This weekend we took the catamaran and headed for Egmont Key. Egmont Key is actually a misnomer, because it's an island (affectionaly known by us locals as Turtle Island). You can only get there by boat - so few people come, and even fewer have the time and ability to explore this island ghost town.
If you click on the link above you can read a little about this island's interesting history. Over time, it's been a modified prison for Seminole Indians en route to The Trail of Tears, a Civil War checkpoint and burial ground for the soldiers that died of Yellow Fever, an army installation in the late 1800s, and a town of 300+ people.
Now it's been abandoned for 100 years, with most of the buildings left to crumble to dust. The only inhabitants are tortoises and some surly tugboat operators that lease a portion of the island to live on and are (according to park rangers) highly territorial people who will and can legally run anyone off their portion of land. Since THEIR area is relatively uninteresting, it means nothing to anyone else. There's plenty of island left to explore.
At one tip of the island is a very old, operational lighthouse with a park ranger that lives below it. The rest of the island consists of paved and brick roads and abandoned buildings. The land tortoises are very friendly and are extremely fond of fresh apples, so we always try to remember a sack of apples to hand out to the natives.
Following are pictures (and a little narration when needed). These were taken with my cell phone, so they're not of the BEST quality, but it was a heckuva lot easier than taking my super expensive camera through the trauma of splashing sea water, sand, and (later) rain.
Below is part of the military installation, build around 1907:
This is inside one of the rooms. It's finished with stucco and has a fireplace. It was the officer's mess hall, basically:
Parts of the military installation have collapsed and rooms are partially buried:
Most of the island is now overgrown with palms and scrub brush and other weedy, hearty plants but it's still beautiful:
These stairs are very steep and creepy to climb since there are no railings. People climb up and down them, but it's risky to get near the edge. We saw some kids playing hide and seek here, until their father wisely called them back and scolded them. There are many dark, dank rooms that wind back inside which haven't seen the light of day in a century. It's no place for children to play in:
Here's one of the natives, eating an apple:
Here's what I believe to be a wild blueberry bush:
This is the only remaining part of a massive building built high on stilts. It was used as a military plotting tower. Strangely enough, I believe that neither Egmont Key OR Fort DeSoto (which is the mainland part of Egmont Key) were used in any battles. They were built in order to fight off any attacks, however. Perhaps we could say they were successful. ;o)
These are "sea grapes", bushes with edible fruit that grow freely in brackish areas in Florida:
I believe that this was a culvert. There was actually a relatively advanced plumbing system throughout the occupied island at one time:
There is only one building that had been kept renovated. It was really Central Command at one time, apparently. It has fresh clay tiles on the roof, the rooms are up to date and wired for electricity, but no one uses it:
At one time this island had a little railroad of it's own. The tracks still remain. Now, this island is not at all huge, so it's rather amazing that they'd go to the trouble of having a railroad, but when it came to lugging about heavy things, I'm sure it was more preferable than a simple horse-and-buggy arrangement:
Here's the lighthouse, which was built due to numerous shipwrecks off our coast. It is still operational:
