Elliott Key is the northernmost of the true

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral island, coral cay archipelago off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami a ...

(those 'keys' which are ancient

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in group ...

s lifted above the present

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

), and the largest key north of Key Largo. It is located entirely within

Biscayne National Park Biscayne National Park is a national park of the United States located south of Miami, Florida, in Miami-Dade County. The park preserves Biscayne Bay and its offshore barrier reefs. Ninety-five percent of the park is water, and the shore of th ...

, in

Miami-Dade County, Florida Miami-Dade County () is a County (United States), county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the most populous coun ...

, east of

Homestead, Florida Homestead is a city within Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in the United States, U.S. state of Florida, between Biscayne National Park to the east and Everglades National Park to the west. Homestead is primarily a Miami suburb and ...

. It is bordered by the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

to the east,

Biscayne Bay Biscayne Bay is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is large ...

to the west, Sands Key (across Sands Cut) to the north, and

Old Rhodes Key Old Rhodes Key is an island north of the upper Florida Keys in Biscayne National Park. It is in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is located just north of Broad Creek in the lower part of Biscayne Bay Biscayne Bay is a lagoon with characteristi ...

(across Caesar Creek) to the south. Adams Key is just west of the southern end of Elliott Key. Elliott Key is about long. Its maximum width is about near the north end, and its average width is less than . The higher elevations on the island range from above sea level and occur generally along an unimproved road that runs longitudinally through the center of the island. The average elevation is about above sea level. The key is accessible only by boat. Elliott Key has a

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

campground, but is otherwise uninhabited.

History

Elliott Key was used on a transient basis for millennia by

Tequesta The Tequesta, also Tekesta, Tegesta, Chequesta, Vizcaynos, were a Native American tribe on the Southeastern Atlantic coast of Florida. They had infrequent contact with Europeans and had largely migrated by the middle of the 18th century. Loca ...

Indians, and, in the 19th century, by fishermen and wreckers from the lower Florida Keys. The earlier name for the key was Ledbury Key, named after a

snow Snow consists of individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water througho ...

that was driven ashore in 1769. There are legends of Elliott Key and adjacent keys being used as a refuge by

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

s and escaped

slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. The chief pirate of legend is Black Caesar, who is said to have escaped from a

slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting Slavery, slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea ( ...

, and used Elliott Key as his base. The key was inhabited and the site of

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...

plantations in the latter part of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. In 1910, there were more than a dozen families raising pineapples on Elliott Key, where an average crop was 50,000 to 75,000 dozen fruits, mostly sent by

schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. In the 1950s, it was proposed to build a causeway (across the

Safety Valve A safety valve is a valve that acts as a fail-safe. An example of safety valve is a pressure relief valve (PRV), which automatically releases a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system, when the pressure or temperature exceeds ...

) and highway from

Key Biscayne Key Biscayne () is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, located between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida, and lies south of Miami Beach and sout ...

to Key Largo, connecting Elliott Key and other keys to the mainland and the rest of the

. This led to the incorporation of the city of Islandia, Florida, encompassing the keys north of Key Largo up to the Ragged Keys. In anticipation of the highway, and to forestall designation of the northernmost keys as a park, developers cleared most of the land on Elliott Key and dredged channels around it. With the establishment of the Biscayne National Monument in 1968 and purchase of private property in the park by the Federal government, development of the highway and of Elliott Key was halted, and the money that was allocated for the proposed causeway was used to build a replacement Card Sound Bridge connecting northern Key Largo to the mainland. The City of Islandia was abolished in 2012. On August 24, 1992,

Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew was a compact, but very powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. It was the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures dama ...

made landfall on Elliott Key.Christopher Landsea; James Franklin; Colin McAdie; John Beven II; James Gross; Brain Jarvinen; Richard Pasch; Edward Rappaport; Jason Dunion; Peter Dodge (2004-11). "A Re-Analysis of Hurricane Andrew's Intensity". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (American Meteorological Society) 85 (11): 1707–1708. doi:10.1175/BAMS-85-11-1699. Retrieved 2012-06-22.

References

External links

Nautical Chart of Elliott Key
{{authority control Islands of the Florida Keys Uninhabited islands of Miami-Dade County, Florida Biscayne National Park Islands of Florida