1972 Map of Horseshoe Keys

About this map

The Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge dominates this 1970s orthophotomap, showing the delicate shallow-water environment of the Florida Keys. Unlike traditional line-drawn maps, this aerial imagery captures the shifting shoals of Jack Bank and Sideboard Bank, providing an authentic view of the submerged geography. The overlap with the National Key Deer Refuge is clearly marked by an Indefinite Boundary, illustrating the administrative layers of these protected island chains. Navigational corridors like the Big Spanish Channel and the Intracoastal Waterway thread through the archipelago, connecting small landmasses such as Johnson Key and Crawl Key. The presence of a single Dock at West Bahia Honda Key represents one of the few signs of human infrastructure in this largely natural maritime landscape.