Oleta River State Park occupies 1,033 acres on Biscayne Bay in North Miami Beach, centered on the mouth of the Oleta River where mangrove shoreline meets urban South Florida. Its waters and shores have been used for centuries, from a Tequesta campground around 500 B.C. to U.S. troop movement during the Second Seminole War in 1841 and Captain William Hawkins Fulford’s 1881 inland exploration. Renamed from Big Snake Creek to the Oleta River in 1922, the waterway remains the park’s defining feature. The park is also an important recreation area and ecological refuge, supporting mangrove habitat, endangered species, and biodiversity within a densely developed region.