A Disappearing Treasure...

Egmont Key

A Disappearing Treasure

As you enter either the south channel or ship channel to go towards Tampa Bay, You will find Egomnt Key.  It is in essence the large barrier island that separates the two channels and also separates Tampa Bay from the gulf.  

This island is absolutely filled with history.  There have been few places we have gone in our cruising years where, when we stepped onto the sand, we felt we stepped into the past.  This island has seen Spanish Conquistadors.  It has seen captured Indians from the Third Seminole War. It has seen a great fort built across its shores to protect the gulf from the Spanish in the Spanish-American War.  It has had a president stationed within its walls and seen brother fight brother in the Civil War when it was captured by the Union.  Even today, the fort serves as a reminder of our past.  As I mentioned before, it was one of the few places we have been where we walked and felt like we have stepped back in time.
It does not take a lot of imagination to see the forts past.  Old roads and ruins are literally everywhere and run throughout the island.  THey are well marked with very descriptive pictures of what once stood there.  This alone was simply amazing.  The roads and ruins, many of which are still standing, are filled with what was once a very active complex (Fort Dade).  But what we found especially interesting was the bombardments on the eastern shore.  Many of those you can still walk through and climb over.  When you stand on the top of them, you can look out well into the gulf.  Since the only way into Tampa Bay was to cross by the island (most likely from the north as the southern channel is a bit more shallow), it was pretty obvious that an armada would risk its fate trying to land the shore.  By controlling the island, you control Tampa Bay which is a fairly deep water port and very good place for providing supplies in/out of Florida and the surrounding area.
As you climb the walls, you can still the links and rails used to move the cannons and later, the rifling guns.  You can crawl below these heavily fortified walls where the armory and powder room would sit.  If you stand back and look at them, you will notice that there are sharp angles to the walls and  narrow slits.  This is because during a time of war, you would station riflemen inside those areas where they could easily pick off anyone trying to take the battlement.  They are strategically situated so that each rifleman has only a small area he has to protect, while others beside him protect the other areas.  Also of interest is the powder room.  Look closely and you will see that it has only one door in and out.  Intimes of war, the men manning this room would be locked inside with guards on the outside.  They wore special uniforms, originally of wool wool, which hopefully would not give off a spark.  They would pass these through small slits to runner who took the powder up to the cannons/guns.  Now why were they locked in with guards posted?  Two reasons:  The obvious reason was they wanted to protect the powder room.  If you take the powder room, the fort will most likely fall.  But there is another more prominent reason shared to us by the ranger:  to keep the men manning the powder room from trying to escape!  Yep, it was often considered the worst job to have in the fort and certainly the most dangerous.  Why?  If you are an invading armada, the powder room is your key target.  How would you like an entire armada with every cannon aimed at you??
As you pass the armaments and walk the western shore, you will see the falling ruins of the fort.   At on time, these were actually long, concrete piers which had guns placed atop.

  But storms, erosion, and lack of care have allowed them to fall into the sea.  Little

 remains of those anymore except pictures.  Even the shore you see here were once much longer and extended well out into the gulf.  But the loss of sand from the beach and rising sea levels have taken their toll and killed many of the trees on the western edge of the shore.  You can still see them standing like long lost sentinels watching out over the gulf.

Sadly, this island is disappearing.  Every day a little more of it falls victim to time.  At the ranger's station, we found a drop box and flier which asked for help to save the island and its heritage.  We put ours in and left the island with the knowledge that while our money probably will not stop the island from disappearing, at least we got to see it before it did.  I urge everyone else to stop there too before it is gone.

More of this post and many more picture can be found on my website at:  www.brianmistrot.com