Jones' Pier's First Winter Season, Across the Lagoon From Indian Trails

Richard "Dick" Jones owned the river bottom in front of his house on Jungle Trail, and he charged people who wanted to tie up a boat or fish from his wooden pier. Indian River County now owns that pier. Anyone who comes by boat can dock there for free and walk up to the porch where Jones once sold citrus to passing boats.

The Jones Pier Interpretive Center opened after a ribbon-cutting on March 21, 2026. That makes the coming months its first cool season open to the public, and for a riverfront neighborhood like Indian Trails, the house and its pier face the same water.

The front door faced the lagoon

The house makes more sense once you remember which way the traffic ran. Seaborn Jones bought the property in 1889, and his son Timothy built the 900-square-foot, two-bedroom house more than a century ago. In those years the pier was where business happened. Fishermen tied up there, passing boats stopped for fresh citrus, and trading vessels brought supplies to early island residents.

On land, people got around on the road that is now Jungle Trail. It was called Orchid Isle Trail until the 1960s, and it was the island's main road until the paved A1A was built. The shell road still runs past the site, and the Jones property counts as "a contributing structure" to Jungle Trail, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, according to Wendy Swindell, the county's assistant director of parks and conservation.

Apart from two years in the U.S. Army during World War II, Dick Jones lived his whole life in the house. He married Mary in 1948, farmed the land, ran the fruit stand and the pier, and worked as a fishing guide and lagoon tour operator. Vero News reported that his tall tales were "not always 100 percent true," and that Walter Cronkite and Billy Graham visited every year and became friends of the couple.

The county bought the 16.5-acre site in 2008 for $6.75 million. As part of the deal, the Joneses could stay in the house for the rest of their lives. Mary died the following year, and Richard died in 2011.

What the county rebuilt, and what it kept

Hurricane Matthew's surge in 2016 soaked the floors and drywall. The county then raised the house 5 feet onto concrete piers, which protects it from future flooding and lets it carry the weight of visitors. Designing the project, raising and renovating the house, and installing the exhibits cost about $1.3 million. Roughly $460,000 in state grants brought the county's net cost to $840,000.

The goal was to keep the house looking like the Joneses' home. "It will look remarkably like it did when the Jones family was living there," Swindell told Vero News. Close Construction restored the original pine floors and repaired the wooden sash windows. Crews took the jalousie windows off the porch and turned it back into an old-fashioned screened porch.

Here's what a visitor finds today:

• On the porch: rocking chairs facing the pier and the Indian River Lagoon.
• At the entrance: the bicycles Richard and Mary Jones rode around the island.
• Inside: a large screen showing videos about the site's history and the renovation, display boards with the couple's stories and quotes, and a shelf of Richard Jones's diaries, where he recorded his daily activities in detail.
• For children: a large aquarium of native species and a nature-based play area. WQCS reported that the interactive area is dedicated to Mary Jones.
• Around the grounds: a replica of the old fruit stand, a pavilion, public restrooms, and the old caretaker's cottage, now a wet lab for students. Walking trails and boardwalks wind through a man-made salt marsh.

The displays won't stay the same. Swindell said exhibits will rotate, and the county will "take the pulse of what the response is from the community." If you went in the spring, the house may look different on your next visit.

Two ways to get there

Indian Trails sits on the mainland side of the lagoon, so there are two ways to reach the pier.

1. By road. Cross on route 510, turn onto Jungle Trail, and drive south about 2.7 miles on the shell road. From the south, the Jungle Trail entrance is off Old Winter Beach Road, and the center is about a mile north. The address is 7770 Jungle Trail.
2. By water. Boaters can tie up at Jones Pier at no charge. That's the route Dick Jones's customers took a century ago.

Before you trailer a boat over, check the launch. Indian River County's beach parks update of Oct. 30 says Wabasso Causeway Park is open, but its boat ramp is closed because of damage to the docks beside the ramp and high water. Check the county's park status page before you hitch up the trailer. If you keep a boat at your own dock, none of this matters.

As of spring, the house was open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Conservation Lands Division Environmental Educator Olivia Roddenberry or another county staff educator is on site during those hours to greet visitors and answer questions. The county plans to bring in a nonprofit volunteer group to help greet and teach visitors in the future. Hours can change with the season, so check indianriver.gov before you go.

Why the cool months matter here

The county's opening-day plan, announced in the Indian River Guardian, followed the March 21 ribbon-cutting with a "Tunes at the Lagoon" concert at 4 p.m. Music at the pier isn't new. The county holds free afternoon concerts at Jones Pier during the cooler months. This winter is the first time that series runs with the restored house open next to it. On concert days, the screened porch, the boardwalks and the pier are all part of the afternoon.

The Environmental Learning Center runs its own evening lagoon programs in December. WinterGreen Night Lights lights up the ELC's nature trails, offers guided canoe tours through mangroves after dark, and adds holiday cookie decorating, according to the ELC's event page.

Admission is paid at the door: $10 general, $5 for children under 12, and free for children under 2. The ELC asks guests to RSVP so it can plan, but an RSVP isn't a ticket. Everyone who RSVPs is entered in a drawing for two pontoon tour tickets.

November leads into it. The ELC's monthly calendar lists these programs:

• Currents & Connections: The Secret Life of a Place, Nov. 21 at 11:30 a.m.
• Water, Wonder & Wellness Boat Tour, Nov. 22 at 10 a.m.
• Family Fishing Day, Nov. 28 at 8 a.m., followed by Currents & Connections: Melby the Manatee Book Reading at 1 p.m.

On Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday mornings, the rocking chairs on the Jones porch look out over the same pier where boats once stopped to buy fruit.

If you'd like to talk about riverfront life in north county, from launch access to keeping a boat at your own dock, Kristin Dobson is happy to share what she knows. Get In Touch.