User:RebelliousOmeganOne

South Hillsboro Island

Located in the MilkyWay galaxy, orbiting the star Sol, on the planet Earth, on the North American continent, within the nation of the United States of America, state of Florida, straddling the border between south eastern Palm Beach County and north eastern Broward County.

The great Floridian peninsula juts out into the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, pointing down from the great North American continent towards the large island of Cuba. All around the coast of the Florida Peninsula, very close to shore, are a thin line of barrier islands. South Hillsboro Island is one of these.

It was originally part of a single larger island, that beginning in the 1880's was repeatedly cut into smaller pieces. There are now four distinct islands that were once all part of Palm Beach Island. Today, they are called (from north to south) North Palm Beach, Palm Beach Island, Boynton Highlands, South Hillsboro. It is important to note that many smaller islands were combined by feats of engineering and added to each of these large chunks. The natural boundaries were Jupiter inlet to the north, where the Loxahatchee River mouth empties into the sea; and Hillsboro inlet to the south, where the Lake Worth used to empty into the sea. The boat shipping lane Port of Palm Beach is the northernmost artificial cut connecting the ocean to old Lake Worth. When the salt water intrusion killed the aquatic life and created a stink, a second cut was made at Boynton inlet to help ocean water circulate. The inlet at Boca Raton was naturally intermittent, flowing only during storm surges and floods, a sandy shallow bar of dry land at most other times. It too was dredged and permanently opened. This particular inlet has a permanent engineering infrastructure of dredging equipment required to keep the small boat channel clear. Those three cuts, combined, created four islands out of the old Palm Beach Island, and destroyed the fresh water Lake Worth, creating the new salt water Lake Worth Lagoon in its place.

While none of these four new islands has previously been granted an individual name, I am doing so now, Between Jupiter inlet and the Port of Palm Beach, just south of Jupiter Island, lies North Palm Beach Island. Between the Port of Palm Beach and Boynton inlet, inside the county of Palm Beach, and containing the entire city of Palm Beach, is the island of Palm Beach Prime.

South of the Boynton inlet, and north of the Boca inlet, lies Boynton Island. South of the Boca inlet, and north of the Hillsboro inlet, is the Island of South Hillsboro.

It is important not to get confused between South Hillsboro Island and Palm Beach Island, which once were the same. It is also important not to get confused between South Hillsboro Island and its much smaller neighbour Hillsboro Island, which itself contains important historical significance.

South Hillsboro Island is connected to the mainland via two bridges. and by another single bridge to the next barrier island north, and by a single bridge to the next barrier island south, and to one other tiny island by a fifth bridge. Note: this smaller islands is owned and entirely occupied by the condominium building Hillsboro Island House, and itself has only the single short bridge connecting it to South Hillsboro Island, otherwise being entirely surrounded by the waters of the Intracoastal waterway.

The entire town of Hillsboro Beach is located on the island; and that town only has one road, running north and south state road A-1-A. The island is squeezed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. Originally separated from the mainland by a series of lagoons, the islands and lagoons were reshaped by American machinery over the course of centuries.

Along the coast from the ocean, for centuries, came Carib and Arawak tribes and villages riding canoes, tides and winds. Cousins of the Lucayan of Bahamas. On the mainland lived Tequesta, Calusa. There was a Mayan colony living around Lake Okeechobee in the old days.

The Europeans, Spanish and English, sailed in from the far East, brought disease and guns and construction and death. Governor Bonaparte began draining the EverGlades in 1907. Railroad came. The BareFoot mailman used to deliver mail by walking down the beach, he would pass along the eastern shore of Hillsboro Island on his journey down to Fort Lauderdale and Miami. There is a statue erected to him on the island.

The north end of the Island was home to fishing communities since the dawn of time. There are massive shell mounds there.

Parts of the island are claimed by Broward County in the south, and Palm Beach County in the north. The Palm Beach side is entirely within the domains of a much larger City of Boca Raton. The Broward side has a small public beach owned by the City of Deerfield Beach, which itself is mostly located on the mainland. The vast majority of the island, and the entire southern end, falls within the legal jurisdiction of the City of Hillsboro Beach. This town has the distinction of having one of the lowest crimes rates in the world. No murders. No rapes. No armed robberies. No muggings. No major drug arrests. Not even white collar crime, no high-profile tax evasion or bribery cases either. Nothing.

The very north end of the island bridges further north onto the next island. There is a second bridge very near the north end that heads west onto the mainland and the city of Boca Raton. here the island is wide, and there are two parallel side streets and many perpendicular roads in an extensive residential neighbourhood. There are tall residential towers lining the beach road.

The largest bridge is on the road Hillsboro Boulevard, that exits from the I-95 interstate highway a few miles away. This bridge crosses from the mainland in the city of Deerfield Beach, and connects to that part of the island that the same City owns. There are restaurants and bars and convenience stores around the public pier and parking. large public and crowded beach. a presbyterian church is there. mostly hotels and motels and condiminiums. a few private homes. church facilities extend into separate buildings and offices. a small public park. two parallel side roads to the main A-1-A, one far east providing an ocean view, one far west through private nieghbourhood. a third side road for a short while. private homes with docks on the intracoastal waterway. two or three tiny public parks provide access to the water on this west side.

Under the hillsboro boulevard bridge, on the west side, is a peninsula of land that used to be an island itself. it was connected to the mainland during original bridge construction. it is the site of a battle, ambush, capture of Seminole village and family during the American-Seminole Wars of the 1800's. Largest single capture of Seminole people during those wars, by American Calvary.

As you head south, the roads merge together, and become a single one-lane in either directions black-top tar paved motorized vehicle roadway designated state road A-1-A. Deerfield Beach ends and Town of Hillsboro Begins. there are no businesses in this town other than hotels. one hotel has one restaurant. there are no other businesses. at the very southern end of the island is an exclusive rich and private country club. there is a lighthouse there. the lighthouse lends its name to the the next southernmost town: Lighthouse Point. The town of LightHouse Point does NOT contain the LightHouse itself, nor is it even on the same island.

The north end of the island is cut from the next island by the Boca Raton inlet. This inlet was cut through by American Army Corp of Engineers, and is constantly maintained via a permanent infrastructure of dredging equipment. Inside the inlet itself you can see a boat floating with large pipes attached used to pump sand around large boulders placed in the shore line. My guess is that the original island was much larger, and was cut into pieces to allow small boat access to the inland intracoastal waterway that was cut out of the existing lagoons.

The south end of the island is cut from the next island by the Hillsboro Inlet. There is the fourth and last bridge leaving the island southward into the town of LightHouse point. The southern end of the island is the richest. very large private estates that occupy land on both sides of the A-1-A roadway, blocking the ocean view. the intracoastal is close enough to see that you are driving at only a few feet above sea level. there are massive private yachts docked there. the central part of the town is occupied by tall condominium towers, mixed with a small neighbourhood of expensive private homes.

One of these condominium towers is actually built on a small island of its own, and is connected by a bridge so small that most people don't realize it is anything more than a driveway from the A-1-A into the building's parking lot.

The intracoastal is a transportation route and is crowded with commercial and private motorized watercraft. Ocean fish fill the water, including sharks and tarpon. All of the buildings have docks attached, and there is no beach, but the entire shoreline is concrete re-inforced sea walls. The channel has been dug deeper and widened to accommodate ship traffic.

The island is home to sea turtles, including Ridge Back, Ridley, Green and Giant LeatherBack. There are also raccoons, opossums, squirrels, ants, mosquitoes, buffo toads, cormorants, turkey vultures, black vultures, seagulls, brown crows, black crows, woodpeckers, barred owls, brazillian pepper, sea grapes, australian pine, slash pine, loblolly pine, melaleuca, saint augustine grass, domestic cats and dogs, humans, water moccassin snakes, black racers, brown recluse spiders, giant banana spiders, halyconias, hyacinths, red mangrove, black mangrove, southern live oak, florida burr grass, prickly pear cactus, gopherus polyphemus digging ground turtles, small box turtles, pidgeons, osprey eagle, common house flies, and a very long time ago, even panther and black bear and crocodile and alligator. although all these large predators have long since been driven off by human guns and cars.