Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park

The Cape Florida Lighthouse is a ninety-five-foot tall, tapered white tower that rises above the Atlantic shoreline at the southern tip of Key Biscayne. Built in eighteen twenty-five, it is the oldest standing structure in Miami-Dade County. The lighthouse was once a focal point for maritime navigation, but it also served as a site of violence during the Second Seminole War. In July of eighteen thirty-six, Seminole warriors attacked the station, killing the assistant keeper and setting fire to the tower while the head keeper, John Thompson, remained trapped inside.