page_title: Cape Florida Light
section_title: Restoration
hierarchical_section_title: Cape Florida Light / History / Restoration
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park near the Cape Florida Lighthouse, Key Biscayne, Florida.
context_page_description: The Cape Florida Light is a lighthouse on Cape Florida at the south end of Key Biscayne in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Constructed in 1825, it guided mariners off the Florida Reef, which starts near Key Biscayne and extends southward a few miles offshore of the Florida Keys. It was operated by staff, with interruptions, until 1878, when it was replaced by the Fowey Rocks lighthouse. The lighthouse was put back into use in 1978 by the U.S. Coast Guard to mark the Florida Channel, the deepest natural channel into Biscayne Bay. They decommissioned it in 1990.
  Within the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park since 1966, the lighthouse was relit in 1996. It is owned and operated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
context_section_description: The southern third of Key Biscayne, including the lighthouse, was bought by the State of Florida in 1966. It established the land as Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, named for the editor of the Miami News, who had urged protection and helped arrange the deal for preservation of the land. The state restored the lighthouse tower, and in 1969 constructed replicas of the keeper's dwellings.
  In 1978, the Coast Guard restored the lighthouse to active service, one hundred years after it was decommissioned.  An automated light was installed in the tower to serve as a navigational aide, particularly to help boaters find the Florida Channel at night.  A lighthouse inspection in 1988 found that the foundation installed during Deering's time was in excellent condition.  After twelve years of service, the light was decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1990. The tower survived the close passage of Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
  A joint project with the Dade County Historical Society in 1995–1996 restored the lighthouse.  A museum was installed in a replica of the keeper's quarters, to give visitors a sense of the maritime history of Florida. As part of the renovation, the light was replaced with its present optics before its reactivation. The lighthouse was relit in time for the Miami Centennial celebration in July 1996. It is now owned and managed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
  In 2004 a sign was installed in the park to commemorate the site for the escape of hundreds of slaves and Black Seminoles to the Bahamas in the nineteenth century. It is part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Trail.
caption: Network to Freedom Trail sign commemorating hundreds of Black Seminoles who escaped from Cape Florida in the early 1820s to the Bahamas.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SD500", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2009:12:30 12:59:51", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Tag 0x1001": "3072", "Image Tag 0x1002": "2304", "Image ExifOffset": "730", "Image XPTitle": "[69, 0, 115, 0, 99, 0, 97, 0, 112, 0, 105, 0, 110, 0, 103, 0, 32, 0, 84, 0, ... ]", "Image XPComment": "[83, 0, 105, 0, 103, 0, 110, 0, 32, 0, 108, 0, 111, 0, 99, 0, 97, 0, 116, 0, ... ]", "Image XPAuthor": "Leonard J. DeFrancisci", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2762", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5591", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:12:30 12:59:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:12:30 12:59:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "117/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "77/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3072", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2304", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "768000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "768000/71", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera"}