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| Cedar Key History |
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A Little Bit of Information About Our Town
Made up of many small islands, the Cedar Keys are some of the most abundant bird and wildlife sanctuaries left in Florida. Extending three miles into the Gulf of Mexico, the island of Cedar Key is one of the oldest ports in the United States and has become an inspirational haven for artists, naturalists and writers. Untouched by the building booms that have taken over most other Florida islands, Cedar Key remains the essence of Old Florida and has been named the “gem” of the Nature Coast. Time hasn’t exactly stood still, but it’s definitely slower here. “Cedar Key Time” is our motto.
Good food is always an attraction and Cedar Key has a variety of restaurants serving local seafood dishes taken right from our Gulf waters. Enjoy fine dining or down-home cooking…Cedar Key Restaurants have it all. Prefer to try your hand at cooking your own catch? You’ll almost certainly come back from your fishing trip with a good catch.
Early risers can see a beautiful sunrise softly lighting up the bayou’s and out-islands on the east side of the island and your day can end with one of the most spectacular sunsets over the west side of the island. If you think the Key West sunset is beautiful, wait until you see ours in Cedar Key.
FISHING
For the original Cedar Keyans, fishing and boating was a way of life. It still is for our local fisherman, but recreational fishermen have found the rich waters of the Gulf provide an abundance of fish, whether you prefer fishing the grass flats for trout and redfish or the deeper waters where grouper, snapper, cobia, shark will give you a good fight, fishing is a day of fun! The outflow of the Suwannee River feeds its nutrients into the waters around Cedar Key and makes us an excellent fishing destination. Local fishing guides will be sure to put you on the fish. Or, you can rent your own boat and try your luck.
KAYAKING
Cedar Key is a perfect kayaking location. The barrier islands surrounding the town provide generally calm waters and kayakers can spend the day relaxing on the water or island hopping to Atsena Otie, Snake Key, North Key, or through the channels and bayous. Kayak rentals are available.
SHOPPING
If you like to shop for unique gifts, you'll love our shops and galleries. Browse for antiques, fine art, local art and crafts or just special items you won’t find anywhere else. We even have a grocery store for your convenience. Most of the shops are right in the small business district, but there are more shops and restaurants along State Route 24 and the small side streets.
BIRD WATCHING
Bird watching is a pleasant pastime in and around Cedar Key. Many bird watching enthusiasts visit Cedar Key regularly to watch over 250 species of birds during migration seasons. The Cedar Key Wildlife Refuge ranks as one of the largest nesting areas in north Florida for colonial birds. Nesting species include white ibis, brown pelican, great, cattle and snowy egrets; great blue, little blue, tri-colored, and night herons; and the double-crested cormorant. Osprey are common nesters and bald eagles nest on the refuge as well. Cedar Keys is one of the few places on the Gulf of Mexico where magnificent frigatebirds can commonly be seen soaring over the islands during the summer and fall months. A few roseate spoonbills also spend their summers here and the rare white pelican is a regular visitor.
The forested habitat that occurs on the uplands includes live oak, cabbage palm, redbay, eastern red cedar, and laurel oak. The understory plants include cherry laurel, saw palmetto, yaupon, wild olive, prickly pear, and Spanish bayonet. These maritime forests are important to song birds especially as a first stop, resting and feeding place during their spring migration. The lower elevations of the islands, comprising almost 40 percent of the total acreage, are subject to frequent tidal flooding and are dominated by salt marsh with patches of mangrove trees and sandy beaches. An abundance of shorebirds use the beach areas for feeding and resting while the long-legged wading birds that nest on the refuge prefer the marsh areas.
A Historical Tour – Then & Now
Archaeologists have dated human occupation back to 500 B.C. from artifacts found at Shell Mound, nine miles north of Cedar Key. Shell Mound is a 28 foot tall burial mound which now offers spectacular views of the surrounding out-islands. Although used by Seminole Indians, the Spanish and pirates, permanent occupation of the islands began in 1839 when a fort was established as a depot and hospital on Atsena Otie Key during the Second Seminole War. A hurricane caused abandonment of the island and in 1842 Congress made efforts to increase white settlement in Florida as a way of forcing the Seminoles to leave the territory.
In 1850 Congress appropriated money to build a lighthouse on Seahorse Key. The lighthouse sat on a 47 foot high hill, putting the light 75 feet above sea level. The light was visible for 16 miles. The lighthouse was abandoned in 1952, just as the tourism industry began to grow as a result of interest in the historic community, but it remains in use as a marine biology research center by the University of Florida in Gainesville. Today Seahorse Key is a national bird refuge and is closed to the public most of the year, but visitors are allowed to tour the island on scheduled days each year.
By 1860 two mills on Atsena Otie Key were producing 'cedar' slats for shipment to northern pencil factories. To support the booming industry, David Yulee, a Florida railroad pioneer, starting building a railroad from Fernandina to Cedar Key. Trestles had to be built to bridge the swamps. The railroad was finished in March of 1861, just weeks before Civil War broke out. Federal troops landed in Cedar Key and blew up the telegraph office and captured two of the 14 freight cars. During the reconstruction years that followed, the railroad was in financial trouble, but held on and by 1880 Cedar Key was a busy vacation destination with a population larger than Tampa. By 1881 there were two trains a day loading on the docks and bringing beachgoers from Jacksonville. In fact, opinion at the time was that the railroad would eclipse all other roads in the state. In 1865 the Eberhard Faber mill was built on Atsena Otie Key and the Eagle Pencil Company mill was built on Way Key. When the railroad to Tampa began service in 1886, shipping dropped in Cedar Key, causing an economic decline in the area. The fourth storm of the 1896 Atlantic hurricane season was the beginning of the end. The hurricane wiped out the juniper trees still standing and destroyed all the mills. The final blow was construction of a road into Cedar Key. The last day of operation, a work train took up the tracks on its way out of town.
Today, there are a few remnants of the original town on Atsena Otie Key, including stone water cisterns, and a graveyard whose headstones conspicuously date prior to 1896. There are also many of the juniper trees that originally attracted the pencil company. These were misidentified as cedars by early settlers, hence the name 'Cedar Key'.
At the start of the twentieth century, net fishing, sponge hooking and oystering became the major industries, but by 1909, the oyster beds were exhausted. Although the residents of Cedar Key continued to harvest the rich waters of the Gulf for a number of years, a statewide ban on large scale net fishing that went into effect July 1, 1995 shut down the fishing industry. The government set up a retraining program to help local fishermen begin farming clams in the muddy waters. Today Cedar Key's clam-based aquaculture is a multi-million dollar industry and Cedar Key is the largest producer of farm-raised clams in the United States.
Our old fashion fishing village has now become a tourism spot where the history is still evident in our town, our people and our natural beauty. Visitors now walking the historic streets can stroll by the many homes and buildings that housed some of the first families and businesses, but now feature unique gift shops and art galleries.
Take a walk back in time and visit Cedar Key.
How to Get Here...
Cedar Key is about 50 miles southwest of Gainesville, Florida; 135 miles north of Tampa; and 130 miles southwest of Jacksonville, Florida. From Gainesville, take State Route #24 southwest for approximately 50 miles. SR 24 will take you straight into Cedar Key. From Tampa, take Highway 19/98 to Otter Creek, make a left onto State Route 24 approximately 24 miles.
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