Cedar Keys Light Station

CEDAR KEYS LIGHT STATION

By Toni C. Collins

Copyright © 2011 Toni C. Collins

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Cedar Keys Light Station viewed from the

channel entering the Port of the Cedar Keys

ca 1870

INTRODUCTION

Although the construction of a lighthouse was much sought after by politicians and locals, sufficient funds covering costs of building the modest structure were delayed several years by Congress. In addition, Florida’s sparse population made finding individuals to maintain the light and live such a solitary existence presented a major problem.

When Florida seceded from the Union in January 1861, oversight of the lighthouse shifted from the government of the United States to the newly created government of the Confederate States of America and Seahorse Key’s protected harbor became a haven for blockade runners.

In spite of a Federal blockade imposed early in the Civil War, local blockade runners continued their activities. When the Cedar Keys were invaded and occupied by Union troops in January of 1862, fearless blockade runners used the many rivers, bays, and creeks surrounding the Cedar Keys for refuge. During the war years, the lighthouse was occupied by not only Union troops and their families, but also sympathizers, refugees, and contraband or runaway slaves.

At the close of the war, gossip and conjecture were rampant among locals when the dead body of their neighbor’s beautiful daughter was found on Seahorse Key following the sudden departure of her Union officer lover. In addition, a long succession of light keepers came and went citing as a reason their fear of the headless horseman ghost who supposedly haunts the island during a full moon.

One lighthouse keeper, joined by his mother and brothers as lighthouse keeper assistants, manned the light during the boom years of the Port of Cedar Keys. Another light keeper quickly departed after being threatened by a local out-of-control gun wielding politician.

In 1915, the lighthouse went abandoned by the U.S. Light House Service. Upon passing to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture the lighthouse sat idle with its light dark. The Cedar Keys National Wildlife

Refuge, encompassing 13 islands surrounding the City of Cedar Key located on Way Key, was formed in 1929 under the U.S. Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. The island of Seahorse Key was not taken in the refuge until 1936.

The island and lighthouse reservation were leased by a private individual for a number of years prior to 1952 when the University of Florida in Gainesville entered into an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lease the facility. The University constructed a marine laboratory research station on the island and the lighthouse is used as a dormitory for students.

Today, the island is a bird rookery and consequently opens to the general public only twice a year. Recently the lighthouse structure was surveyed at the request of the Fish and Wildlife Service to establish a plan to address some much needed repairs to the 157-year old structure.

Although Seahorse Key and the lighthouse reservation are protected by numerous government agencies, no one can predict what the future holds for this re-minder of the dreams of men. However, season after season, year after year, this silent sentinel patiently stands and waits for the pages to be turned to begin the next chapter of its rich history.

Toni C. Collins

Lower Clay Landing on the

Suwannee River

September 2011

This book is dedicated to anyone who

Has climbed the stairs of a light

Tower to view the world

Through the eyes of

A light keeper

CHAPTER 1

DISCOVERY

1834 – 1852

When the peninsula of Florida was acquired as a territory from Spain in 1821, explorations began in earnest to carry out the plan for construction of a cross-peninsular canal to join the St. Johns River with the Suwannee River. Periodically Congress would appropriate funds to reconnoiter and study the West Coast of Florida, only to have the plans shelved in favor of a more popular project.

The lack of action on the part of the federal government does not mean the group of islands off the West Coast of Florida, collectively called the Cedar Keys, was unknown. Cuban fishermen marked their maps indicating fresh water could be found at this group of islands located between the two big rivers.

As early as 1770, Bernard Romans, a Dutchman employed by the British, surveyed the West Coast of Florida and described the islands on a map of the area. Romans noted the absence of beaches but found various sites which permitted approaching the islands in a canoe.

The diaries of early explorers contain references to shacks, wells, and watch towers found on the various islands indicating that early sailors sought refuge on the islands when needed. In addition, the numerous inlets and bays provided safe harbor during sudden storms which frequently engulfed the area.

The British trader, Alexander Arbuthnot from New Providence Island in the Bahamas, discovered the west coast of Spanish Florida as early as 1817 and established an outpost at the mouth of the Suwannee River to trade with the Creek Indians. When he learned that Andrew Jackson was marching south toward Suwannee Old Town in April of 1818, Arbuthnot sent a letter to his son John, at the Town of Suwannee, to load all the goods aboard a schooner and start off for Mounater Creek in the bottom of the Cedar Keys Bay. Seahorse Key was labeled Bluff Island. At the mouth of the Suwannee River, the settlement of Arbuthnot’s Store continued with that name even though Arbuthnot had been tried and shot in 1818 for inciting the Indians to riot.

1834 Map of Florida’s Gulf Coast

Prior to 1837, John Lee Williams labeled islands further down the Waccasassa Bay, the Cedar Keys and called the islands to the north the Freshwater Keys. The true discovery of the lower Suwannee River and the coast southward was actually driven by demand. During the winter of 1834-35 two timber-cruisers from Alachua County, John L. Gilleland and Edmund Bird, drifted down the Santa Fe and Suwannee Rivers in search of promising forests. Leaving the mouth of the Suwannee River, they skirted the coast drifting toward the south. They were delighted to find what is now known as the Cedar Keys.

Their explorations led them to immense stands of cedar, with great cypresses in the wetter places and pines in the dryer upland areas. There also was a good variety of hardwoods on the higher elevations with a first-rate harbor for shipment of the timber. However, when they returned and shared their discovery, the news fell on deaf ears as the legislators were more concerned with the threat of rampaging Indians.

As more settlers found their way into the Territory of Florida, naturally Indian tribes resented the intrusion, growing more and more aggressive. By 1835, the United States found there were insufficient numbers of soldiers to counter their frequent attacks. In early December of 1835, the total number of soldiers in the Territory was only 536, including 26 officers. After much pleading, the War Department permitted General Duncan Clinch to enlist 150 more mounted volunteers to come to the Territory of Florida to fight.

However, the additional soldiers only served to aggravate the Indians further and the situation got worse. During a march from Tampa Bay to Fort King on 28 December 1835 with two companies of troops, Brevet-Major Francis L. Dade, seven officers, and one hundred men were ambushed. Every soldier with the exception of two privates was annihilated. Although severely wounded, they were able to return to Fort Brooke at Tampa Bay with the terrible news.

On the afternoon of that same day Indian Agent General Wiley Thompson and Lieutenant Constantine Smith were murdered just outside the walls of Fort King while taking a walk to smoke a cigar. Their horribly mutilated bodies were found on the ground where they were murdered as a message to the military.

Up until this event, the government considered this all as simply Indian unrest. Now there was no question a real war had been loosed upon the Territory which many felt required the complete removal of the Indians from the territory.

A number of forts and camps were established throughout East Florida and large quantities of food and ammunition were brought in to supply the troops. Waterways provided the best access to the interior since there were very few roads and those which did exist were in constant need of repair.

As Indian activity increased in the upper Gulf region, it became necessary to establish forts and depots to patrol the waters between St. Marks and the Cedar Keys. Quarters were set up for the troops and forts appeared on the banks of the Suwannee and Waccasassa Rivers.

In the early part of May 1839, Captain D.S. Miles of the U.S. 7th Infantry and Acting Quarter Master for the district was ordered to make an exploration of the Cedar Keys and render an opinion as to the establishment of a military depot. Following his explorations, Miles sent a response to Major T.F. Hunt, Quarter Master, dated August 1839 giving a glowing