Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park

Saltwater Railroad

Before the tower, people boarded ships here for the Bahamas

Before the lighthouse was built, the cape was one of the places where enslaved people and Black Seminoles boarded ships for the Bahamas, a migration known as the Saltwater Railroad. An estimated 300 Black Seminoles found passage to Andros Island in the early 1820s.

300Black Seminoles who found passage to Andros Island, an estimate

The tower

The tower built in 1825 was raised to 95 feet in 1855

The contract called for a 65-foot tower with solid brick walls. It was later found that the contractor had scrimped on materials and built hollow walls. In 1855 the tower was raised to 95 feet and fitted with a second-order Fresnel lens.

95 feetheight of the tower after the 1855 renovation

Afterward

A yacht club met in the old lighthouse from 1888 to 1893

The light was taken out of service in 1878, when the Fowey Rocks lighthouse replaced it. From 1888 to 1893 it was leased to the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club. Within the state park since 1966, the lighthouse was relit in 1996.

1836

In 1836 an attack left two men trapped at the top of a burning tower

On July 23, 1836, in the Second Seminole War, a band of Seminole attacked the lighthouse. John W. B. Thompson and Aaron Carter climbed the tower as the lamp oil caught fire. Carter died from his wounds and the fire. The schooner Motto later rescued Thompson.