Florida National High Adventure Sea Base
| Florida National High Adventure Sea Base | |||
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| Owner | Boy Scouts of America | ||
| Location |
Florida Keys, Florida |
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| Country | United States | ||
| Founded | 1980 | ||
| Founder | Sam Wampler | ||
| Attendance | 12,000 (2008) | ||
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Website http://www.bsaseabase.org/ |
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Bless the creatures of the Sea
Bless this person I call me
Bless the Keys you made so grand
Bless the sun that warms the land
Bless the fellowship we feel
as we gather for this meal
Amen
The Florida National High Adventure Sea Base is a high adventure program base run by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in the Florida Keys. Its counterparts are the Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico, the Northern Tier National High Adventure Bases in Ely, Minnesota, and The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve near the New River Gorge National River in southern West Virginia.
The main Sea Base is located in Islamorada, Florida on the end of Lower Matecumbe Key. Other bases include the Brinton Environmental Center located on Summerland Key (which oversees Big Munson Island located 5.5 miles southeast) and the Bahamas Sea Base in Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas.
The Florida Sea Base Conference Center has become an alternative training site to the Philmont Training Center. Most conferences it hosts are for professionals or national level committees, but it also hosts conferences for outside groups.
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. Veterans key, 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 veterans key, for a bridge that was to connect Lower Matecumbe Key and Jewfish Bush Key and was never built.
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