Simpson Park in Miami Is Named for the Sage of Biscayne Bay

A 7.8-acre patch of tropical hardwood hammock survives in Miami’s Brickell area, and it carries the name of Charles Torrey Simpson. It opened as Jungle Park and was renamed for him in 1927, while he was still alive to see it.

From the Smithsonian

Simpson spent about thirteen years at the Smithsonian’s U.S. National Museum as a specialist in mollusks, cataloging freshwater mussels and land snails. In 1902 he and his wife, Flora, moved to Lemon City, now part of Miami, and made a home on Biscayne Bay they called The Sentinels.

The Books

He wrote about the hammocks, tree snails and trees around him, most memorably in In Lower Florida Wilds (1920), and Miami came to call him the Sage of Biscayne Bay. He died on December 17, 1932.

Simpson Park Hammock is still open as a Miami-Dade park.