the tower for the rest of the day but after dark, the raiders approached the tower, setting fire to the door and a boarded-up window at ground level. Rifle balls had penetrated tanks in the bottom of the tower, which held 225 gallons of lamp oil for the light, and the oil caught fire. Thompson's clothing had been soaked with oil, and he and Carter retreated to the top of the tower, taking a keg of gunpowder, balls, and a rifle with them. The two men cut away a part of the wooden stairway below them in the tower before being driven out of the top by the searing flames. The fire flaming up the interior was so bad that Thompson and Carter had to leave the lantern area at the top and lie down on the tower platform that ran around the outside of the lantern. Thompson's clothes were burning, and both he and Carter had been wounded by the Seminoles' rifle shots. The lighthouse lens and the glass panes of the lantern shattered from the heat. Sure, that he was going to die and wanting a quick end, Thompson threw the gunpowder keg down the inside of the tower. The keg exploded but did not topple the tower. It dampened the fire briefly, but the flames soon returned as fierce as ever before dying down. Thompson found that Carter had died from his wounds and the fire. The next day Thompson saw the Seminoles looting and burning the other buildings at the lighthouse station. They apparently thought that Thompson was dead, as they had stopped firing at him. After the Seminoles left, Thompson was trapped at the top of the tower. He had three rifle balls in each foot, and the stairway in the tower had been burned away. Later that day he saw an approaching ship. The
United States Navy schooner Motto had heard the explosion of the gunpowder keg from twelve miles (19 km or 22 km) away and had come to investigate. The men from the ship were surprised to find Thompson alive. Unable to get him down from the tower, they returned to their ship for the night. The next day the men from the
Motto returned, along with men from the schooner
Pee Dee. They fired a ramrod tied to a small line up to Thompson and used it to haul up a rope strong enough to lift two men to the top, who could get the wounded man down. Thompson was taken first to Key West, and then to
Charleston, South Carolina, to recover from his wounds. The Cape Florida Light was extinguished from 1836 to 1846.
Second lighthouse In 1846 a contract was let to rebuild the lighthouse and the keeper's dwelling. The contractor was permitted to reuse the old bricks from the original tower and house. New bricks were also sent from
Massachusetts. The contract went to the low bidder at US$7,995. The lighthouse was completed and re-lit in April 1847. It was equipped with 17
Argand lamps, each with reflectors. When that was completed 1n 1878, the Cape Florida lighthouse was taken out of service. Keeper John Frow and his father Simeon became the first keepers at the new lighthouse at Fowey Rocks.
Inactive period From 1888 to 1893, the Cape Florida lighthouse was leased by the
United States Secretary of the Treasury for a total of US$1.00 (20 cents per annum) to the
Biscayne Bay Yacht Club for use as its headquarters. It was listed as the southernmost yacht club in the United States, and the tallest in the world. After the lease expired, the yacht club moved to
Coconut Grove, where it still is active. In 1898, in response to the growing tension with Spain over
Cuba, which resulted in the
Spanish–American War, the Cape Florida lighthouse was briefly made U.S. Signal Station Number Four. It was one of 36 along the U.S.
East Coast and
Gulf Coast from
Maine to
Texas. The Signal Stations were established to provide an early warning of approach of the Spanish fleet. The land around the lighthouse at the end of the 19th century belonged to Waters Davis. His parents had purchased the title to a Spanish land grant for the southern part of Key Biscayne soon after the United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1821. They sold the for the lighthouse site to the U.S. government in 1825. Although there had been competing claims on the land, Davis resolved most of them and in 1898 received a patent from the US government for the land. In 1903 Davis bought the abandoned Cape Florida lighthouse from the United States Treasury for US$400. In 1913 Davis sold his Key Biscayne property, including the lighthouse, to
James Deering,
International Harvester heir and owner of
Villa Vizcaya in Miami. He stipulated that the Cape Florida lighthouse be restored. When Deering wrote to the U.S. government seeking specifications and guidelines for the lighthouse, government officials were taken aback by the request, wondering how a lighthouse could have passed into private hands. It was soon discovered that an Act of Congress and two Executive Orders, in 1847 and 1897, had reserved the island for the lighthouse and for military purposes. Attorneys eventually convinced the U.S. Congress and President
Woodrow Wilson to recognize Deering's ownership of the Cape Florida area of Key Biscayne, including the lighthouse.
Beach erosion threatened to undermine the lighthouse, and records show that a quarter mile of beach had washed away in front of it in the 90 years since its construction. Deering had engineers inspect the tower to identify needed restoration work. They discovered that the foundations for the tower were only four feet deep. Deering ordered sandbagging at the base of the tower and the construction of jetties to try to stop the erosion. The engineers first proposed driving pilings under the lighthouse to bedrock to support the tower, but soon discovered that there was no hard bedrock. The engineers built a concrete foundation with steel casing for the tower. Subsequent to the installation of the new foundation, the tower survived the
eyewall of the
1926 Miami Hurricane.
Restoration The southern third of Key Biscayne, including the lighthouse, was bought by the State of Florida in 1966. It established the land as
Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, named for the editor of the
Miami News, who had urged protection and helped arrange the deal for preservation of the land. The state restored the lighthouse tower, and in 1969 constructed replicas of the keeper's dwellings. The Park Service built replicas of the lighthouse keeper's cottage and kitchen in 1970 to serve as a museum. In 1978, the
Coast Guard restored the lighthouse to active service, one hundred years after it was decommissioned. An automated light was installed in the tower to serve as a navigational aide, particularly to help boaters find the Florida Channel at night. A lighthouse inspection in 1988 found that the foundation installed during Deering's time was in excellent condition. After twelve years of service, the light was decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1990. As part of the renovation, the light was replaced with its present optics before its reactivation. It is now owned and managed by the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection. In 2004 a sign was installed in the park to commemorate the site for the escape of hundreds of slaves and Black Seminoles to the Bahamas in the nineteenth century. It is part of the National
Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Trail. ==Depictions in popular media==