Ask most people what makes Palm Beach County worth the price of admission and they’ll point you to the mansions on the island, the golf, the shopping on Worth Avenue. All real. But the thing that actually keeps people from ever leaving is the water.

I’ve been selling real estate here since 1996 — 1,500-plus homes — and I’ll tell you the single most underrated piece of this county is a man-made island sitting in the middle of the Lake Worth Inlet that half the population drives past without ever setting foot on.

Peanut Island. If you own a boat, a jet ski, a paddleboard, or just a cooler and a friend with any of those, this place is your backyard. Here’s the backstory, what’s actually out there right now, and a few things I’ve learned the hard way running my own boat over.

Where It Came From (and Why It’s Called Peanut Island)

Peanut Island isn’t natural. It was created in 1918 out of the material dredged up when they cut the Lake Worth Inlet and built the Port of Palm Beach. It started as a roughly 10-acre pile of spoil called Inlet Island and has grown to the 79 acres out there today.

Here’s a detail most locals don’t know: the engineer credited with the inlet project was General George Washington Goethals — the same man who served as chief engineer of the Panama Canal.

The “Peanut” name came from a business that never really happened. In the 1940s the state permitted a peanut oil operation on the island. It was gone by 1946 — accounts differ on whether it ever meaningfully operated — but the name stuck anyway. Classic Florida: the thing that didn’t work is the thing everybody remembers.

The Kennedy Bunker Nobody Was Supposed to Know About

This is the one that stops people cold. You’re out on the sandbar with a drink in your hand and somebody says, “You know they built JFK a nuclear bunker on this island, right?” Half the boat doesn’t believe it. It’s true.

When John F. Kennedy took office, his family already wintered at their Palm Beach estate — the “Winter White House,” right across the water. This was the peak of the Cold War, Cuba is 90 miles off our coast, and the real fear was a strike arriving with almost no warning. If that happened while the President was down here, he needed somewhere to disappear to fast. Peanut Island was minutes away by boat or helicopter.

In December 1961, in the run-up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Navy’s Seabees quietly built a fallout shelter on the island, code-named Detachment Hotel. A corrugated tunnel entrance that turned ninety degrees to blunt a blast, feet of earth and a lead-lined roof overhead, a decontamination room, a radio room. Built to hold about 30 people for roughly 30 days. A doomsday bunker for the President, on a spoil island in our inlet, and almost nobody knew.

What’s happening with it now — and why it matters

It barely got used. Kennedy was killed in 1963 and the shelter eventually fell into disrepair before the local maritime museum restored it and ran public tours. Those tours stopped in 2017 and have not resumed.

But this is the part most people around here still haven’t caught up on: it’s not abandoned — it’s being rebuilt. Palm Beach County voted in January 2022 to take over the site and restore it before reopening it to the public. County parks leadership has described mold and structural instability that made the interior genuinely unsafe, air that wasn’t breathable, and a project running into the millions. The same effort covers the 1936 Coast Guard station and boathouse standing alongside it. The county has said the plan is guided tours for a small fee once the work is finished.

So today it’s still just a great local fact, not a family outing. But it’s a fact with a countdown on it. When that bunker reopens, this island stops being the place locals take visitors and starts being a destination with a line. If you’re looking at water access out here, that’s worth knowing before it’s obvious to everyone else.

What’s Actually Out There Now

In 2005 the county turned the island into a legitimate park, and it’s been improved steadily since. What you’ll find today:

• The snorkeling lagoon on the southeast side, built around a man-made reef and ringed by a walkway and picnic shelters. Here’s the honest version most write-ups skip: the lagoon doesn’t flush well with the tides, so visibility can be more lake than ocean. What it’s genuinely great for is calm, protected water and manatees, which drift through in the cooler months. If you want fish, go to the eastern shore facing the inlet — the rock breakwaters over there hold real structure and real sea life. Snorkel it near high tide.
• A tent campground. You can camp overnight on an island in the middle of the inlet with the West Palm skyline lit up across the water. Sites are limited and reservations go fast — book well ahead.
• A fishing pier, a paved loop path around the whole island, picnic cabanas with grills, restrooms, and day-use docks if you’re coming in by boat.
• The old Coast Guard station, built in 1936, which ran beach patrols and search-and-rescue out of the inlet during World War II — still standing right alongside the bunker, and part of the same county restoration.

You get there by private boat, kayak, or the water taxi that runs out of the marinas. No bridge, no car. That’s the whole point — it keeps the crowd to people who actually made the effort.

Getting Your Skis and Boats in the Water

If you’re launching your own, there are three easy drop-in points, all within a few minutes’ idle of the island.

From any of the three you’re at Peanut Island in minutes. On a Saturday you’ll see everything from 14-foot skiffs to center consoles to a wall of jet skis all pointed the same direction.

Where to Eat Without Leaving the Water

Half the fun out here is that you never really have to touch dry land the normal way. Two reliable dock-and-dine stops within a few minutes of the island:

• Sailfish Marina Resort (98 Lake Dr, Palm Beach Shores) — closest to the inlet and the classic pre- or post-island stop. Tie up on the Intracoastal and walk in. If you had a good day fishing, bring them your catch and they’ll cook it.
• Rafiki Tiki Bar & Grill at Riviera Beach Marina Village (190 E. 13th St) — right on the water at the marina, casual, exactly the kind of place you roll into barefoot straight off the boat.

There’s more scattered around the inlet if you want to make a day of it — the tiki bars and grills tucked into the Singer Island and Palm Beach Shores resorts along the water. One practical note: dockage at any of these is first-come and it fills on weekends. Call ahead if you’re running a bigger boat.

The Part That Actually Makes It Home

I’ve been running boats out to Peanut Island for years, and the stuff I remember has nothing to do with the history plaques.

The sandbar

On the north side of the island, when the tide drops out, a big shallow sandbar comes up out of the water — warm, ankle- to knee-deep, clear. It’s not a wild scene and nobody’s running aground trying to get there. It’s just the spot where everybody hangs out. Boats ease up and raft together, music going, people standing around in a foot of water like it’s the neighborhood driveway, kids and dogs splashing. You can spend a whole Saturday out there and never put shoes on.

The grill barge

My favorite fixture on that sandbar is a buddy of mine’s pontoon boat. No motor. Nothing. It’s a pontoon he keeps hard-anchored right there with a grill mounted on the deck — that’s the whole operation. When we want to hang out, everybody pulls up to it, ties off, and we grill and eat standing on the water. No dock, no restaurant, no reservation.

It might be the most Palm Beach County thing I know: a boat that doesn’t go anywhere, and it’s still the best seat in the house.

Featured Listing: 736 Lagoon Drive, North Palm Beach

If you want to know exactly what I mean, this is it. 736 Lagoon Drive is a 2023-built waterfront home on a protected basin in North Palm Beach. From its own dock, Peanut Island is roughly a 15–20 minute run depending on how the manatee zones are posted and how you handle the idle stretches. Everything in this article is reachable before lunch.

This one was built for a boater who’s serious about it:

• Roughly 80 feet of deep-water frontage on a wide, protected basin (about 226 feet across), with a turning basin right there. Dockage designed for large vessels and lift-ready.
• Deep water and no bridge openings between the dock and the Palm Beach Inlet. Practical note for anyone running real air draft: the Blue Heron Boulevard bridge on the route south is a fixed span at roughly 65 feet of clearance, so confirm your vertical before you commit to a hull.
• 7 bedrooms, 8 baths, approximately 7,992 sq ft, built in 2023 and lightly used as a seasonal residence.
• Dual primary suites, private elevator, Thermador chef’s kitchen, full summer kitchen, impact glass throughout, and a 4.5-car lift-ready garage.
• Infinity-edge saltwater pool with a fire spa, overlooking the water.

Offered at $7,290,000. It’s the kind of home where the Peanut Island lifestyle in this article isn’t a weekend trip you plan — it’s just what Saturday looks like.