Jonathan Dickinson State Park

Jonathan Dickinson State Park is a Florida State Park and historic site located in Martin County, Florida, between Hobe Sound and Tequesta, just south of the town of Stuart, and north of Jupiter Inlet. The park includes the Elsa Kimbell Environmental Education and Research Center and a variety of natural habitats: sand pine scrub, pine flatwoods, mangroves, and river swamps. The Loxahatchee River, designated a National Wild and Scenic River in 1985 (the first in Florida), runs through the park.

The park is named after Jonathan Dickinson, a Quaker merchant who was shipwrecked in 1696, with his family and others, on the Florida coast near the present-day park. He wrote a journal describing their encounters with local Indian tribes and Spanish settlers along the coast as they made their way on foot and small boat to St. Augustine. The journal provides a detailed historical account of the time period. Portions of the Battle of Loxahatchee, fought during the Second Seminole War, are believed to have been fought within the park. The United States Army established Camp Murphy, a top-secret radar training school, in the area that is now the park, in 1942. The camp included over 1,000 buildings, and housed more than 6,000 officers and soldiers. The camp was deactivated in 1944, after only two years of operation. Most of the camp buildings were torn down, but some of the building foundations remain. Following the deactivation, the property was transferred on June 9, 1947, from the U.S. government to the State of Florida for a new state park. Jonathan Dickinson State Park was opened to the public in 1950.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park has such amenities as bicycling, boat tours, boating, cabins, canoeing, fishing, hiking, horse trails, kayaking, picnicking areas, swimming, wildlife viewing and full camping facilities. It also has the Elsa Kimbell Environmental Education and Research Center, with exhibits about the park's natural and cultural history. The park operates a 44-passenger boat for tours of Trapper Nelson's homestead.

The Loxahatchee River is one of Jonathan Dickinson State Park’s main features as Florida’s first federally designated Wild and Scenic River. This 7.6-mile river starts its journey in the Loxahatchee Slough 20 miles south of the park. It meanders through freshwater creeks into a brackish estuary, eventually making its way to the Jupiter Inlet and the Atlantic Ocean. The entire park lies within the 210-square mile Loxahatchee River Basin which includes three main forks of the river. The North and Northwest Forks flow through the park and the Southwest Fork flows south of the park boundary.

The Loxahatchee River has rich cultural and ecological history, playing a key role in the Seminole Wars, the life of early pioneers, and plans to restore the hydrology of the river. The river was the site of the Battle of the Loxahatchee during the Second Seminole War, one of the bloodiest and costliest battles of the Indian Wars in the United States. Many of the pioneer families that built the Town of Jupiter as well as Trapper Nelson, the Wild Man of the Loxahatchee, called the banks of the river home.

Although the Loxahatchee is a protected river it has not escaped the ecological impacts of development and change. The National Wild and Scenic Loxahatchee River has suffered from saltwater intrusion since the 1940s. The native bald cypress died in the lower reaches of the river and were replaced by mangroves. Since the 1980s various restoration projects within the park and outside the park have increased freshwater flows to the river. As a result, park staff are now re-introducing bald cypress in the floodplain of the Loxahatchee River to restore these areas to what they once were.

Jonathan Dickinson is the only state park in south Florida where visitors can hike to the top of an ancient sand dune. The dune stands 86 feet above sea level, the highest natural point south of Lake Okeechobee. Hobe Mountain was once submerged in the Atlantic Ocean and as sea levels rose and fell the mountain was formed by high winds and the crashing of ocean waves.

Hobe Mountain is part of the Atlantic Coastal Ridge, a series of dunes and hills which parallel the Southeastern Florida coastline. The hills found in the eastern portion of the park adjacent to US highway 1 are some of the only hills found in the area and many of the plants and animals which grow upon them are unique to the desert like conditions of the dunes. The plant community which occupies these sand dunes, the Sand Pine Scrub, is a disappearing habitat which is home to plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. Many of these species are endangered and some are specific only to Jonathan Dickinson State Park and Florida. The Florida Scrub-Jay and Florida Scrub lizard are examples of species endemic to the Florida Sand Pine Scrub. Plant species such as the Florida Dancing Lady Orchid which is also found only in the park.

Park visitors can climb Hobe Mountain by way of a boardwalk leading them through the scrub and up to Hobe Mountain Tower which rises an additional 27 feet from the mountain. The observation tower allows for optimal viewing of the park, Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean.