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Photo courtesy of the Florida Photo Archives.
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During the Second Seminole War, Fort Dallas was established at the mouth of the Miami River. A wooden stockade and several blockhouses were erected in 1837 by army troops and navy sailors. Just after being garrisoned and supplied, however, orders came to abandon the fort and remove the troops to Key Biscayne due to the shallowness of Biscayne Bay and the tricky sandbar at the mouth of the Miami River. In 1839 Fort Dallas was reoccupied until 1842, when the army was withdrawn. By this time most of the Seminoles who remained in Florida had been driven into the Everglades. The fort was turned over to the navy and occupied by marines for an additional six months before the post was abandoned. The fort, including two stone buildings, briefly was reoccupied by army troops for more than a year until 1850. Fort Dallas was activated again in 1855 and a hospital was added along with several additional wooden structures. Eventually, Henry Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel was built on the old fort's grounds.
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