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com slash explore. You're going to be. Set against the backdrop of Miami's skyline, six structures rise from the turquoise waters of Biscayne Bay.

Ruggid and isolated, these houses on stilts are an unexpected site in the midst of a National Park water world that was designated to preserve the coral reefs, seagrasses,

mangrove forests, and other natural features.

Cormorants and herons perch on the roofs, railings, and pylons of the houses.

Dolphins and manatees swim between them.

Together, these six structures are all that remain of the whimsical history of Stiltsville,

although none are among the original 27 that formed this curiosity in the National

Park that is 95% water.

How did such a village come to exist and what does the future hold for these few relics that

remain? I'm Jason Epperson and this is the

America's National Parks podcast. The The very first stiltsville structures were, in essence, shacks.

In the 1930s, crawfish Eddie Walker established a barge in the middle of Biscayne Bay, no stilts involved.

He sold bait and tackle, a bit of chowder and sandwiches, and as legend has it, dabbled in booze and gambling.

Even prior to Crawfishetti, according to local lore, in the midst of prohibition in the 1920s, about a dozen shacks appeared and were known as hot spots for smuggling liquor.

People believed that because they were more than a mile offshore, they were beyond the reach of the law and they would escape police raids.

Other people latched on to the idea and built shacks on floating platforms or

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