Forget about your holiday shopping, your many December obligations, and trying to get work done in double time. Remember, there’s a birthday to celebrate: The Cape Florida Lighthouse turns 200 years old on Wednesday.
The celebration at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park will be one steeped both in history and high-tech glitz, and will be a chance to get acquainted with an old friend – actually, the oldest structure in Miami-Dade County.
“In an age where everyone kind of lives more and more virtually, I think finding ways to tell the stories of Cape Florida and the Lighthouse in Key Biscayne might give people a deeper sense of belonging,” said Christina Bracken, president of Friends of Cape Florida State Park, the nonprofit organization that is the force behind the bicentennial event.
The lighthouse is now crisp white — but wasn’t always. It was first lit in 1825. Since then, it has stood as a silent sentinel to a Seminole attack, a failed development push in the 1960s (stopped by newspaper editor Bill Baggs), and Hurricane Andrew.
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The 95-foot lighthouse and the land it sits on are rich in Black and Bahamian history, Seminole history and Florida pioneer history. The lighthouse adorns the Key Biscayne Village seal, although it technically sits outside the village’s municipal limits.
High Tech Hoopla
Friends of Cape Florida has been working for a year toward Wednesday’s event.
There will be a three-part presentation using projection mapping, using the lighthouse itself as a “movie canvas,” Bracken said. This includes a hologram created from archival video, audio, and photos that will let historic figures like Baggs come back to life and speak, she said.
In addition, the company RealitySync will use 3D scanning to virtually “peel the wall off” the lighthouse, allowing attendees to view and explore the spiral staircase and inner workings with dynamic visual effects, she said.
Studio Hosford will present previews of historic video clips, part of their work revamping the museum inside the Keepers’ cottage. Together, these high-tech elements make the event immersive.
The Juggerknot Theatre Company will present “Cape Florida Chronicles.” And, of course, there will be light bites available at the event, which runs from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. It will get rolling with a flyover by the U.S. Coast Guard.
Guest List Speaks to Lighthouse’s history
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, Key Biscayne Mayor Joe Rasco, and Chuck Hatcher, who serves as Florida State Parks director, will be on hand to name a few.
Before there was a lighthouse, the southern tip of what is now Bill Baggs served as an escape route for runaway slaves.
“So the Saltwater Underground railroad was basically an escape route for enslaved persons – Georgia, Florida –into the Bahamas, mostly Andros Island,” Bracken said.
Today, there’s still a fairly healthy population of descendants of people who left from Cape Florida,” she said.
The route ceased due to the U.S. government erecting the lighthouse.
Early days
The first crew sent to build the lighthouse with supplies was lost at sea, said historian Neil Hurley, a former Coast Guard commander who will be at the celebration.
At the time, maritime traffic around the hazardous reefs near Cape Florida led to a push for multiple lighthouses, including those at St. Augustine, the Florida Keys, and Pensacola. The region’s unpredictable currents and dangerous Gulf Stream made navigation especially risky for vessels coming or going to the new port at New Orleans, Hurley said.
Construction was fraught with other setbacks, including outbreaks of yellow fever among workers, and difficult logistics due to the area’s isolation.
Tragedy struck again in 1836, when the lighthouse became the target of a Native American attack during the Second Seminole War. The incident, linked to the murder of an Indian chief, resulted in a siege at the lighthouse and the death of one lighthouse keeper, Hurley said.
Rebuilt and made taller
The lighthouse was rebuilt in 1847 and raised from 65 to 95 feet in 1855.
It required significant repairs throughout its long life, including during the Civil War and after Hurricane Andrew.
And even after it was first lit on Dec. 17, 1825, by first keeper John Dubose, it had to be extinguished until the following March.
“When they found out in Key West, where his supervisor of lighthouses was, he told them to put the lighthouse back out,” Hurley said. “The procedure was that they would advertise that the new lighthouse was built and lit in newspapers so ships would know.”
