Early years

In the early 16th century, Spanish explorers reached the Gulf coast of Florida and left their mark in many ways. By the early 17th century, the native population had died off severely due to diseases brought by Europeans. By the 19th century most of the island's indigenous people had been forced to move to reservations out West.

The First and Second Seminole Wars

From 1818 to the early 1820s the island was used as a trading post, and was important during the First Seminole War. It remained as such until Florida was made a U.S. Territory in 1821. in 1835 the U.S. Army built a hospital and stockade on the island. During the Second Seminole War

Second Seminole War

The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between various groups of Native Americans collectively known as Seminoles and the United States, part of a series of conflicts called the Seminole Wars...

 (1835 to 1842) the island served as a military outpost. It was here on August 14, 1842 that Col. William J. Worth

William J. Worth

William Jenkins Worth was a United States general during the Mexican-American War.-Early life:Worth was born in 1794 in Hudson, New York, to Thomas Worth and Abigail Jenkins. Both of his parents were Quakers, but he rejected the pacifism of their faith...

 declared the Second Seminole War to be over.

Economic growth

In October 1842 Atsena Otie Key was hit by a massive hurricane that destroyed almost all of the island's buildings. This was soon followed by boom in civilian homesteading. In 1843 Augustus Steele began work on a resort hotel for wealthy Florida and Georgia planters. The island had its name changed in 1852 to Cedar Key because people had thought the Juniper

Juniper

Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...

 trees on the island were Cedar trees. It was later changed back to Atsena Otie Key.

During the 1850s trade grew on the island. A rail terminal for the Florida Railroad

Florida Railroad

The Florida Railroad was the first railroad to connect the east and west coasts of Florida, running from Fernandina to Cedar Key. The line later became part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, and, where still in use, is operated by CSX Transportation and the First Coast Railroad...

 (which ran across Florida from Fernandina

Fernandina Beach, Florida

Fernandina Beach is a city in Nassau County in the state of Florida in the United States of America and on Amelia Island. It is a part of Greater Jacksonville and is among Florida's northernmost cities. The area was first inhabited by the Timucuan Indian tribe...

 to Atsena Otie Key) was constructed and named Station No. 4. In time several warehouses and wharves were also built on nearby Depot Key, and soon Atsena Otie Key had become an important harbor for shipping in the Gulf of Mexico

Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...

. Soon cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

, tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

, turpentine

Turpentine

Turpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees. It is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene...

, and rosin

Rosin

.Rosin, also called colophony or Greek pitch , is a solid form of resin obtained from pines and some other plants, mostly conifers, produced by heating fresh liquid resin to vaporize the volatile liquid terpene components. It is semi-transparent and varies in color from yellow to black...

 were being sent out of the state in large quantities through Atsena Otie Key.

In 1855 A.W. Faber bought large tracts of land in Levy County to be cut for timber. A small amount of land was bought on the island in 1856, which would later become the site for a lumber mill.

Then in January 1858 the town of Atsena Otie was officially chartered by the Florida State legislature. By the time of the 1860 Census there were 215 men, women, and children living in 30 households on the island.

The Civil War

The American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 brought both hardship and conflict to Atsena Otie Key. The harbor was blockaded by the Union Navy

Union Navy

The Union Navy is the label applied to the United States Navy during the American Civil War, to contrast it from its direct opponent, the Confederate States Navy...

's Gulf Blockade Squadron out of Key West

Key West

Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....

. Very soon shipping and fishing were brought to a halt.

The Battle of Cedar Key

On 7 January 1862 the USS Hatteras

USS Hatteras (1861)

The first USS Hatteras was a heavy 1,126-ton steamer purchased by the Union Navy at the beginning of the American Civil War. She was outfitted as a gunboat and assigned to the Union blockade of the ports and waterways of the Confederate States of America...

landed U.S. Navy sailors and Marines and attacked the rail head at Station No. 4. They were at first repulsed by a company of Florida state cavalry and local civilian workers, but succeeded in destroying the tracks, engines, and buildings before they retreated to the ship. Then the Hatteras boarded and either sank or burned seven blockade runners in the harbor at Depot Key, and landed a small force to burn the harbor facilities. This small but important event has become known as the Battle of Cedar Key.

The USS Somerset

The USS Somerset

USS Somerset (1862)

USS Somerset was a wooden-hulled, side-wheel ferryboat built at Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1862, which was purchased by the Navy at Washington, D. C., on 4 March 1862 and was commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 3 April 1862, Lt...

captured the blockade runner

Blockade runner

A blockade runner is usually a lighter weight ship used for evading a naval blockade of a port or strait, as opposed to confronting the blockaders to break the blockade. Very often blockade running is done in order to transport cargo, for example to bring food or arms to a blockaded city...

 Curlew off Atsena Otie Key in June 1862; and later she destroyed the salt works on James Island near Depot Key in October. This was very disastrous as the Union sailors accounted for some two thousand bushels of salt destroyed, with all the works. They also captured many civilian workers, slaves and horses.

Reconstruction

The Eberhard Faber Pencil Company built a lumber mill in 1868 on Atsena Otie Key to supply wood for its pencil factory in New Jersey. The area revived as a shipping port and much lumber was milled.

By the 1870s the oyster, green turtle, and fishing industries had also grown on the island. By the 1890s lumber production was making a profit of almost $900,000, and the Farber Mill alone produced more than a third of a million pencils. The town grew as well, and by 1895 there were more than 50 households back living on the island.

The hurricane of 1896

A powerful hurricane and a 10 foot tidal wave crossed the island on September 29, 1896. The Faber mill was destroyed and the island was wrecked except for a few houses. Eventually, by 1897 all inhabitants had left the town and Atsena Otie was abandoned. Soon the present town of Cedar Key was built on a nearby island.

Today

In 1923 Atsena Otie Key was purchased for $500, and in 1929 the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge

Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge

The Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge is part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge System, located near Cedar Key, at the western end of SR 24. The refuge was established in 1929....

 established on nearby Snake, Bird, and North Keys.
In 1950 the last remaining house on the island was destroyed by Hurricane Easy (1950)

Hurricane Easy (1950)

Hurricane Easy was the fifth tropical storm, hurricane, and major hurricane of the 1950 Atlantic hurricane season. The hurricane developed in the western Caribbean Sea on September 1, and tracked northeastward. After crossing Cuba, the hurricane rapidly strengthened in the eastern Gulf of Mexico to...

.

In 1997 Atsena Otie Key was sold to the Suwannee River Water Management District

Suwannee River Water Management District

The Suwannee River Water Management District is the smallest of five Florida water management districts that is responsible for managing groundwater and surface water resources in a 15-county region in north-central Florida...

 who entered into a Memorandum of Understanding

Memorandum of understanding

A memorandum of understanding is a document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action. It is often used in cases where parties either do not imply a legal commitment or in...

 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to have the island managed as part of the Cedar Keys NWR. The island is open for public use.

Curiosities

Atsena Otie Key is mentioned in the second act of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny

Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny is a political-satirical opera composed by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht. It was first performed in Leipzig on 9 March 1930.-Composition history:...

, an opera by Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...

 and Kurt Weill

Kurt Weill

Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...

: the characters are waiting for a hurricane and they receive news that Pensacola and Atsena have just been destroyed by it. Mahagonny is a fictional town set during a Gold Rush era.

External links

• Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge