Hush.
Listen for the call of a wild peacock or the splash of an otter. Look for a darting bobcat or a soaring bald eagle. Smell the fragrant Australian pines.
This is the Charles Deering Estate, a 360-acre expanse along south Biscayne Bay where nature and history make their home together.
Behind a low wall of stone and a thick wall of foliage along Cutler Road, the estate opens to a wide, manicured lawn hugging the water.
From dawn to dusk, visitors come to the estate for tours through the lush hammock of hardwood trees. They come for canoe trips through mangroves and across a bit of the bay to Chicken Key, a 5 1/2-acre island that is part of the estate.
Children come here for weeklong day camps to study nature and history.
Some people come here to picnic on the lawn beneath towering palms. On some evenings, wedding receptions and parties are held in the ballroom of the stone house or under tents on the lawn.
For the past three years, this place, between Southwest 152nd Street and Southwest 168th Street in south Dade County, has been a peaceful preserve for the public. It is owned by the State of Florida and operated by the Metropolitan Dade County Park and Recreation Department.
But that is now. There is much to tell about then.
This was once the site of the villages of Tequesta Indians, who lived here hundreds of years ago. More than a century ago, it was known as Cutler, a settlement of South Florida pioneers. And in the Roaring ’20s, it was the winter home of Deering, who chaired the family’s business, International Harvester.
Deering, born in Maine in 1852, tended to the family business in Chicago. But he had other interests, such as botany and art. He acquired his estate bit by bit when he was in his 60s, and gradually he began spending more time there, enjoying the lush fauna of the area. He died there in 1927.
The Deering Estate is not as elaborate as Vizcaya, the home farther north along the bay that belonged to Charles Deering’s brother, James. But much of the charm of the Deering Estate is in its preservation of nature.
This is believed to be the best surviving example of the coastal forest that once covered much of South Florida. You will see the South Florida that early settlers saw, with some changes made by Deering, who introduced some exotic species of plants to the grounds.
Guides offer tours through the three different tropical areas of the grounds — a dense canopy of hardwoods, a pineland and a mangrove forest.
The tour, in small carts, follows an old Indian trail. Raccoons, foxes and skunks make their homes here. So do more than 150 species of birds.
You may see some endangered species of plants and wildlife, such as the Florida Purple Wing and the Miami Black-headed Snake. Look for the Tiny Polygala, a small, flowering plant under palms in the pinelands, or the Green Paint Plant that clings to limestone rocks.
The canoe trip to Chicken Key weaves through narrow channels, dredged through the mangroves at the turn of the century to keep the mosquito population down. The channels allowed fish to swim freely into the area, where they could eat mosquito larvae.
From the mangrove area, it’s a straight shot a half-mile east across the bay to the Key. The origin of the island’s name is something of a mystery, but local historians believe that Florida settlers who lived in Cutler kept chickens there, where they would be safe from predators such as raccoons and bobcats. They were not safe from hurricanes there, however, and it is believed that a pre-World War II hurricane wiped out the chicken ranch.
Today, the island is home to wild birds, who nest and mate on the rookery that occupies a one-acre section of the key.
Deering acquired the Key as part of the estate in 1916. Facing the bay and the manicured lawn are two houses he used, one of wood and one of stone, connected by a walkway. Tours of the unfurnished homes are offered.
The wood home, built at the turn of the past century, was once the Richmond Inn, which housed guests such as Henry Flagler. Director Rob Line says a marketing study is being conducted to see if it is feasible to turn the building into a bed-and-breakfast hotel. Fossil exhibits are on display here.
The wood home is all that is left of the village of Cutler, which lasted about 20 years. In the early 1900s, when Flagler put his railroad tracks far west of the area, the pioneers moved west, and the town died.
It took Deering four years to build the stone home for his family, completed in 1922.
The Tequesta Indians made their home here from about 500 to 1500, and the estate is the site of one of three known burial mounds in South Florida. The mound is marked by a massive oak, its roots wrapped around the burial spot.
IF YOU’RE GOING
— Easiest route: Take Interstate 95 south to where it turns into U.S. 1. Continue south to 67th Avenue (also called Ludlam Road) and turn left. Follow Ludlam to its end (Southwest 152nd Street), and go right. Turn left at Southwest 72nd Avenue, and go about a mile to a big wooden gate.
— Expenses: Admission is $4 for adults, $2 for children. (This includes a tour of the houses and hammock.)
Canoe trips cost $10 for adults, $5 for children. (Tours included.) Trips for Chicken Key leave at 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday. Trips, less than two miles round-trip, take about 1/2 hours. (Bring mosquito repellent.)
— Hours: Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
— Special events: Moonlight canoe trips, $15 per person, 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. Aug. 27. (Reservations required.)
Sunrise canoe trips, $15 per person, 6 to 9 a.m. Aug. 21. (Reservations required.)
Day camps for children, $50 to $75 a week, for ages 5 to 6, 7 to 10, and 11 to 15. Sessions run for one week, and students may enroll for up to two weeks.
For more information, call 1-305-235-1668.
