Key Biscayne, The Barrier Island

Key Biscayne is a barrier island at the north end of the reef-strewn Florida Straits. One thousand years before Columbus sailed, the Tequesta inhabited the island and navigated dugout canoes between it and the mainland. Spanish explorers and missionaries referred to the native people around Biscayne Bay as Vizcaynos. Although this name is documented in a 1675 mission report letter from Bishop Calderon of Cuba, and several tales offer explanations, the true origin of the name borne by Biscayne Bay and Key Biscayne remains a mystery. In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon sailed from Puerto Rico searching for cities of gold and landed on the island because of its distinctive location and the fresh water and firewood found there. The island became a prominent landmark for the earliest navigators in American waters. During twenty years of British rule beginning in 1763, British Royal Surveyors charted the waters. Florida was returned to Spain in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, ceded to the United States in 1821, granted territorial status later that year, and became a state in 1845.

Florida · United States