Cedar Key is a city in Levy County, Florida, United States. The population was 702 at the 2010 census. The Cedar Keys are a cluster of islands near the mainland. Most of the developed area of the city has been on Way Key since the end of the 19th century. The Cedar Keys are named for the eastern red cedar ''

Juniperus virginiana ''Juniperus virginiana'', also known as red cedar, eastern red cedar, Virginian juniper, eastern juniper, red juniper, and other local names, is a species of juniper native to eastern North America from southeastern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico ...

'', once abundant in the area.

History

Early

While evidence suggests human occupation as far back as 500 BC, the first maps of the area date to 1542, when it was labeled "Las Islas Sabines" by a Spanish cartographer. An

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...

dig at Shell Mound, north of Cedar Key, found artifacts dating back to 500 BC in the top of the

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher ...

. The only ancient burial found in Cedar Key was a 2,000-year-old skeleton found in 1999. Arrow heads and spear points dating from the Paleo period (12,000 years old) were collected by Cedar Key historian St. Clair Whitman and are displayed at the

Cedar Key Museum State Park Cedar Key State Museum is an Florida State Park located at 12231 SW 166th Court, Cedar Key, Florida. The museum displays items collected by Saint Clair Whitman, a local resident who established the first museum in his home. His collection inclu ...

. Followers of William Augustus Bowles, self-declared "Director General of the State of Muskogee", built a

watchtower A watchtower or watch tower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is t ...

in the vicinity of Cedar Key in 1801. The tower was destroyed by a Spanish force in 1802. In the period leading up to the

First Seminole War The Seminole Wars (also known as the Florida Wars) were three related military conflicts in Florida between the United States and the Seminole, citizens of a Native American nation which formed in the region during the early 1700s. Hostiliti ...

, the British subjects Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister used the Cedar Keys to deliver supplies to the

Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...

s. The Cedar Keys may have been a refuge for escaped slaves in the early 1820s, and an entry point for the illegal slave trade later that decade.

Indian War

During the

Second Seminole War The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between the United States and groups collectively known as Seminoles, consisting of Native Americans and Black Indians. It was part of a seri ...

, the United States Army established Fort No. 4 on the mainland adjacent to the Cedar Keys. (The name "No. 4" was later applied to a boat channel next to the fort, and then to a railroad trestle and a highway bridge over that channel.) In 1840, General

Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...

requested the Cedar Keys be reserved for military use for the duration of the war, and that

Seahorse Key A seahorse (also written ''sea-horse'' and ''sea horse'') is any of 46 species of small marine fish in the genus ''Hippocampus''. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek (), itself from () meaning "horse" and () meaning "sea monster" or " ...

be permanently reserved for a lighthouse. In 1840, General

Walker Keith Armistead Walker Keith Armistead (March 25, 1783 – October 13, 1845) was a military officer who served as Chief of Engineers of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Armistead was born in Upperville, Fauquier County, Virginia, and served as an orde ...

, who had succeeded Zachary Taylor as commander of United States troops in the war, ordered construction of a hospital on what had become known as Depot Key. (The island's name may reflect the establishment of a depot there by Florida militia general Leigh Read. The primary depot for the U.S. Army in Florida at the time was at Palatka, Florida.) Depot Key was the headquarters for the Army in Florida, but Fishburne states headquarters was not in a fixed place, but wherever the commander was. Cantonment Morgan was established on nearby Seahorse Key by 1841 and used as a troop deployment station and as a holding station for Seminoles who had been captured or who had surrendered until they could be sent to the West. A hurricane with a storm surge struck the Cedar Keys on October 4, 1842, destroying Cantonment Morgan and causing much damage on Depot Key. Some Seminole leaders had been meeting with Army officers at Depot Key to negotiate their surrender or a retreat to a reservation in the

Everglades The Everglades is a natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecological point o ...

. After the hurricane, the Seminoles refused to return to the area. Colonel

William J. Worth William Jenkins Worth (March 1, 1794 – May 7, 1849) was an American officer during the War of 1812, the Second Seminole War, and the Mexican–American War. Early military career Worth was commissioned as a first lieutenant in March 1813, ...

had declared the war to be over in August 1842, and Depot Key was abandoned by the Army after the hurricane.

Pre-Civil War

In 1842, the United States Congress had enacted the Armed Occupation Act, a precursor of the

Homestead Act The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of ...

, to increase white settlement in Florida as a way to force the Seminoles to leave the territory. With the abandonment of the Army base on Depot Key, the Cedar Keys became available for settlement under the act. Under the terms of the act, several people received permits for settlement on Depot Key, Way Key, and Scale Key.

Augustus Steele Augustus Steele (June 4, 1792 – October 25, 1864) was a Florida entrepreneur, a Florida state legislator, and considered the founder of Hillsborough County. Career and life Early life Augustus Steele was born June 4, 1792, somewhere i ...

, US Customs House Officer for Hillsborough County, Florida, and postmaster for Tampa Bay, received the permit for Depot Key, which he renamed Atsena Otie Key. In 1843, he bought the buildings on the island, and built some cottages for wealthy guests. In 1844, he became the Collector of Customs for the port of Cedar Key, as well as for Tampa, Florida. A post office named "Cedar Key" was established on Atsena Otie Key in 1845. The Florida legislature chartered the "City of Atseena Otie" in 1859. Cedar Key became an important port, shipping lumber and naval stores harvested on the mainland. By 1860, two mills on Atsena Otie Key were producing "cedar" slats for shipment to northern pencil factories. As a result of the growth, the US Congress appropriated funds for a lighthouse on Seahorse Key in 1850. The

Cedar Key Light The Cedar Key Light is located on Seahorse Key across the harbor from Cedar Key, Florida. Seahorse Key was the site a watchtower erected in 1801 by followers of William Augustus Bowles, self-designated ''Director General of the State of Muskogee ...

was completed in 1854. The lighthouse lantern is above the ground, but the lighthouse sits on a hill, putting the light above sea level. The light was visible for . Wood-frame residences were added to each side of the lighthouse several years later. In 1860, Cedar Key became the western terminus of the Florida Railroad, connecting it to Fernandina Beach, Florida on the east coast of Florida.

David Levy Yulee David Levy Yulee (born David Levy; June 12, 1810 – October 10, 1886) was an American politician and attorney. Born on the island of St. Thomas, then under British control, he was of Sephardic Jewish ancestry: His father was a Sephardi from Mor ...

, U.S. senator and president of the Florida Railroad, had acquired most of Way Key to house the railroad's terminal facilities. A town was platted on Way Key in 1859, and Parsons and Hale's General Store, which is now the

Island Hotel The Island Hotel (also known as Parsons and Hale's General Store) is a historic building in Cedar Key, Florida, Cedar Key, Florida, located at 224 2nd Street. On November 23, 1984, it was added to the United States, U.S. National Register of Hist ...

, was built there in the same year. On March 1, 1861, the first train arrived in Cedar Key, just weeks before the Civil War began.

Civil War era

With the advent of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

in 1861, Confederate agents extinguished the light at Seahorse Key and removed its supply of

sperm oil Sperm oil is a waxy liquid obtained from sperm whales. It is a clear, yellowish liquid with a very faint odor. Sperm oil has a different composition from common whale oil, obtained from rendered blubber. Although it is traditionally called an " ...

. The defense of Cedar Key was assigned to the Columbia and New River Rifles, two companies of the 4th Florida Infantry Regiment, under the command of Lt. Colonel M. Whit Smith. On July 3, 1861, four Federal war prize

schooners A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...

appeared off Cedar Key. The schooners, originally captured by the

USS Massachusetts Eight ships of the United States Navy and Revenue-Marine have been named USS ''Massachusetts'', after the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. * , a topsail schooner, was the first Revenue-Marine cutter of the United States, sold in 1792. * , a sloop bu ...

off

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

U. S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

Lieutenant George L. Selden, nephew of former

Treasurer of the United States The treasurer of the United States is an officer in the United States Department of the Treasury who serves as custodian and trustee of the federal government's collateral assets and the supervisor of the department's currency and coinage produc ...

William Selden, and manned by nineteen sailors. Col. Smith led his two rifle

companies A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared ...

along with one six-pounder

cannon A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder duri ...

twenty miles offshore on the steamer Madison and captured the schooners after firing two warning shots. With the recovery, Col. Smith and his men liberated fifteen Confederate sailors, recovered the vessels’ valuable cargo of railroad iron and

turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...

and effected the first capture of a U. S. Naval officer at sea during the war. The USS ''Hatteras'' raided Cedar Key in January 1862, burning several ships loaded with cotton and turpentine and destroying the railroad's rolling stock and buildings on Way Key. Most of the Confederate troops guarding Cedar Key had been sent to Fernandina in anticipation of a Federal attack there. Cedar Key was an important source of salt for the Confederacy during the early part of the war. In October 1862 a Union raid destroyed sixty kettles on Salt Key capable of producing 150 bushels of salt a day. The Union occupied the Cedar Keys in early 1864, staying for the remainder of the war. In 1865, the

Eberhard Faber The Eberhard Faber Pencil Company was started by John Eberhard Faber in 1861 in Midtown Manhattan, New York City by the East River at the foot of 42nd Street, on the present site of the United Nations Headquarters. After an 1872 fire, operations mo ...

mill was built on Atsena Otie Key. The

Eagle Pencil Company Berol is a former British stationery manufacturing company, based in Lichfield. The company, established in 1845, manufactured a wide range of products including writing implements and art materials. In 1995 it was acquired by Sanford L.P., a divi ...

mill was built on Way Key, and Way Key, with its railroad terminal, surpassed Atsena Otie Key in population. Repairs to the Florida Railroad were completed in 1868, and freight and passenger traffic again flowed into Cedar Key. The Town of Cedar Keys was incorporated in 1869, and had a population of 400 in 1870. Early in his career as a naturalist,

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist ...

walked from Louisville, Kentucky to Cedar Key in just two months in 1867. Muir contracted

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or deat ...

while working in a sawmill in Cedar Key, and recovered in the house of the mill's superintendent. Muir recovered enough to sail from Cedar Key to Cuba in January 1868. He recorded his impressions of Cedar Key in his memoir ''A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf'', published in 1916, after his death.

Decline and restoration of wildlife

When

Henry Plant Henry Bradley Plant (October 27, 1819 – June 23, 1899), was a businessman, entrepreneur, and investor involved with many transportation interests and projects, mostly railroads, in the southeastern United States. He was founder of the Plant Sys ...

's railroad to Tampa began service in 1886, Tampa took shipping away from Cedar Key, causing an economic decline in the area. Earlier, growth in population had led to the Cedar Key town limits being expanded in 1881 and again in 1884. But with the decline in the local economy, the town limits were contracted in 1890. Also in 1890 the island town was affected by the reign of terror of Cedar Keys mayor William Cottrell, who took advantage of his Florida state legislature connections and the restricted one-way road access to impose his will and conduct acts of violence. He was deposed from power only after the island was invaded by a naval (U.S. Coast Guard) boat manned with a squad of U.S. Marshals, who were sent there after Custom House officers and other federal government workers requested federal aid due to being unable to discharge their duties on the islands. The

1896 Cedar Keys hurricane The 1896 Cedar Keys hurricane was a powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that devastated much of the East Coast of the United States, starting with Florida's Cedar Keys, near the end of September 1896. The storm's rapid movement allowed it t ...

was the final blow. Around 4 am on September 29, 1896, a storm surge swept over the town, killing more than 100 people. Winds north of town were estimated at , which would classify it as a category 3. The hurricane wiped out the juniper trees still standing and destroyed all the mills. A fire on December 2, 1896, further damaged the town. In following years, structures were rebuilt on Way Key, a more protected island inland, but the damage was done. Today, only a few reminders of the original town on Atsena Otie Key remain, including stone water

cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by ...

s, and a graveyard whose headstones conspicuously date prior to 1896. Also, many of the eastern red cedar trees that originally attracted the pencil company, and for which the community was named, are gone. Cedar Key Faber Pencil Mill

At the start of the 20th century, fishing, sponge hooking, and oystering had become the major industries, but around 1909, the oyster beds were exhausted. President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, holding o ...

established the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge in 1929 by naming three of the islands as a breeding ground for colonial birds. 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.

Present

The old-fashioned fishing village is now a tourist center with several regionally famous seafood restaurants. The village holds two festivals a year, the Spring Sidewalk Art Festival and the Fall Seafood Festival, that each attract thousands of visitors to the area. In 1950, Hurricane Easy, a category-3 storm with winds, looped around Cedar Key three times before finally making landfall, dumping of rain and destroying two-thirds of the homes. The storm came ashore at low tide, so the surge was only .

Hurricane Elena Hurricane Elena was a tropical cyclone that affected eastern and central portions of the United States Gulf Coast in late August and early September 1985. Threatening popular tourist destinations during Labor Day weekend, Elena repeatedly d ...

followed a similar path in 1985, but did not make landfall. Packing winds, the storm churned for two days in the Gulf, to the west, battering the waterfront. All the businesses and restaurants on Dock Street were either damaged or destroyed, and a section of the seawall collapsed. After a statewide ban on large-scale net fishing went into effect July 1, 1995, a government retraining program helped many local fishermen begin farming clams in the muddy waters. Today, Cedar Key's clam-based

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lotus ...

is a multimillion-dollar industry. A local museum exhibit displays a reproduction of one of the first air conditioning installations. The system, with compressor and fans, was used in Cedar Key to ease the lot of malaria patients. Cedar Key is home to the

George T. Lewis Airport George T. Lewis Airport is a county-owned public-use airport in Levy County, Florida, United States. It is located one nautical mile (1.85 km) west of the central business district of Cedar Key. It was opened in 1936 by the United States mil ...

(CDK).

Hurricane Eta Hurricane Eta was a deadly and erratic Category 4 hurricane that devastated parts of Central America in early November 2020. The record-tying twenty-eighth named storm, thirteenth hurricane, and sixth major hurricane of the extremely-active 20 ...

made one of its two landfalls in Florida at about 4 a.m. Thursday, November 10, 2020, near Cedar Key, as a tropical storm.

National historic status

Cedar Key's importance in Florida's history, which began as far back as 1000 BC with

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

habitation of the region, was recognized on October 3, 1989, by the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

. At that time, in and around the town were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

under the title of the Cedar Keys Historic and Archaeological District. The

depicts the town's 19th century history and displays sea shells and Indian artifacts from the collection of Saint Clair Whitman. Tours of Whitman's restored 1920s house are available during museum hours. As the museum photo indicates, the building was constructed to withstand the hurricane conditions that the town is subjected to periodically. Cedar Key State Museum plaque01

The naturalist

visited Cedar Key in 1867 on his historic walk from Kentucky to Florida. He wrote:

For nineteen years my vision was bounded by forests, but today, emerging from a multitude of tropical plants, I beheld the Gulf of Mexico stretching away unbounded, except by the sky. What dreams and speculative matter for thought arose as I stood on the strand, gazing out on the burnished, treeless plain!

The John Muir historic marker was placed on the museum grounds in 1983, commemorating his visit.

Geography

Cedar Key is located at . According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy An economy is an area of th ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 54.28%, is water.

Climate

Cedar Key has a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen ''Cfa'') with hot, humid summers and mild winters.

Demographics

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of 2000, there were 790 people, 411 households, and 244 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...

was 864.7 inhabitants per square mile (335.2/km²). There were 686 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 97.47%

White White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...

, 0.13%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

, 0.63% Native American, 0.25% Asian, 0.51% from other races, and 1.01% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino of any race were 1.52% of the population. There were 411 households, out of which 14.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.7% were married couples living together, 8.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.4% were non-families. 34.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.92 and the average family size was 2.42. In the city the population was spread out, with 13.2% under the age of 18, 4.8% from 18 to 24, 15.6% from 25 to 44, 40.1% from 45 to 64, and 26.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 54 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.2 males. The median income for a household in the city was $32,232, and the median income for a family was $41,190. Males had a median income of $27,375 versus $31,806 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the city was $22,568. About 6.6% of families and 11.1% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 10.5% of those under age 18 and 9.9% of those age 65 or over.

Education

School Board of Levy County operates a K–12 school, Cedar Key School.

Library

Levy County provides Cedar Key with a local library branch. The Cedar Key Public Library is in the renovated, historic Schlemmer Rooming House.

References

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

* * From the application for listing on the

. * At * {{authority control Cities in Levy County, Florida Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida Populated coastal places in Florida on the Gulf of Mexico National Register of Historic Places in Levy County, Florida Cities in Florida