The
Dry Tortugas are a small group of islands, located at the end of the
Florida KeysThe Florida Keys are a cluster of about 1700 islands in the southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the...
, USA, about west of
Key WestKey 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 politically within the limits of the city of Key West, Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city also occupies nearby islands and portions of nearby...
, and west of the
Marquesas KeysThe Marquesas Keys form an uninhabited island group about 30 miles west of Key West, 4 miles in diameter, and overgrown by mangrove. They are an unincorporated area of Monroe County, Florida and belong to the Lower Keys Census County Division...
, the closest islands. Still further west is the Tortugas Bank, which is completely submerged. The first Europeans to discover the islands were the
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
in 1513 by explorer
Juan Ponce de LeónJuan Ponce de León, was a Spanish explorer. He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish Crown. He led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named...
. They are an
unincorporated areaIn law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality. To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city or town with its own government. Thus, an unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
of
Monroe County, FloridaMonroe County is a county located in the state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 79,589. The U.S. Census Bureau 2006 estimate for the county was 74,737....
and belong to the Lower Keys
Census County DivisionMinor civil division is a term used by the United States Census Bureau to designate the primary governmental and/or administrative divisions of a county, such as a civil township, precinct, or magisterial district...
. With their surrounding waters, they constitute the
Dry Tortugas National ParkDry Tortugas National Park preserves Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas section of the Florida Keys. The park covers 101 mi² , mostly water, about 68 statute miles west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico....
.
Geography
The keys are low and irregular. Some keys have thin growths of mangroves and various other vegetation, while others have only small patches of grass or are barren of plant life. In general, they rise abruptly from relatively deep water. They are continually changing in size and shape. The Tortugas
AtollAn atoll is an island of coral that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu
OED. Its first recorded use in English was in 1625 as atollon...
has had up to 11 islets during the past two centuries. Some of the smaller islands have disappeared and reappeared multiple times as a result of hurricane impact.
Islands (keys)
The total area of the islets, some of which are little more than sand bars just above the water mark, is about . Their area changes over time as wind and waves reshape them. There are seven islets, which are from West to East:
- Loggerhead Key, with Dry Tortugas lighthouse (46 meters high), 250 by 1200 meters in size, with an area of 260,000 m2 the largest, 1 meter high. This island has the highest elevation in the Dry Tortugas, at .
- Garden Key, with Fort Jefferson and the inactive Garden Key lighthouse (20 meters high), 4 km east of Loggerhead Key. Garden Key is the second largest island in the chain, at 400 by 500 meters in size, with an area of 170,000 m2. The original size, before construction of Fort Jefferson, has been estimated at 30,350 m2 to 35,610 m2.
- Bush Key, formerly named Hog Island because of the hogs that were raised there to provide fresh meat for the prisoners at Fort Jefferson, just a few meters east of Garden Key. At times, Bush Key is connected to Garden Key by a sand bar. The island is the third largest, 150 by 900 meters in size, area 120,000 m2, less than 1 meter high. Bush Key is the site of a large tern
Terns are seabirds in the family Sternidae, previously considered a subfamily of the gull family Laridae . They form a lineage with the gulls and skimmers which in turn is related to skuas and auks...
rookeryA rookery is a colony of breeding animals. The term Rookery has also been used as a name for dense slum housing in nineteenth-century cities, and especially London....
. It is closed to visitors from April to September to protect nesting Sooty TernThe Sooty Tern, Onychoprion fuscatus , is a seabird of the tern family . It is a bird of the tropical oceans, breeding on islands throughout the equatorial zone. Colloquially, it is known as the Wideawake Tern or just wideawake...
s and Brown NoddyThe Brown Noddy or Common Noddy is a seabird from the tern family. The largest of the noddies, it can be told from the closely related Black Noddy by its larger size and plumage, which is dark brown rather than black...
s.
- Long Key, 50 meters south of the eastern end of Bush key, 50 by 200 meters in size, area 8,000 m2
- Hospital Key, so called because a hospital for the inmates of Fort Jefferson had been built there in the 1870s. The island was formerly called Middle Key or Sand Key. It lies 2.5 km northeast of Garden Key and Bush Key, 70 meters in diameter, area 4,000 m2, and is 1 meter high at its highest point.
- Middle Key, 2.5 km east of Hospital key, 90 meters in diameter, area 6,000 m2, due to various seasonal changes, storm patterns and tidal cycles it is not always above sea level, disappearing for weeks or months only to reappear again.
- East Key, 2 km east of Middle Key, 100 by 200 meters in size, area 16,000 m2, over 2 meters high
The three westernmost keys, which are also the three largest keys (Loggerhead Key, Garden Key, and Bush Key), make up about 93 percent of the total land area of the group.
Former islands
Formerly existing keys were, from West to East:
- Southwest Key, disappeared by 1875, today a shoal
Things known as shoal, shoals or shoaling include:* Shoal, a sandbank or reef creating shallow water, especially where it forms a hazard to shipping* Shoal draught , of a boat with shallow draught which can pass over some shoals...
south off Loggerhead Reef
- Bird Key (formerly Booby Key), was about 1.5 km southwest of Garden Key, disappeared in 1935, current names in the area are Bird Key Bank and Bird Key Harbor
- North Key, probably identical with former Booby Island, current name in the area is North Key Harbor, an anchor
An anchor is an object, often made out of metal, that is used to attach a ship to the bottom of a body of water at a specific point. There are two primary classes of anchors—temporary and permanent. A permanent anchor is often called a mooring, and is rarely moved; it is quite possible the vessel...
age WSW of Pulaski Shoal, disappeared by 1875
- Northeast Key (earlier called Sand Key), was between East Key and North Key, slightly to the North, disappeared by 1875
Shoals with lights
- Pulaski Shoal (Pulaski Reef), marking the northeast edge of the group at , is not an island, but the former location of the Pulaski Shoal Light.
- Iowa Rock, halfway between Garden Key and Hospital Key, is another site of a navigational light (and weather station) built in shallow water. It was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo
Hurricane Hugo was a destructive Category 5 hurricane that struck Guadeloupe, Montserrat, St. Croix, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, and North Carolina in September of the 1989 Atlantic hurricane season, killing 109 people and leaving nearly 100,000 homeless....
, with three bare stumps left .
Environment
The islands get their name from their distinctive characteristics:
Dry, because none of the islands have fresh water and
Tortugas, because Ponce de Leon, a Spanish explorer, saw an abundance of sea turtles on the island. Later seafarers would keep the turtles on their backs in the holds of sailing ships and butcher them when they wanted fresh meat. They are not related to the
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
island of Tortuga, near
HispaniolaHispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is located between the islands of Cuba to the west, and Puerto Rico to the east, directly within the hurricane belt...
.
The islands are home to
Dry Tortugas National ParkDry Tortugas National Park preserves Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas section of the Florida Keys. The park covers 101 mi² , mostly water, about 68 statute miles west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico....
, and are only accessible by
boatA boat is a watercraft of modest size designed to float or plane, to provide passage across water. Usually this water will be inland or in protected coastal areas. However, boats such as the whaleboat were designed to be operated from a ship in an offshore environment. In naval terms, a boat is...
or
seaplaneA seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories: floatplanes and flying boats...
. The large seabird colony, including
Sooty TernThe Sooty Tern, Onychoprion fuscatus , is a seabird of the tern family . It is a bird of the tropical oceans, breeding on islands throughout the equatorial zone. Colloquially, it is known as the Wideawake Tern or just wideawake...
s,
Brown NoddyThe Brown Noddy or Common Noddy is a seabird from the tern family. The largest of the noddies, it can be told from the closely related Black Noddy by its larger size and plumage, which is dark brown rather than black...
,
Masked BoobyThe Masked Booby, Sula dactylatra, is a large seabird of the gannet family, Sulidae. This species breeds on islands in tropical oceans, except in the eastern Atlantic; in the eastern Pacific it is replaced by the Nazca Booby, Sula granti, which was formerly regarded as a subspecies of Masked Booby...
and
Magnificent FrigatebirdThe Magnificent Frigatebird was sometimes previously known as Man O'War, reflecting its rakish lines, speed, and aerial piracy of other birds....
, and the regular occurrence of Caribbean
vagrantVagrancy is a phenomenon in biology whereby individual animals appear well outside their normal range; individual animals which exhibit vagrancy are known as vagrants. The term accidental is sometimes also used...
birds makes them a popular birding destination.
History
The first European to discover the islands was Spanish explorer
Ponce De LeonPonce de León may refer to:* Juan Ponce de León , Spanish conquistador* Juan Ponce de León II , the first Puerto Rican to assume the governorship of Puerto Rico...
. He gave them the name on his first visit in 1513. The name is the second oldest surviving European place-name in the U.S. They were given the name Las Tortugas (The Turtles) due to 170 sea turtles taken on the islands and shoals by de Leon's men. Soon afterward, the word "Dry" was added to the name, to indicate to mariners the islands' lack of fresh water.
In 1742
HMS TygerHMS Tyger, often spelled Tiger, was a 38-gun fourth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, built by Peter Pett II at Woolwich and launched in 1647. The term 'frigate' during the period of this ship referred to a method of construction, rather than a role which did not develop until the following century...
wrecked in the Dry Tortugas. The stranded crew lived on Garden Key for 56 days, and fought a battle with a Spanish sloop, before sailing to
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to 11,100 km
2. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
in several boats.
The United States government never completed Fort Jefferson after 30 years on Garden Key, and this bastion remained in
UnionDuring the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty-three states which were not part of the secession attempt by the 11 states that tried to form the Confederacy...
hands throughout the
Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
. It later was used as a
prisonA prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Other terms are penitentiary, correctional facility, and jail , although in the United States "jail" and "prison" refer to different subtypes of correctional facility...
until abandoned in 1874. During the 1880s, the
NavyThe United States Navy is the sea branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. As of 31 December 2008, the U.S. Navy had about 331,682 personnel on active duty and 124,000 in the Navy Reserve. It operates 283 ships in active service and more than...
established a base at Tortuga; and it subsequently set up a
coalCoal is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
ing (refueling) and a
wirelessWireless communication is the transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or "wires". The distances involved may be short or long . When the context is clear, the term is often shortened to "wireless"...
(radio) station there as well. During
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, a seaplane base was established on the islet, but it was abandoned soon thereafter.
From 1903 until 1939 the Carnegie Institute of Washington operated the Marine Biology Laboratory on Loggerhead Key which "…quickly became the best-equipped marine
biological station in the tropical world.” Through the years, over 150 researchers used the facilities to perform a wide range of research.
An account of a visit to the fort at the Dry Tortugas by President
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
and Justice-to-be
Robert H. JacksonRobert Houghwout Jackson was United States Attorney General and an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court . He was also the chief United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials...
can be found in the book,
That Man: An Insider's Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, by Robert H. Jackson, edited and introduced by John Q. Barrett (
Oxford University PressOxford house Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. they are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's...
, New York, 2003).
In August 2004, the Dry Tortugas were directly struck by
Hurricane CharleyHurricane Charley was the third named storm, the second hurricane, and the second major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. Charley lasted from August 9 to August 15, and at its peak intensity it attained 150 mph winds, making it a strong Category 4 hurricane on the...
. The following day, a
CessnaThe Cessna Aircraft Company is an airplane manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, USA. Their main products are general aviation aircraft. Although they are the most well-known for their small, piston-powered aircraft, they also produce business jets. The company is a subsidiary...
airplaneA fixed-wing aircraft, usually called an airplane, aeroplane or plane, is an aircraft capable of flight using forward motion that causes air to pass over its wings to generate lift. Planes include jet engine and propeller driven vehicles propelled forward by thrust, as well as unpowered aircraft...
crashed into the water near the islands, killing
cinematographerA cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
Neal FredericksNeal L. Fredericks was an American motion picture cinematographer, most famous for The Blair Witch Project, noted and praised by critics for its distinctive cinéma vérité style of camera work...
while he was filming scenery for the feature film
CrossBones.
Visiting the Dry Tortugas
Because it is located west of Key West, the Dry Tortugas park is one of the less accessible National Parks in the U.S. Visiting the park by private boat is difficult because of its distance, so most visitors come by ferry, catamaran, or seaplane from Key West, Florida. Official ferry and transportation services to the Dry Tortugas includes the
Yankee Freedom II,
Sunny Days,
Sailboat Charter and the
Key West Seaplane Service.
Graphics
External links