The Ferry Slip Cafe became the Toll Gate Inn and it was owned by local shark fisherman, Wynn Tyler. The Toll Gate Inn was a 10-room motel, a bar, restaurant, marina, and gas station. The marina was dredged in the early 1950s, at the same time that most of the canals in Lower Matecumbe Key were dredged out. New beginning In 1974 a handful of volunteers from Miami, Florida and Atlanta, Georgia came together to develop a high adventure program using the waters in and around the Florida Keys as their foundation. The BSA National High Adventure chairman, John R Donnell Sr, asked the then Camping Director of the South Florida Council, Sam Wampler, to coordinate trips to Freeport in The Bahamas. Sam, using his station wagon and a warehouse, operated this program until 1979. The original Florida Gateway High Adventure committee members were Paul Benedum, John R Donnell Sr., Spurgeon Gaskin, Ernie Jamison, and chairman Charlie Topmiller. In 1977 over 700 participants were in the program, urging the Florida Gateway committee to look for a permanent location for a camp. Under Wampler's leadership, the National Council received a 1.3-million-dollar grant from the Fleischmann Foundation. Following some extensive research, the Old Toll Gate Motel and Marina and was purchased in 1979 at a cost of $800,000. The remaining $500,000 was used to construct the sailing dorms, the quarterdeck, general manager's residence, to repair to the T-dock, purchase a SCUBA compressor, and renovate the restaurant to a dining hall and office. Florida Gateway High Adventure Base The camp began small, but started growing immediately. The former Land Between the Lakes National High Adventure Base contributed a couple of canoes, a pontoon boat, some office equipment and one employee, Stu Cottrrell, who became the first program director. The Florida Gateway High Adventure Base opened on May 15, 1980. 800 Scouts attended the first summer. By 1982 construction and renovation was complete and the name was changed to the Florida National High Adventure Sea Base. In December 1982, the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America was given Big Munson Island from Homer Formby. Big Munson is an untouched, uninhabited island over in size, located off Big Pine Key in the lower Keys. It is now used for the Out Island Program, and as a part of the Key Adventure Program. In 1984 the new Scuba pools were dedicated, and in 1987,