Big Hunting Ground

The area currently known as Cutler Bay, variously known at other times as Cutler Ridge or just plain Cutler, was once known by indigenous peoples as the "Big Hunting Ground". The area was part of the Perrine Land Grant in 1837, wherein congress gave a large alotment of real estate to noted horticulturist Dr. Henry Perrine for scientific endeavors. He was massacred on Indian Key at the outbreak of the 2nd Seminole War.

The area was prized as high ground, standing a full 16 feet above sea level along what is known as the Miami Rock Ridge - a geological feature running from the tip of the penninsula inland to the city of Jupiter. William Fuzzard, a friend of Dr. Cutler who was the first permanent resident of the area, was staying in Coconut Grove in the early 1880's while he explored his surroundings and began building a 2-story home in Cutler. He cut a path between the two locations, eventually widened to a wagon track that would later be known as the Old Cutler Road.

While visiting the Deering Estate, I took the nature tour led by a state park ranger named Andre. Much of our walk traveled the path of the afore-mentioned road (see above left). The tour, brimming with interesting details about the local flora and topography, ended at the site of a Tequesta burial mound (above right) beneath a large oak tree. Andre briefly alluded to the site being disturbed by a man hunting treasure many years prior. Apparently this scoundrel, while not having found anything else he considered to be of value, absconded with two skulls from the mound - which he later lost. It seemed like rather detailed information for an otherwise apocryphal tale, so I was not particularly surprised when, taking the guided tour of the buildings later that day, a second ranger named Max elaborated on the story..

Max went so far as to name the grave-robber as Charles Deering's son - "a self-styled adventurer in search of pirate gold". Deering had two sons - Charles William Case and Roger. Charles William died "without issue" prior to his father...so the suspicion falls toward Roger, though he is described as a sickly lad suffering from tuberculosis from age 17. Nonetheless, his pursuit of dry air led him as far as Egypt and eventually to Albuquerque where he died...so he was at least a traveler if not an "adventurer" and may indeed be the culprit. Information on both sons is scarce at best though I intend to dig a bit deeper.