The Demise of Port Bougainville Key Largo

During the 1970s, unregulated dredging and filling threatened to transform the Florida Keys into a concrete jungle. By the early 1980s, at least 51 new developments were underway without formal state or county approval.

One such venture was the North Key Largo Yacht Club, which languished until 1980 when it was acquired by a Miami real estate developer. He re-imagined the property as the massive Port Bougainville development, which was slated to include 2,800 condos, as well as hotels, cafes, shops, a marina, a town hall, and a chapel.

A young journalist for The Miami Herald, Carl Hiaasen went to check out the project one day and saw that they had way over-developed and expanded the area against the designated permitted areas, while environmentalists feared the immense damage the development would cause to an already fragile ecosystem.

This story became one of the Miami Herald’s first Pulitzer awards and the whole city council of Key Largo went to jail for bribery.

This was one of the few times in Keys history when the good guys won. 

The government took this opportunity to purchase the land which became known as the Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park.

Today, most of the man-made lagoons have been filled in and the buildings demolished except for the main entrance to the development.

The park is open year round to the public and offers walking tours of the island’s bounty of National Champion tropical trees through what would have been Port Bougainville.

You can hike or bike the 2.5 mile trail through the 2500 acre preserve, about half of the trail is easy while the rest is rugged, tricky terrain that involves the incoming tides.

It’s probably not often a crocodile is a speed bump and gets run over on Route 1!