Scope Note:

Big Pine Key is approximately 5,816 acres. Site of Key Deer Sanctuary Headquarters. Former oil well located at dead end of Long Beach Road. Former shark processing plant is located on east side of key, north of present highway.

Geographic Location:

U.S. Highway 1 crosses Big Pine Key at mile markers 29.5--33.

References:

A Spanish document dated 1627 refers to this and nearby keys as Cayos de Cuchiaga. A Spanish document dated 1678, and dealing with a Spanish effort using Keys Indians to search for the wreckage of Atocha has Cayo de Pinero. William Roberts, in his First Discovery and Natural History of Florida (1763) has Cayo Pinero. DeBram chart(1772) shows Newcastle Island here. F.W. Gerdes, in his journal for 1848-49, states: "The large most western of the Pine Islands, some 12 miles in extent and running mostly S.E. & N.W. is called the Big Pine Island."