Sunday on the Bay: Historic Egmont Key

Shark catch at Egmont Photo: Manatee County Historical Archives

EGMONT -- Egmont Key has always been a very strategic location. Recently, Mote Marine has been releasing rehabilitated pelicans on the south end bird sanctuary. However, the notorious Egmont has historically been utilized for activities that were far more confidential and illicit. Those involved were often famous military personalities like Robert E. Lee and Teddy Roosevelt, and infamous characters like Admiral Severes and his fleet of slaughtering Spaniards.

Just viewing the dilapidated remnants of the forts and military buildings there gives me a feeling of nostalgia, but not the comforting wistfulness that I get from other places around the county, there is just something a bit unsettling about the place. I decided to put some time into researching Egmont and I found all sorts of epic information including prisons, pirates, mine fields war tactics and special ops.

The food harvested from the waters fed forgers for almost two centuries -- plus gopher tortoises were a very abundant (and still are if you ever visit, you are guaranteed to see at least 20) food source.

Fort Dade Army tent Manatee County Historical Archives

The location of Egmont was a valuable asset in itself. Early on, Spanish ships used it for charting. Because it is isolated and located at the mouth of Tampa Bay, it served as their landmark for the area. In 1557, they erected a large cross on the southern end and used it in conjunction with their astrolabe (an early form of the sexton) to chart the bay. Even today boaters rely on Egmont for navigation.

”Whenever you see that white tower in the gulf you know you are in Tampa Bay. No matter how many times you got turned around in the fog -- you see that one flash every 15 seconds. There is no other light on the Gulf of Mexico that does that. You know you are right at Tampa Bay and home is not far away,“ said park ranger Bob Baker in an interview with the Manatee Historical Society in 1996.

Later, the British used it to beach their ships on the sandbar at low tide to work on the hulls, and this strategy is still used today for all practical purposes.  

”They liked the island because they could slip out on some of the Spanish shipping and try to intercept some of their gold. Back then, if you worked for the government you were a privateer and if you worked for yourself you were a pirate,“ said Baker.

Smugglers used the island because it is unique in the fact that its location is protected but also very near population areas. As shipping increased, there was a need for some navigational aid to be erected so ships could avoid hitting it. In 1848, the lighthouse was built, but that same year two hurricanes that were back to back damaged it badly. It was still operational, so it was used anyway.

Fishing party at Egmont Manatee County Historical Archives

In 1854, Native Americans were detained there only to be sent to New Orleans, where they would join other tribes and continue on the Trail of Tears to the Arkansas Territory Reservation, which is now Oklahoma. European settlers had brought with them diseases that had killed off most of the indigenous peoples like the Caloosa tribe. Other tribes facing the same problems in different places had migrated to Florida from the North, in hope of finding sanctuary. Seminoles, Cherokee and Blackfoot, along with many others, immigrated only to be captured after the Third Seminole War and held on the island.

The same year, Robert E. Lee was working as an engineer with the Army Corps by surveying the west coast of Florida. He was asked to have a look at the damaged light house. He recommended replacing it – so the light house that is still there now was built in 1858.

The lighthouse instigated a battle during the Civil War when the island was first used by the Confederacy, but they reluctantly had to abandon it due to limited resources. Before leaving, they took the lenses out of the lighthouse and secretly buried them somewhere around Tampa Bay. The Union troops raided land one night to find the lenses, after receiving a bogus lead. No one wanted to get killed over a light, so they receded.

At that time, two brothers were hauling cargo up the Manatee River with some small ships for the Union army, but after a heated debate with an influential person in Pinellas County, they stopped.

”They didn’t care – they were just trying to make money off of it,“ said Baker. ”Their bodies were buried out on the island during the wars,“ said Baker.

Gun at Fort Dade Manatee County Historical Archives

Pioneers of the area would take advantage of the narrow channel into Tampa Bay. They would campout on the island during bad weather and when ships would sink off the coast, they would utilize lax salvage laws and cash in on the cargo they found.

The channel was difficult to navigate and before it was dredged, the original depth was only eight feet. The large ships would only have about 2 feet on either side so they employed harbor pilots. Specialists would offer to captain a ship in and get paid for it. Pretty soon, only a handful of people actually knew how to take ships safely in and out of the harbor – and they were well rewarded for their knowledge. In 1886, they formed the Tampa Bay Harbor Pilot’s Association which still operates today. They moved to Egmont and are still operating on the island. The Corps of Engineers eventually dredged through the delta to Tampa Bay, but that didn’t hinder the pilot prophesy.

After the Civil War, the army enacted a coastal defense plan with 21 strategic locations, one of them Tampa, but it wasn’t’ until 1898 that they started building. There were 21 forts in strategic locations from Maine down the East Coast and around the Gulf. Tampa was one of them. Fort Dade was built on Egmont (and ironically named after Major Francis L. Dade who was massacred by Seminole Indians) and Fort Desoto built on Mullet Key. DeSoto was the subcommand of Fort Dade and there was a secret mine field between the two islands.

Army Corps of Engineers ship Manatee County Historical Archives

Because they lived in fear of the Spanish fleet, they had the most high-tech warfare and two of the very first, back-end-loaded, rapid-fire guns that could shoot up to 12 miles offshore. The cannons shot so far that ships wouldn’t know where along the coast the shots had come from. They also had secret hideouts and mine fields. At the height, there were 70 buildings and 300 personnel on the island. There were also brick roads, sidewalks, and a power plant and sewage system.

Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders were stationed at Fort Dade briefly before being deployed to Cuba.

”He didn’t stay at the hotel. He stayed in tents with the men and nobody ever heard of the Rough Riders,“ said Roberta Moore Cole, the lighthouse keeper’s daughter.

She was instructed to tell her friends about an Indian mound and show them artifacts she had found at it. The mound was actually a camouflage hideout.

”I asked my Dad if it was an Indian mound and he said Ôkinda’. It was actually a house with four rooms and a wall that was eight feet thick. It was supposed to keep the command safe in the event of an attack,“ she said in a 1989 interview with the MHS.

The fort never actually saw combat. When airplanes were invented during WWI, the battery defense was obsolete. A 1921 hurricane did a lot of damage and in 1923 it was decommissioned.

Roberta Moore Cole as a child with father Charles Manatee County Historical Archives

In the 1930’s Egmont was a hideout for bootleggers based on Baker’s recording. He said U.S. customs were after them but couldn’t get them out of the vacant buildings, so they decided to light the grass on fire and smoke them out. The blaze was so big you could see it in Ybor City and 35 buildings were destroyed. Eventually, the army came back and destroyed the rest.

In the 40’s the island was used as a training base for the Coast Guard. They had a rifle range which is now washed out in the west coast waterway, but one can still sometimes find ammunition on the beach.

Coast Guard remained with the operations of the light tower and radio beacon that transmitted Morse code. For years, aircraft flew and found destinations based on that radio beacon.

In 1974, the southern third of the island was made into a National Wildlife Refuge (5 acres).

In the late eighties, the largest military/civilian operation in the history of the United States was held at Egmont. Roberta Cole was instrumental in putting it together and in a joint effort between the FWCC and the Florida Park Service, they removed over 72 tons of trash from the island. Shortly after, it was made a State Park.

The lighthouse Manatee County Historical Archives

Today, tourists are free to roam the brick streets and clime the walls of the old forts. Sailboats and powerboats picnic on the weekends and snorkle and gophers still roam the arid terrain (but are now protected from consumption).The lighthouse still serves its duty as a vital navigation aid.

”I know when I go heading home I have got the biggest yard light at night of anybody in the neighborhood. I will look for that light and regardless of what my radar says or what my compass says or the loran says, until I see that light and my relative position to that light, I don’t feel at ease cutting across the flats or coming from the bridge or anything else,“ said Baker.