The Park That Almost Never Was: Biscayne National Park

The area that is now Biscayne National Park was once considered a wasteland and worthless - but the Jones family, newly freed from slavery, saw the value it had. They purchased three islands and created both a home and a lucrative business. When business tycoons finally realized the locations monetary worth, they fought hard to gain control of the land to develop high rises and oil refineries. Sir Lancelot Jones wasn’t willing to give up his land, and today remains a large reason of why Biscayne National Park exists. Come see us live in Joshua Tree National Park! Grab tickets here! For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Thank you to this week’s partners! Ollie: Use NPAD to get 60% off your first box of meals when you subscribe today. Quince: Use our link to get free shipping and 365-day returns. Lume Deodorant: Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with@lumedeodorant and get 15% off with promo code NPAD at LumeDeodorant.com! #lumepodZocdoc: Use our link to download the Zocdoc app for free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

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• 1:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  Close your eyes and envision your favorite place in the world. Are you seeing the most beautiful national park you've ever visited? Perhaps you're envisioning your family's lake house, where countless memories have been made. Or a special bench, sitting above the coast, that makes you feel like you're sitting on the edge of the world. Maybe it's simply just your house, where you feel safe and comfortable. Now imagine a corporation arriving, ready to buy the sacred place of yours, for sums of money that you can hardly comprehend. It's difficult to imagine saying no to money that would change your entire life.

• 1:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  However, then you learn that with that money, they will destroy the land that you love so much. Pollute it, decimate the buildings that stand on it, and drive out every living creature that calls it home.

• 2:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  Would that money still be worth it? Would that offer still be too good to pass up? This is a predicament that the area of Florida's Biscayne National Park found itself in long before it was a preserved landscape. Conservationists, locals, and one family with a generation of history of loving those coastal islands decided that land was worth far more than money could buy. And they were willing to fight for it. Welcome to National Park After Dark.

• 2:58Danielle LaRock?

  Well, hello everyone and welcome back to National Park After Dark. I am Danielle.

• 3:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I'm Cassie. Happy Monday, happy new episode of the week. We're so happy that you're all joining us. If it is your first time joining us, just a little rundown each week. Danielle and I pick a story to tell and one of us will tell the story to the other. And this week it's my turn.

• 3:19Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, and they are all by and large located within or adjacent to a national park or wilderness area. And I think we've only covered Biscayne one other time in the last four years.

• 3:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  You covered it and was it a bonus outsiders only story?

• 3:37Danielle LaRock?

  It was, but then I think we released it as a main feed episode when I was mentally going through it and needed a little bit of a week to.

• 3:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay, I do remember that.

• 3:47Danielle LaRock?

  Myself.

• 3:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 3:48Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, yeah. So that was several years ago though, so I'm really excited to hear more about this park because it's one that I haven't been to in person. So I would like to visit in this way. And your, your intro got me thinking of, like I did close my eyes and thought of. This type of location for me. Do you have a spot that's like that for you?

• 4:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  My favorite place in the whole world. I don't know. I don't know if I have like a specific favorite place in the entire world, but I think of like a place that I would personally be really affected and feel like driven to fight for would be probably if the White Mountains in New Hampshire. If someone tried to come in and destroy them, that's like my home. You know, we're both from New Hampshire, like our home recreation area or home. Like it's so beautiful up there. I think if anyone tried to come in and destroy it, I would definitely lobby and fight for that place.

• 4:43Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 4:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  What about you?

• 4:44Danielle LaRock?

  It's a great question. I don't know. Uh, I think that I can find something to love about everywhere and that's the problem with me.

• 4:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Right.

• 4:53Danielle LaRock?

  Because I don't know where, I don't know where I belong. So I don't know, but I definitely feel drawn to certain places over others and it would be a real shame if some of the last truly wild places in our world got destroyed, which they are under threat of all the time.

• 5:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  Mm hmm.

• 5:13Danielle LaRock?

  Uh, so before, I'm sure we'll talk about it a little bit later because it seems like this episode does have a theme of that. Just as a reminder, before we get started with the story, we do have a few tickets left to our Joshua Tree National Park live show. The camping portion of that weekend is sold out, but we still have a few remaining tickets for the live event only. So if you are interested, there is a link in our bio on Instagram. It'll take you right to the page. It's in the beginning of May and it'll be a good time.

• 5:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Speaking of beautiful preserved places, come hang out with us in one in Joshua Tree National Park. It'll be really, really fun. We're excited and it'll hopefully be warmer than it is right now because it is so cold. Um, at my house today, which I feel like has been a theme every episode I've been saying, but I went outside today and it was like wind gusting, blowing. It's like dumping snow and I just like put, I had to go get the mail and I just put my hood over my head and like slowly.

• 6:11Danielle LaRock?

  Especially as we just got back from Colorado during the Arctic blast.

• 6:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Gosh, so it was in the negatives like every day, pretty much.

• 6:22Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Okay. So mentally, take me to Florida.

• 6:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. So we're going to Florida. Part of what was the inspiration behind this episode was like, take me somewhere tropical, take me somewhere beautiful, uh, which Florida definitely has that within the United States, but also what is taking me to this national park in particular is because it is February and it is historically Black History Month, which there are lots of very interesting stories within the National Park Service to commemorate this month. And I wanted to pay some, some tribute to that. And I was, I said, I wanted to go to Florida because it's warm and nice and I just wanted to envision myself there. But also I was just doing kind

• 7:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  of a dive into what story I wanted to cover. And you know, I was looking into some of the more popular stories like Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, who all have these historic sites that are in memory of them. And they would be great stories and they're all stories that we have grown up learning and know and love. But then I came across Biscayne National Park and I found a story that I had never heard of before that had direct ties to a huge national park and not even just direct ties, but this national park exists today because of the Jones family and in particular, a black man named Sir Lancelot Garfield Jones. And I really felt like his story needed to be told. So I landed on it for this episode.

• 7:54Danielle LaRock?

  Amazing. Well, I am not familiar with his story, so I would love to hear about it.

• 7:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Perfect. And I just wanted to say another little thing about this story because I didn't hear about, uh, like I hadn't heard about it before, but also I went to Google the story and I Googled, who created Biscayne National Park? And the search results will say that Congress and President Jimmy Carter officially did in 1980, when it gained national park status. And it will also tell you that Congress and President Johnson did in 1968, when it was first established as a national monument. All of that is true. However, Sir Lance Lunt Jones isn't mentioned until you do a deeper dive into this research,

• 8:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  which I just thought was kind of a shame because without him, large areas of Biscayne would never have gotten the chance to become a part of the National Park System. So I wanted to bring a little bit more light to his story. Also, I really wanted to tell this story because there's been a little bit of confusion, I think, in the media of whether or not Black History Month is being celebrated this month, and I want to reiterate that it is. It's very much being celebrated and it is being recognized by the National Park Service. On the first day of February, they publicly made a post that said, quote, "During February and throughout the year, National Park Service sites, programs, and partners share and provide resources to commemorate, connect with, and reflect on African-American history and heritage."

• 9:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  From Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historic Park to Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument, to Nicodemus National Historic Site and more, discover Black history and cultural heritage shared in national parks and communities across the country. In addition to that, over 400 national park sites preserve African-American history and culture, and more than 25 of them are full African-American heritage sites. While this is important to know, I also think it's very important to note the disparity of visitors to parks between those that are African-American in comparison to those who are Caucasian. At the moment, it is reported that less than 2% of African-Americans within the United States are visiting national parks.

• 10:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  The impact of racial discrimination in the, in the outdoor recreation space has been well documented for generations. Discrimination reported ranges from glares from visitors, to physical attacks, to park service personnel being less engaged or welcoming to people of color. And there have been initiatives, particularly in the last several years, to increase the numbers of African-American people who are visiting national park sites, but the work is far from over. So keeping all of that in mind, today's story not only is one that results in a national park being created because of a Black American family, but also is one that celebrates and strives for the inclusion of people of color in the outdoor space.

• 10:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  On top of that, this is just a really interesting part of history that I hope inspires you to want to visit Biscayne National Park.

• 10:48Danielle LaRock?

  Well, thank you for saying all that and prefacing the story with that because there has been a lot of things in the news recently about, um, how do I say this? Suggestions of what we should celebrate and not celebrate and what is being recognized officially and not. And just to, I mean, hopefully it goes without saying for us, but just to be clear, we do celebrate and recognize Black History Month and we will recognize and celebrate Women's History Month and Indigenous History Month, et cetera, et cetera. Um, so we will continue to do that on this show.

• 11:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  History is and will always be important and it will always be important to know history and, and whatever that looks like.

• 11:31Danielle LaRock?

  In its entirety.

• 11:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  In its entirety, like without, without putting a blanket over it and covering the truths of stuff. It's.

• 11:39Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Omitting certain parts of history is not what we do.

• 11:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  No, it is not. So, uh, with that, we'll dive into Biscayne National Park and its story of how it was created.

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• 12:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  First things first, just a little information on Biscayne. So Biscayne National Park is located just south of Miami, Florida, and it's much different than most other national parks within the United States. Although it is similar to Dry Tortugas and Channel Islands, Biscayne's 170,000 acres is actually 95% underwater, which I think is so interesting. I was down in that area and we drove past Biscayne and went to the Everglades. And I really wanted to stop there, but we were kind of lacking time to do it. And my friend was like, well, if we're gonna go, we gotta go in the water and we don't have time for that. So it is still on my list of places to visit as well.

• 13:09Danielle LaRock?

  I can't wait to, yeah. I got the, I caved and bought.

• 13:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  The bottle, uh, the Wondery bottle with all the stickers of the national parks. Yeah.

• 13:18Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Shout out Wondery. This is amazing. Yeah, we were on our Colorado trip and so many people in my snowshoeing group had one.

• 13:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like I need one.

• 13:26Danielle LaRock?

  Looking at them. I'm like, God, that's so cool.

• 13:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like I want to.

• 13:29Danielle LaRock?

  And the visitor's center, um, the visitor's center at Rocky Mountain had it. So I decided to get one and I would love to add the little sticker too. I only have one Florida park on there. So.

• 13:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  Everglades. Oh yeah. Everglades. How can I forget your traumatic experience with an ex-boyfriend going to Everglades?

• 13:48Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 13:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 13:49Danielle LaRock?

  I almost didn't put it on.

• 13:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like I gotta redo this. This doesn't even count.

• 13:54Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 13:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Fair. Well, one day we'll do a national park trip to Florida. I've actually been wanting to do this ever since I went to the Everglades and just go to Big Cypress, go to Everglades, Biscayne, just hang out in that area for like a week or so.

• 14:10Danielle LaRock?

  Try Tortugas and.

• 14:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  Try Tortugas is, I would love to go there. I think it's such a cool park. And the history there is crazy, which we also did an episode on and you guys should listen to, but um, it was a while ago. So be aware of the audio quality, but.

• 14:24Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, maybe not. Just kidding. It's good.

• 14:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  The information is interesting. The information is so interesting. Uh, but the quality, I don't know. I don't know about that. Anyway, so the park is 95% underwater, which means that most of the 500,000 plus visitors who go there each year will go to see important mangrove forests, plume birds, evidence of human life from up to 10,000 years ago. There's a huge indigenous history in this park as well as along with like pirate history, which you covered, um, some in your episode that you did. And then they'll also get to see the crystal clear teal blue waters. However, the diving communities that visit see the bigger treasures that live in the park.

• 15:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  Below the surface are colorful fish bejeweled coral reefs, seagrass beds, shipwrecks, and endangered species like the West Indian manatee and sea turtles. Biscayne is home to one of the largest marine sanctuaries within the national park system. And with all that it has to be loved, it's hard to believe that at one point in time, this location of the world was actually considered worthless. That is until the 1960s. Once people began to realize the marvel that this landscape was, business tycoons flooded the area with plans to build Florida's next luxury waterfront communities equipped with high-rise buildings, amusement parks, shopping, and even an airport.

• 15:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  On the other side of that battle for this land was also a company called Seadade, who wanted to stake their claims to this bay to build an 18,000 acre oil refinery that would decimate 15 miles of ecologically important marine life. These people with dollar signs in their eyes every time they looked at this fragile ecosystem had one big problem for development, though, and that was a man named Sir Lancelot Garfield Jones. He owned and loved the land, which is now Biscayne, far more than he loved money. His love for this important landscape is why so many people get to enjoy it for all of its entirety today. Now, going a little bit into his story, in the 1960s,

• 16:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  both Sir Lancelot Jones and his brother Arthur were the second biggest property owners in the region with over 270 acres across three islands off the coast of Florida. This was very unusual at the time, especially because their history as a family, because their father had acquired it after being freed from slavery. Their father, Israel Lafayette Jones, was born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1858. While I couldn't find complete verifiable history that he was born into slavery and that his parents were enslaved, it is very, very likely. At the time, more than 75% of African-American people were enslaved, and according to the National Park Service website,

• 17:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Israel's father was a farm laborer in North Carolina, which we can assume meant that he was, in fact, an enslaved person. Slavery wasn't abolished until 1865, when Israel was around seven years old. He grew up working on farms, and in his twenties, he found work in Wilmington, North Carolina, working on small boats. In 1892, he headed south to Florida in search of work, where he eventually found himself in Key Biscayne after a series of farm jobs, working for white farm owners. Now, this time in Florida was a very difficult one, as segregation and the presence of the KKK made Florida a very dangerous place. However, Biscayne's uninhabited coastal areas attracted the newly free black communities.

• 18:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was an untamed landscape that was difficult to survive on, which pushed the rich white people in the areas out, because they're like, oh, that... That place is awful. Why would we go there? But it afforded the poorer black communities a place to stay. And we find out way later that these places were actually rich and abundant with lots of resources and turned out to be a really amazing area. But at this time, Biscayne had recently been hit by a hurricane and the damage in salt-ridden areas made it a place that they had deemed that the society pretty much had deemed invaluable. This allowed Israel to purchase the island of Portuguese Key, which is now

• 18:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  a part of Biscayne National Park for a mere $300 in 1897. In today's money, that would be less than $11,000 for his own private island.

• 18:51Danielle LaRock?

  That ain't bad.

• 18:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  That ain't bad. He had earned the money while working as a caretaker for a white landowner in addition to working as a foreman on a pineapple farm and a handyman for a local inn. While others didn't see the value of the land, Israel did. And he became the very first black landowner in the Florida Keys. This was not only a historic move by Israel, but a dangerous one as well. At the time, Homestead, Florida, a town that is now at the entrance of Biscayne National Park, was a hotspot of the Ku Klux Klan, which was a major cause of violence and lynching of people in the area. In my research, I found photos from the 1920s of hundreds of KKK members in the town that

• 19:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  were like dressed up in their white uniforms formulating in that area, which I can only imagine was a terrifying, terrifying place to be. And it was, the historical photos are really scary and disgusting. Miami, which is only 40 miles away, also was very known to have lynchings, bombings, and parades conducted by the KKK. Homestead Beach, which was known as Black Beach because it was segregated and was designated that way because it was considered the worst beach in the area because it had lots of bugs and had very little land to actually be on. However, That same beach is now home to Biscayne National Park's Dante Fascal Visitor Center.

• 20:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  So it is part of the National Park Service now and is an interesting history. Next time if anyone is listening goes to know that that was once a segregated beach and has a ton of history that you should look into. The same year he purchased Porgy Key, Israel's wife gave birth to King Arthur Lafayette Jones. And a year and a half later, she gave birth to Sir Lancelot Garfield Jones. They are believed to be the very first black Americans born on Key Biscayne. Israel was well known in the community, especially for being a preacher and a philosopher. And he wasn't a preacher in the traditional sense, but he did speak each Sunday at the Mount Zion Baptist Church, which he actually helped develop for the local people and created this big community that was there.

• 20:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Around the same time that Lancelot was born, Israel also purchased Old Rhodes Key, a second island, which was much bigger than Porgy Key, that already had a two-bedroom house on the property. Shortly afterwards, he moved his family into that house. While clearing some of his new land, Israel found coral limestone in what others had dubbed inhospitable land. He had just struck gold for a farmer. He knew that because of this limestone, pineapples, tomatoes, and limes would flourish on his island. It wasn't long before not only did Israel see a profit from his farm, but the Jones Farm became one of the largest producers of pineapples and limes on the east coast of Florida.

• 21:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  It allowed Israel to leave his other jobs and afforded him the ability to buy a third island, Totten Key, in 1911. The island had a pineapple plantation on it already and proved to be a lucrative business. A mini railroad was built to haul fruit and they built a port for boats to come in and be able to load cargo and transport that fruit to the mainland. And their business was going so well, this farming cargo business was going so well that they were actually able to upgrade their home, which they hand-built themselves into a two-story, six-bedroom house on the island.

• 22:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I want to reiterate how incredible this is because Israel, who was at one point most likely to be an enslaved person, whose parents were most likely enslaved, was now not only a successful business owner who owned his own land, which was unprecedented at the time, he was actually now considered a millionaire.

• 22:39Danielle LaRock?

  I mean, good on him. He's making a lot of smart decisions with where he's deciding to purchase land and what he's deciding to cultivate there. Like this is all very intentional, it seems like, and he's just killing it. Good for him.

• 22:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, he really is. He's got three of his own private islands that he's able to use for farming and growth and money in his businesses. He has people coming in, picking them up from him, you know, and it sounded like from what I was reading, that it was a lot of work, but they were doing very well financially.

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• 24:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  Both Lancelot and Arthur were raised around the farming business with their father, where they learned how to do really hard work. They learned the ins and outs of being good farmers and how to run a business. And they would carry 250 bushels of key limes to Miami weekly with their boat that they had. So they were also lugging the stuff, doing like heavy lifting and a lot of work as well. Eventually, the brothers inherited the islands and business when their father passed away in 1932 at 73 years old. However, the business wasn't doing as well as it once had. Four years prior to their father's passing, a hurricane had ravaged the island, destroying their crops and altering their land. In 1935,

• 25:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  the brothers decided to switch gears and begin another business, which was also, I like to think that their business strategy came from their dad, who obviously was very successful, knew what he was doing, because they create this business where they become fishermen. And they started supplying crab and lobsters to a local private club known as Coco Lobokay Club, which was located on Adams Key, which today is also part of Biscayne National Park. And with that business, they also conducted guided excursions to fish with the elite members who belonged to this club. And when I say like elite members of this club, it was such

• 26:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  a high-class establishment that presidents were known to come there to fish and hang out. And there were actually five different presidents that have ties to this particular club. So there was Warren, Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and John F. Kennedy, all were club members here.

• 26:22Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. And I'm sure it's no longer in existence.

• 26:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  No, not, not now that the national park owns that land.

• 26:32Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, it seems like very elite. I wouldn't know anything about that type of thing, but it sounds, I don't know, sometimes it sketches me out when it's like, oh yeah, this very prestigious elite club where all the most powerful people like to be. It's like, is that, what's going on in there?

• 26:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  What are you doing over there?

• 26:50Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, like I'm wary. I'm wary of that.

• 26:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, either way, I don't know. I can't like say if anything weird was going on here.

• 26:59Danielle LaRock?

  I cannot confirm nor deny.

• 27:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  I cannot confirm or deny. Anything bad that was happening here, but I can say that Arthur and Lancelot were guides for some of these presidents and they actually had relationships with them because Okay. They guided them fairly often because these people came down. But even though the brothers were working with some of the richest and most powerful men in the world, their business wasn't doing as well as it once had when they were working as farmers. Arthur took his sights to a new avenue when World War II broke out and he decided to join the military. And from the research I did, it seemed as though Arthur never really came back to work in the same capacity that he once had on the islands. He did return after

• 27:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  the war and everything, but it doesn't seem like he had as big of a role in the islands after that. Lancelot, however, stayed and continued to guide over the next several decades. It was a remote living, but he really loved it there. He loved the sea air, he loved the islands, and he loved what he did for a living. He was also a very sought after guide. In particular, he would often guide former President Hoover and President Johnson, during which he would press them about what they thought about current policies and what change that they wanted to see happen. And at the time he was having these conversations with them, segregation and the dangers of the KKK were very much in full swing. I think

• 28:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  it's also really important to note that he was most likely one of very few African American citizens and compared to activists and, and people in that nature, who were having sit down conversations with the president over what was going to happen with the country. And he was just casually on a fishing boat being like, hey, so what's your plan? Shit's kind of hitting the fan right now. Like, what are you gonna do? And they would have these back and forth conversations of like, hey, some of this stuff's not right. Like, you gotta, you gotta figure it out. And they really took into account his word because they had this friendship that had formed. When World War II was over, the rise in vacationers grew and people flocked to Florida for a tropical beach getaway. The Florida Keys in

• 29:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  particular were becoming a favorite destination and big companies began setting their sights on, on the islands for development. One group of developers proposed a bridge linking the mainland to the island, where they wanted to build high-rise hotels, golf clubs, shopping centers, and beach homes. A shipping tycoon announced his plans to construct a deep-water port, an oil refinery, and an industrial complex on the islands as well. And with these ideas of what to do with these keys that were now becoming popular because people were vacationing again after the war, people were offering Lancelot millions of dollars to leave his island and sell it to them, to which each and every offer he refused.

• 29:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  While he was one of the only people living on the islands, he didn't like the idea of it being developed at all, and no amount of money was going to change his mind on that. So he's like, "No, I mean, I know I have enough money. I'm getting by just fine, and I love where I am. I love where I live in this place. Like, you want to put a oil refinery here? You want to put a hotel here? No, absolutely not." Because Lancelot would not budge on selling his lands, business tycoons tried to find a way that they could take his land from him. And in a sleazy attempt to do so, in 1960, they convinced authorities to create the city of Islandia in the Florida Keys. And this was where they staged an election by ferrying out a voting machine

• 30:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  to the island of Elliott Key, where they had 18 registered voters, all of whom were absent landowners of the islands who were hoping to cash in on their land. So these other neighboring people who owned lands around the different islands, who had been getting all these offers to buy land, Lancelot was kind of this big roadblock because he owned three islands, and these developers needed more land than that. So they're like, "Okay, we'll cast a vote. We'll turn it into a city. We'll get like this eminent domain, basically, kind of thing of, okay, the city voted that this is going to turn into this. Now you have to give me the land." Lancelot, at the time, was one of only two full-time residents. Of this new incorporated quote unquote city.

• 31:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  But despite that, 14 of the 18 voted in favor of development of the islands. The industrial company Seadade introduced plans for a huge seaport and industrial complex that would cover 2,200 acres of land. It would handle bulk cargo like molasses, cement, oil, and other heavy products. And the company boasted about the jobs it would supply to the local communities and the money that it would be able to bring in for them. And a lot of people were really interested in this at first. They're like, oh, this company came in and they were promising like, we'll have 700 jobs for you. Yeah, well, it'll be a port and we're also going to put an oil refinery in. And there's also like some messy stuff that goes with that.

• 32:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  But like, I'm good, we're going to bring you guys so many jobs and it's going to be great and you'll be able to afford your life. And so, huh, huh, it feels like a something we've heard.

• 32:17Danielle LaRock?

  Weirdly familiar. Tell me, it doesn't end up panning out that way. I would be shocked.

• 32:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  Lord. Crazy.

• 32:25Danielle LaRock?

  Well.

• 32:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Crazy. I will say at first it seemed like it was, it was going to pan out. I mean, it seemed like these big developers had won. These conversations were in place. But interestingly enough, their efforts to steal the land with like these crazy schemes with the election and all of that actually brought more attention to the cause and what was going on and not from people who would appreciate resorts and golf courses and oil refineries. It turns out that you actually do not want to spark the attention of the community bird watchers of Biscayne with plans to decimate the very environment that their precious birds live in.

• 33:05Danielle LaRock?

  I think a lot of people underestimate bird watchers.

• 33:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, beware of bird watchers. They do not mess around.

• 33:12Danielle LaRock?

  No, they might look nice, but they'll cut you if you get, and I'm speaking from experience, knowing one.

• 33:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  As a bird watcher.

• 33:23Danielle LaRock?

  Don't get between me and my tufted tip mouse or else. I don't even know if that's.

• 33:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Black cap chickadees.

• 33:32Danielle LaRock?

  Don't even. Don't even think about it.

• 33:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  Don't even think about it.

• 33:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  But it's true. And this group wasn't large, but it definitely was a very vocal one. And they sided with Lancelot not wanting to get rid of his land. And they believed very strongly that this land should remain undeveloped. Within that group was also Lloyd Miller, who was an avid fisherman and conservationist. And along with him was reporter Juanita Green and ecologist Art Marshall, who were the front runners of this whole movement that began to preserve this land. And they came up with the idea that this area should really be a national park.

• 34:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  Lloyd Miller had created the Isaac Walton League, which was a group of devoted conservationists who went all around Florida with efforts to save certain areas. And they had been doing this for several years prior to this issue popping up. He had been advocating and fighting for the preservation for years. And he was very well versed in this. And he was like, hey, not my egrets. Not on my watch.

• 34:46Danielle LaRock?

  I just imagine them like with their like binoculars, you know, just like acting sweet. And then all of a sudden they hear something. They're just like, yeah. Like, don't, don't do it.

• 34:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  Watching you.

• 34:58Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 34:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Mike Wazowski, always.

• 35:02Danielle LaRock?

  Always watching.

• 35:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  And now with these votes that had been like put in favor to develop these lands, Lancelot also agreed that maybe it was time that potentially his land, but all the surrounding lands in particular as well, to become a national park. They took this fight to media outlets to advertise their cause, citing the important wildlife and ecosystems, including, of course, the birds. Because, and I had to list some.

• 35:36Danielle LaRock?

  Okay.

• 35:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  Everyone sit down while I.

• 35:39Danielle LaRock?

  I'm ready.

• 35:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  Go through my list. Brown pelicans, loons, herons, egrets, spoonbills, double crested cormorants, storks, ibises, vultures, eagles, yellow-billed sapsuckers, warblers, flamingos, and quite literally hundreds more reside in the Florida Keys. And if you do love birds like me, I added a National Park Service website into our show notes that lists all the types of birds that you have a possibility of seeing while in Biscayne National Park, and the list is quite literally endless. Like, it goes on for a really long time.

• 36:16Danielle LaRock?

  I'm sorry, I just had to, while you were speaking, look up a yellow-bellied sapsucker? Because it kind of sounds like an insult.

• 36:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  You yellow-beled. It's yellow-billed.

• 36:28Danielle LaRock?

  No, I, yellow-bellied sapsucker. I'm looking at him.

• 36:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, I wrote yellow-billed. Maybe I was wrong, though.

• 36:35Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, well, maybe this isn't, because this doesn't look like a Florida bird.

• 36:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  You yellow-bellied sapsucker.

• 36:39Danielle LaRock?

  Hold on. Yellow-billed?

• 36:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, that's what I wrote, but I typed, I hand typed it, so.

• 36:46Danielle LaRock?

  Well, because maybe I'm just so dumb, because is that how you spell spell-billed? Or is that bellied? I'm pretty sure it's bellied.

• 36:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  Mine says-billed, for sure.

• 37:01Danielle LaRock?

  Hold on a minute.

• 37:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know how to spell.

• 37:05Danielle LaRock?

  B-E-L-L-I-E-D.

• 37:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I spelled it wrong. I wrote-billed.

• 37:09Danielle LaRock?

  Okay.

• 37:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  It is yellow-bellied.

• 37:11Danielle LaRock?

  I almost just lost faith in myself. Wow. I'm like, okay, it does have a yellow belly. It's, okay, wow. I was just like, do I not know how to read English anymore?

• 37:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  I will say, I am a new bird watcher. I don't know anything about yellow-bellied sapsuckers, but I'd like to.

• 37:31Danielle LaRock?

  Well, we're all familiar now, at least.

• 37:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  Now we know. And you can find them in Biscayne National Park. Fun fact, they are there.

• 37:39Danielle LaRock?

  They're there. Great.

• 37:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  But it wasn't just the birds that were attracting people to this park. And Juanita Green wrote in the Miami Herald, "The impact that the large corporations would have on the public as well." Because of course, when we're fighting conservation movements, we know that it's not just about, you can't just be like, "Well, the yellow-bellied sap-suckers are gonna, gonna really have a hard time with this." You also have to relate it back to people and how it's really going to affect them. And she knew that. So she wrote that with the creation of these large ports, the public would be barred from the beautiful beaches that they all loved and visited because they were going to take it over if this oil refinery came in.

• 38:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  She cited that the Keys would become as built up as Miami and would leave nothing but a 90-acre stretch of public beach on Elliott Key if these high rises came in. And she proposed that Ilandia should be a preserve, not a city. Her report scared the public and more and more people actually came out to aid in preserving the coast. On January 22, 1962, "Representatives of sports, trade groups, commercial fishing interests, civic organizations, and gardening clubs met to devise a plan against the planned oil refinery and large development." They enlisted the help of the Miami City manager, who publicized a report of an oil

• 39:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  refinery in Hawaii, one that was half the size of the proposed one to be in Biscayne. And this report was very scary. The report detailed that despite the US Public Health Service' role to combat pollutions, the plant had a discharge of the three most poisonous pollutants, amounting in eight tons, released into the ocean per day, which is a terrifying statistic and also meant that this would destroy the surrounding ocean for fishing, which was a huge income for a lot of people. And not only would it contaminate the oceans, but it would also contaminate the soil in the area and it would affect the farmers.

• 39:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Not to mention, also, these pollutants released into the ocean were also airborne. So the water would be polluted, the soil would be polluted, and the air would be polluted with this oil refinery. But jobs, but jobs, but jobs. Got jobs. You will make money. And I don't want to take away from, I understand people need to have a livelihood and provide for their families and people have their own things that they need to pay for. But there are bigger things in this picture where it's like money will have to come from somewhere else. And despite these staggering statistics, the plan for development were still underway. The Miami Herald, who had previously lobbied

• 40:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  for Everglades National Park to be established in the 1940s, had begun the crusade to establish Biscayne as a national park as well. And they had gained the support of Florida senator at the time, who was Spessard Holland. As we know, for a national park to be established, it needs to meet certain criteria. First, there needs to be national significance, meaning it has to have natural, cultural, historical, or recreational resources, which we know that Biscayne has all of these. They have indigenous history. They have a history of pirates, slave ships that would come in. They also have very important ecological systems that are there. So it has all of those aspects. But also next, it needs to

• 41:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  be suitable for public use and long-term protection. And finally, the land needs to be not under any other government control. Now with all three of these things in mind, Biscayne met all of the criteria for that. This made the public begin to lobby. They had conservationists, biologists, the State Board of Conservation, and the Game and Freshwater Fish Commission, other government personnel, and more people in the public came forth with arguments for its creation to become a national park. At the front of this fight was Lloyd Miller and Juanita, who facilitated much of it, citing the devastation to fish and wildlife, along with the human enjoyment of these resources. The fight at times did

• 42:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  turn pretty ugly. Physical altercations were reported amongst activists with the Sea Dade Company. And Lloyd Miller actually ended up accusing the company of poisoning and killing his dog. Way too far. Not the dog. That is way too far. All while Seadade continued to argue the benefits of what they were doing for the community with jobs and income and the development and these great high rises and vacation homes. They were really like, really pushing their, their ideas. However, in July, 1962, when an oil tanker spilled 5,000 gallons of crude oil off of

• 42:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  the coast of Puerto Rico, the local fisherman business was devastated in that area and it created an even bigger fight in Florida because Florida is very well known for their fishing. And when they saw how bad and big of an impact that this oil spill had on Puerto Rico, they said, no, no way is that coming here. Thousands of flyers of the incident were posted all over Miami to bring awareness to people, which detailed the potential loss of jobs if that oil refinery were put there. By April, 1963, the National Park Service officially announced their interest in purchasing the land for preservation, citing costs of $15 to $20 million.

• 43:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  By the fall, the National Park Service, along with the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, agreed that the biologic and geologic value of the area was of national significance and proposed turning it into a national monument. With the public lobbying against the oil refinery, by 1964, Seadade actually announced that they no longer had plans to establish it. They were met by like too many crossroads or too many lawsuits. There was just too much that was going on that they said, never mind. However, other developers were still interested in the land. They wanted to create roads and bridges between the islands and the mainland and they wanted shopping, golf courses, access. So the fight for its preservation was far from over.

• 44:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  It wasn't until 1966 that an official bill was introduced to turn 96,000 acres of land

• 44:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  In that area into a national monument. That same year, King Arthur Jones passed away, leaving Lancelot as the only owner of his three islands. And for this next part, I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of everything because I think it's, there's a lot of red tape. There's a lot of documents. It gets a little boring and very wordy. But essentially, over the next two years, there were a lot of lawsuits opposing the bill from corporations. And some said that the government was attempting to steal the land. So all these people came in and was like, get rid of this bill. We don't want it preserved, just sit there and not be anything. Like even though there was only two people living there, it's not like you were taking this land from a bunch of people.

• 45:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  It, there was just, there was a lot going on that really delayed it becoming a park or preserved.

• 45:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  It wasn't until June 14th, 1968, that the Florida cabinet had unanimously endorsed US House Bill 551 in favor of creating Biscayne National Monument. On October 18th, 1968, Congress passed to establish the monument, and the only thing left was for President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign. And now this. Oh, wait, he was the fishing buddy. Yes, this is where it starts to come full circle. Because if you remember, like you just said, he was a fishing buddy, he was part of that prestigious club, um, right there. He was guided by Lancelot. He was a friend and he also had a deep love for the area.

• 46:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  So when that bill came across his desk, he was just ready to sign it. And he did, he happily signed it. And he was quoted saying, "If I had announced that the government was going to steal some land this afternoon from the American people," because remember that was something some people were arguing, "I imagine it would have stirred some attention and captured some headlines. But with the bill we are signing today, recently passed by Congress, we are going to do just the reverse. We are giving some land back to the people, and that ought to make a headline." The bill resulted in almost 200,000 acres being designated as a national monument. On July 23rd, 1969, the House approved an 8.5

• 46:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  One five million dollar budget to purchase still remaining privately owned land of Ilandia. Eventually, in 1970, just two years after the passing of it becoming a national monument, Lancelot Jones became the first and largest private landowner to sell land to the government. They purchased his 277 acres, which was three islands, which are now part of Biscayne National Park, for 1.27 million dollars, under the condition that Lancelot could remain living on the area of three acres on Porgy Key for the remainder of his life. In 1980, Biscayne National Monument was turned into Biscayne National Park,

• 47:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  and Lancelot got to see even further protections of his very loved land. Lancelot fully intended to live the remainder of his life on the island. However, plans changed in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew barreled towards the Florida coast. Lancelot was adamant about staying, but after park rangers physically went to his door and really expressed their concern for his safety, he finally agreed to temporarily leave until the storm passed. Unfortunately, when the hurricane made landfall, it turned into a category five hurricane that caused major destruction in Florida, causing 25.3 billion dollars in damages and claiming the lives of 44 people.

• 48:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  Every structure on Porgy Key was destroyed, including Lancelot's home. And at 94 years old, he decided not to return and remained on the mainland until he died of old age at 99 years old in 1997. Which when I read that year also, I was like, I was alive.

• 48:33Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 48:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  I was only six. Like, I feel like I've been talking about this like it's ancient history. Like this happened so long ago, but.

• 48:41Danielle LaRock?

  It's within our lifetimes. Yeah.

• 48:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, which is a really, it really puts into perspective how recent these fights really were. In 2014, Florida officially designated October 13th as Lancelot Jones Day, where Lancelot is celebrated and remembered in events, family gatherings, and inspirational ranger talks on the history and conservation of the area. In 2015, the Seven Mile Entrance to the Park was renamed Sir Lancelot Jones Way, thanks in part to the effort of the Mahogany Youth Group, which is an environmental mentorship program, which has the title Teach a Child to Fish. The goal of the program is to inspire youth groups of all ethnicities to recreate

• 49:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  in the outdoors and be inspired by conservation efforts. They teach kids life skills, swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving, and more within the area. And this group in particular felt strongly about having more representation of Lancelot in the park. In addition, a remote area of the park has been named Jones Lagoon, after the family, where kayaking tours are frequently given and gives a beautiful way to explore the waterways. And lastly, inspired by the Jones family legacy, archaeologist Brenda Landendorf and youth advocate Ken Stewart established Diving with a Purpose. And if you remember this, this is actually a group that we've mentioned once before on an episode that you covered. But Diving with a Purpose

• 50:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  is a volunteer underwater archaeology program that started with members of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers and the National Park Service in Biscayne National Park. The program trains experienced divers, including youth, to be able to assist in historical documentation and preservation of the approximately 43 intact shipwrecks that are within Biscayne National Park. They have a special focus particularly on the interpretation of the slave trade shipwrecks and the culture of African Americans who formed a corps of labor and expertise for America's maritime enterprises. And according to their website, divewithapurpose.org, over the last 11 years, over 300 people have

• 50:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  participated in the program, and they are still very much in existence today and are always on the search for more volunteers to be a part of their program. And that is my story of how Biscayne National Park was formed and how much it ties into Black History Month and continues to be a contributing force in learning and preserving the history of African Americans. And that's all.

• 51:15Danielle LaRock?

  Ta-da. Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. I do remember diving with a purpose and researching their organization because the Biscayne National Park story I did, did focus on one of the slave ships that was discovered in Biscayne National Park. Believe it was the, and I can't pronounce, I can't roll my Rs in speech. Like I can do it like, like I can do that right now, but I can't do it.

• 51:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  But not in a word.

• 51:43Danielle LaRock?

  In a word. And I know there is that in, I'm, I'm pretty sure it's the Guerrero, Guerrero? Or something like that. The ship itself. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. But yeah. I think that was a really cool episode and I'm glad you told it. It did give me for a little bit there, it reminded me a lot of the Killers of the Flower Moon book, which is my probably top three favorite books of all time. And of course, there's a movie with Leo that came out, we went to see on opening day in South Africa. I must see this movie.

• 52:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  No matter where in the world I am.

• 52:27Danielle LaRock?

  But anyways, so just when you were describing how land that was deemed unworthy or of no importance, or couldn't be extracted for any sort of reason, monetary reason at first thought and first pass, that type of land was given to, you know, in your story, the Jones family, they're like, you know, they're like, yeah, you can have this. We don't have any use for it. So I guess go for it.

• 52:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's worthless. Yeah.

• 52:59Danielle LaRock?

  And then in the Killers of the Flower Moon story about how the Osage tribe was moved and put onto this reservation that was deemed unworthy and useless by the American government turned out to be.

• 53:16Danielle LaRock?

  Extremely valuable and very profitable. And then all of a sudden, when the powers that be realized that they came for them and they came for their land and tried to manipulate them and push them out and take control of it and take ownership of it again. And it's just, it seemed like it was kind of similar in this story.

• 53:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  I can definitely see how you relate that because they're taking a marginalized group of people and they're like, oh, you can go to this corner of the world that we don't care about. And then they're like, oh, wait, where you are is actually worth something. Never mind, that's actually my land. And that's actually ours to mine. And actually, like, I have all these really big plans for this, so you can't have it anymore.

• 54:04Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 54:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  And that is essentially, yeah, and that is essentially what they were trying to do. And they did try to buy him out, which he was never interested in. And he was just like, I don't, I have enough money. I don't need this. But they, when money didn't work, they tried other means, which also didn't work and created a whole movement of conservationists and bird watchers who were like, no, no, no, not on my watch. And, uh, bird watchers win and, and people who care about their land and what is right eventually win. So I liked that story and I really love that we have that park now in remembrance of him and that there are places that are named after him, which is really cool.

• 54:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I'm sure if you visit the park, there's probably a lot more. I imagine there's books, there's, there's more things that you can find on him, I'm sure.

• 54:55Danielle LaRock?

  Well, it is just really cool because every place that is protected had advocacy behind it. Somebody stood up for it at somewhere along the line. But when you really hear the extent of which somebody, the extent of which somebody did and what they turned down and just how they stood strong for what they loved and believed in, I think that's really cool. So I would have never known that if I went to Biscayne yesterday. And now when we do visit, I'll be sure to pour one out for Sir Lancelot and say thank you. So thank you for sharing it with us.

• 55:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  Of course. And when we're driving into that park, that seven mile road, when you enter the park and we, you see the words Sir Lancelot Way. You will know exactly why. But with that, thank you, everyone, for tuning in. We will see you next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch your back. Bye, everyone. Bye.

• 55:53Danielle LaRock?

  Thank you for joining us again this week. If you love National Park After Dark and want to hear exclusive bonus stories, join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Patreon subscribers have access to our National Park After Dark book club, live streams, Discord, and much more. If you prefer to watch our episodes, video episodes are now available on YouTube. If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform. And to follow along with all our adventures, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X at National Park After Dark.

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