Titusville, Florida's "Bay of Biscay"
by Michael Knight

I was looking at some old maps recently, in particuler an 1885 map of Brevard County, Florida, when I noticed that the area of the Indian River from Titusville south to approximately the location of Sharpes  on the west side of the river and from the present day Titusville Causeway southward including Banana Creek and down past Pine Island on the east side of the river, was named "Bay of Biscay." An excerpt from that map is shown below. I had never heard that portion of the Indian River called the Bay of Biscay before. The only Bay of Biscay I know of is a gulf of the Northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea lying along the coast of France south to the Spanish border. Minnie Titus Ensey, Colonel Henry Titus' daughter, confirmed the name of this portion of the Indian River as the Bay of Biscay in her article "The Saga of Colonel Henry Theodore Titus Told By His Youngest Daughter Minnie Titus Ensey To Fedora Ensey Gray of Miami." Her article can be found on the North Brevard Historical Society Website.

Click for a more detailed enlargement (4.4 MB).

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