History of Greynolds Park
Set along Florida’s Oleta River, which centuries ago served as a transportation corridor for the Tequesta Indians, Greynolds Park was once a settlement ground for the tribe, and later home to the Seminole Indians who used the area as a trading post with settlers. In the late 1800s the county, today known as Miami-Dade, obtained the land where Greynolds Park now stands to use as a rock quarry and poor farm. The land contained a rich quantity of oolitic limestone, used to build roads in the early days of South Florida and was mined by several companies before coming into the possession of Albert Otha Greynolds and his Ojus Rock Company.
When financial troubles befell the company in the early 1930s, Greynolds agreed to deed the land to the county for use as a park. During the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed the park, first under the direction of landscape architect Prentiss French who designed the signature entrance wall and road and then under the direction of William Lyman Phillips who took control of the project after French’s resignation. It was Phillips who designed the rest of the park, including the grounds, the boathouse and the iconic Greynolds Park Outlook Mound and Tower, a grassy knoll created by burying mining equipment from the former quarry. Atop the hill a stone tower, nicknamed the castle creates an overlook, which at 42 feet high was at one time the highest point in the county. It was from this vantage point that thousands witnessed the unobstructed view of Biscayne Bay after its formal dedication in March 1936 by CCC head Robert Fechner.
Hours of Operations and Pricing
Sunrise - Sunset
$6 per vehicle on Weekends and special events.
Weekdays are free
The Cache
Now that we got all of that out of the way, let's talk about the cache. I have a tremendous amount of memories with this park so it would only be suitable for me to place my first cache inside of it. I noticed that Greynolds park had no caches and I'm going to change that. I placed the cache at a large limestone rock formation called "The Castle". This spot is particularly special to me because a tree used to reside on the side of the rock formation right next to where the cache is located. It was in this tree that I sat with two of my childhood friends in the summer of 2000 that I decided to start a band. To this very day, I still make music and I love it. While you're up there, don't get lost in the geocaching world all together. Really take a second to admire the view and appreciate the park.