Israel Lafayette Jones, born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1858, came to South Florida in 1892, where he married Mozelle Albury, a Bahamian woman, and together they raised their sons, King Arthur and Sir Lancelot. The family homesteaded hundreds of acres in the Florida Keys, became respected community members throughout Miami, and purchased Porgy Key in 1898. Beginning a rigorous pioneer life there two years later, they cleared dense mangroves and hardwood hammock vegetation and cultivated the land despite insects, subtropical heat, and humidity. Their farm became one of the largest producers of key limes and pineapples on Florida’s east coast, and they achieved autonomy, success, and respect despite harsh Jim Crow laws and institutional segregation. After farms in Mexico began outproducing those in Florida and the hurricane of 1926 damaged their farmland, the family turned from farming to sponge fishing and guiding fishing trips. After Israel and Mozelle died and King Arthur moved away, Sir Lancelot remained on Porgy Key, where he was a successful farmer, a fishing guide to several U.S. presidents, a prominent community member, and an early advocate for environmental conservation. In the 1960s, when developers planned a causeway connecting Miami to Key Largo and tried to buy the family’s property, he resisted development and, at age 70, sold his land to the National Park Service while remaining at his home on Porgy Key in the newly established Biscayne National Monument. In later years he shared his ecological knowledge with visiting schoolchildren, and after Hurricane Andrew destroyed the Jones family home in 1992, he spent his remaining years with friends in Miami. He died in 1997 at age 99, remembered for choosing protection over profit in a decision that helped make Biscayne National Park possible.