Florida National High Adventure Sea Base - Early History

Early History

In 1928, the Sea Base property was the site for the first ferry terminal in the original overseas highway. Cars would board the boat and travel to No Name Key, where the road would continue. The Terminal Lunch stand, later called the Ferry Slip Cafe opened around the same time. In the Early 1930s, the property was known as WPA camp number 3. WPA workers were building a new highway parallel to the Overseas Railroad. The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, changed everything. The entire camp was destroyed in the storm. Most of the workers who lived at the camp were World War I veterans. Many of the workers were being evacuated to Homestead when their rescue train was washed off the tracks on Upper Matecumbe Key. Over 450 people died in the Islamorada area during the hurricane. The evidence of the worker's progress is still evident today. Bird Island, in front of Sea Base's marina, is a man made island made for a highway right-of-way. 8 bridge pilings protrude out of the water about a quarter of a mile west of Bird Island, for a bridge that was to connect Lower Matecumbe Key and Jewfish Bush Key and was never built.

The new Overseas Highway completed in 1938, included a toll house on the current location of Sea Base's commissary. The toll was removed in 1954. The Ferry Slip Cafe became the Toll Gate Inn and it was owned by local shark fisherman, Wynn Tyler. The Toll Gate Inn was a 10 room motel, a bar, restaurant, marina and gas station. The marina was dredged in the early 1950s, at the same time that most of the canals in Lower Matecumbe Key were dredged out. By the late 1970s the hotel was in disrepair. The motel was rented out by the hour, and the marina was known for drugs and human trafficking.