The Dry Tortugas National Park is one of the most geographically isolated national parks in the country lying 68 miles west of Key West, Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. It consists of 101 square miles, most of it a protected marine sanctuary. It has a total land area of just 143 acres (0.224 sq miles) on 7 islands though the island group has had as many at 11 islands and several intermittent shoals occasionally rise a few inches above sea level. The islands have the shape and configuration of an atoll and were formed by sedimentation on coral reefs, but the group is not considered to be a true atoll.
By this description it hardly seems the islands should be of any significance to warrant protection as a national park, but beyond just the scientific and ecological importance of the area, the islands are rich in history dating back to some of the earliest post Columbian exploration of the Americas and punctuated by the crown jewel of early American military fortifications, Fort Jefferson, the largest brick structure in the Americas.
Panorama of one of the bastions taken from the moat wall. |
Early Post Columbian History
The first European record of the Dry Tortugas Islands came on June 21, 1513 when the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce De Léon visited the islands. He dubbed them Las Tortugas because they were being used by sea turtles as a nesting area. His men collected over 160 of them to use for food. The Spanish later added the word "dry" to the name of the islands as a warning to sailors as to the islands' lack of surface fresh water.
During this period, the islands and the shallow reefs throughout the area and to the east at the Marquesas Islands (an actual atoll) and to the lower keys of Florida wrecked havoc on ships. Because of the prevailing winds, ships traveling from Veracruz often had to pass the area enroute back to Spain. The Tortugas were an important landmark on the route, as sailors knew they were headed the right way, but there are many shipwrecks throughout including within the National Park boundary, some of them quite old and some fairly recent.
One of the most famous shipwrecks nearby to the park is just off what is today the Marquesas Islands, the Nuestra Señora de Atocha or the Atocha for short. In 1622 the Spanish treasure fleet was late in assembling in Havana, Cuba for the journey home. The 28 ship fleet unwittingly left Havana two days before a hurricane bore down on the region, just as the fleet was entering the area of the Tortugas and Marquesas. The fleet was battered by the storm with several ships running aground. Two, the Nuestra Señora del Rosario and another minor ship, became lodged on reefs off Loggerhead Key in the Tortugas while two more, the Atocha and Santa Margarita floundered off the Marquesas.
When officials in Havana learned of the disaster, a fleet of salvage vessels was immediately dispatched to the islands. The Atocha was found with just its mast above the water, five survivors clinging for dear life to it. The site was buoyed as the salvors searched for the other missing ships. While 68 people survived from the Santa Margarita and were pulled from the sea, no trace of the ship itself was found. At Loggerhead Key, the Rosario's hull had burned to the waterline, but most of the crew had survived and reached the island. They were rescued and the cache of silver bars and coins were salvaged from ten feet of water.
After returning to Havana with plans to quickly return to the Atocha to recover its treasures, a second more powerful hurricane swept through the area, breaking up the Atocha and scattering the hull and its precious contents for miles. The second salvage trip could find no trace of the buoy or the Atocha. The following spring, the Marquis de Cadereita was dispatched to lead the effort to find the ships and salvage the tons of silver, copper and emeralds. Using the atoll between the Tortugas and the lower Florida Keys as his base of operation, the Marquis tried in van for weeks to find the missing vessels without success, but his tenure on the islands gave it its new name, the Marquesas Islands. Both ships would later be found by American Mel Fisher, who was awarded the right of salvage. To this day, his company continues work on the wrecks, bringing Spanish coins, ingots, bars and other artifacts to the surface, some of which are for sale at his Key West museum.
From 1739 to 1748 England and Spain were at war with each other in a conflict known as the War of Jenkin's Ear (I kid you not) that latter expanded into the War of the Austrian Succession. The war included militias from colonial Georgia laying siege to Spanish Saint Augustine, Florida. During the war, the English ship the HMS Tyger ran aground off Garden Key in the Tortugas. The captain, based on some bad navigational intelligence from a privateer, thought he was in the Bahamas and sent out part of the crew on a long boat to get help, not realizing the Bahamas were hundreds of miles away. The remaining crew sheltered their provisions and munitions on the island and endured several harassing assaults from Spanish ships in the area. To keep the ship from being captured it was burned. After eight weeks on the island, the castaways boarded their remaining longboats and set sail for Jamaica, a trek that took another 56 days of oaring.
Guardian of the Gulf
In 1821, the United States, "acquired" stole Florida from the Spanish and the following year it was organized into a U.S. territory. The leader of an 1824 inspection of the new American territory wrote that the islands were ill suited for a naval facility, but that a lighthouse would be of great value given the numerous reefs and history of shipwrecks. In 1826, a 65 foot lighthouse was completed and lit on Garden Key. A second naval evaluation of the island in 1829 produced a more optimistic outlook of the islands' worthiness for fortifications. Commodore John Rodgers delighted in the natural anchorage around Garden key providing an inner and outer harbor suitable for docking several ships. He also noted that if the Tortugas were taken and fortified by another power, it would imperil American shipping in the Gulf.
At the time, the United States was still in the process of constructing a network of coastal forts up and down the eastern seaboard to protect the still fledgeling nation. A fort on the Dry Tortugas would guard the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico and safeguard American interests. Congress agreed and in 1846, construction was begun on Fort Jefferson.
Bricks made in Pensacola were shipped in by boat, a trip that took four days. The irregular hexagon shaped fort with bastions at each vertex would ultimately use 16 million bricks in its construction...and it was never actually completed. Construction was no "breeze" either in such a remote location with no natural supply of fresh water, frequent storms and hurricanes, and humid summers. Shifting and subsiding sands complicated matters. In an effort to reduce the total weight of the installation and prevent subsidence, the second level was left unfinished and largely open. At its height, the fort was outfitted with 420 heavy guns including 15-inch Rodman smoothbores, which required seven men to load the 432 pound shot, and could send its projectile three miles.
One of the big guns on the third level of the fort |
Panoramic view of the restored and rehabilitated northwest wall of Fort Jefferson. |
One of the features of the fort that made it one of the most advanced in the world at the time were the special Totten shutters guarding the gun embrasures. In the fort's core, a frame of iron was situated around the embrasure openings. From this frame were hung special shutters that would be flung open by the hot compressed gases from a cannon shot and stay open long enough for the shot to pass, but balanced so as to close after the round had cleared. They were designed to protect the gunners inside the fort from artillery and small arms fire during an attack on the fort. They were designed by the Chief of Engineers for the U.S. Army for a quarter century, General Joseph G. Totten.
By 1860, $250,000 had already been spent on the half completed fort. During the Civil War, construction of the fort continued despite the previous source of bricks, Pensacola, being in Confederate hands. New bricks, called Northern bricks, were shipped in from Boston and Maine to continue work on the fort. These bricks were redder in color and the line demarcating the change in supply is evident.
Using the Dry Tortugas as a base of operation, the navy conducted a blockade of southern ports and used the strategic location to launch attacks along the Gulf coast.
Panoramic view of the parade grounds inside Fort Jefferson. The Garden Key Lighthouse is dead center, the ruined walls and foundations of the barracks are at the lower left, officers' quarters now used as housing for park personnel at the lower right. Also visible to the left with the curved roof is the Big Magazine where gunpowder would have been stored. |
Shortly after the war, construction ceased as the need for the well fortified position diminished, but Fort Jefferson's military role wasn't over.
His Name was Mudd
While construction continued during the war, the fort was assigned an additional task, serving as a prison, principally for Union deserters. Its remote location made it a facility from which escape would be almost impossible. The prison got its most famous inmate in July of 1865. Earlier that year, Dr. Samuel Mudd was convicted in the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln, Vice President Johnson and Secretary of State Seward. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to Fort Jefferson to serve his sentence.
Two months after arriving, Mudd attempted to escape by stowing away on a transport ship, but was found. It is believed he feared the treatment he would received by his new jailers, the 82nd U.S. Infantry consisting of African-American soldiers, as a southern slaveholder convicted of helping assassinate Lincoln. Because of the escape, for three months he was confined to a room in the fort known as the dungeon, which was nothing more than an enclosed gunroom and lost his privileges working in the fort hospital. He instead was assigned to work in the carpentry shop.
Two years later, an epidemic of yellow fever broke out at the fort, killing many people, including the prison's only doctor. Mudd, a physician, assumed the duties. With his help, including the quarantine of those affected onto another island, the epidemic passed. The isolation island is now known as Hospital Key after its makeshift use as a hospital during the epidemic. In thanks to Dr. Mudd's efforts, the soldiers wrote President Johnson commending Mudd's work. As a reward, he was reassigned from the carpentry shop to a clerical post to which he was more amenable. Sixteen months later, President Johnson pardoned Mudd. He left the Tortugas on March 8, 1869 and returned home to Maryland.
Can I get a Light?
Several years after the first lighthouse was lit on Garden Key in 1826, sailors found it to be insufficient to reliably prevent running aground on the reefs. The light too often was seen too late, lacking the brightness and height to be seen at great distances. The light was also obscured from boast approached from the east by a design flaw in the tower. The simple lens used as the light was replaced with a first order Fresnel lens, the lamps were replaced with more lamps with greater brightness and an iron door was removed to prevent obstruction.
Garden Key Light |
The light produced by the so called Garden Key Light still proved deficient to the point the lighthouse keeper petitioned for the construction of two new lighthouses on either end of the islands to solve the issue. Instead, a new much taller and brighter lighthouse was started in 1856 on Loggerhead Key three miles away from Garden Key. Completed in 1858, it stood 157 feet tall. The lens from the Garden Key Light was installed in this new Dry Tortugas Light. The old tower was razed in 1877 and replaced with the boilerplate iron tower over one of the fort's stairwells that still stands today. The new boilerplate tower would serve as a harbor light to guide ships into the anchorage. When the Dry Tortugas Light on Loggerhead was electrified in 1931, it was the most powerful lighthouse in America, putting out 3 million candela and visible 20 miles out to sea. It was fully automated in 1982 eliminating the need for a full time light keeper on the island.
Dry Tortugas Light |
Neglect and Disrepair
Fort Jefferson's use as a prison ended in 1874 when the Army decommissioned and abandoned the fort as simply too expensive to maintain. It was turned into a quarantine station of the Merchant Marines in 1888 and later served as a coaling station for the U.S. Navy. The harbor of Garden Key was the last stop of the U.S.S. Maine on its way to destiny in Havana, Cuba in 1898, ushering in the Spanish-American War. The war brought a brief flurry of activity to the installation again, but returned to a largely neglected state after the war's end.
In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt, by executive order, created The Tortugas Key Reservation as a bird sanctuary insofar as the designation would not interfere with any military use the fort might again serve. Through Roosevelt's keen interest in ornithology, he was aware of John James Audubon's May 1832 visit to the islands and Audubon's delight in witnessing so many species of birds there. While in residence, Audubon noted Cubans coming to the islands to collected eggs to sell back in Havana. Audubon's journal notes the birds' eggs "offered excellent eating, and our sailors seldom failed to collect bucketfuls of them daily during our stay."
On January 4, 1935, Roosevelt's cousin, Franklin, revoked the prior executive orders and redesignated the fort and islands, setting them aside as Fort Jefferson National Monument. Four years later on a visit to Key West, Roosevelt would visit the islands and see the fort from a ship.
The fort however, continued to fall into disrepair even as it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The iron frames placed in the core of the fort to hold the Totten shutters did what iron does in a harsh saltwater environment, it rusted and expanded, literally pushing parts of the wall into the protective moat around the fort. Subsidence further threatened some of the fort walls. Even the moat wall was deteriorating.
An unrestored section of the fort. Note the iron shutters are still in place and the iron frame visible where the section of wall has fallen into the moat. The wall on the right also is bulging out though it isn't extremely clear from this photo. |
National Park Status, Restoration and Rehabilitation
In 1992, in an effort to preserve the cultural and historic value of the islands to the history of the United States, President George H.W. Bush signed into law an act elevating Fort Jefferson National Monument to national park status and renaming it for the islands: Dry Tortugas National Park.
Since that time, efforts have been made to restore and rehabilitate the fort. The Fort is currently in the second phase of the restoration project. The iron parts to the Totten shutters are being removed, the bricks are being relaid using original bricks when possible, mortared with historically accurate concrete composed of natural cement, local sand and coral, and new historically accurate fiberglass reproduction Totten shutters installed. When I visited the park late last December, this process was already complete on several sides, but the northeastern exterior of the fort was roped off for restoration on that section.
A section of the well that has been restored. Where possible, original bricks were used. The mortar is made from the same method and formula used during the construction. |
Scaffolding obscures an area on the northeast side of the fort undergoing restoration work. Note the orangish bricks below and the redder northern bricks at the very top. |
Theodore Roosevelt's desire for the bird life in the park to be protected continues. Bush Key and Long Key are both off limits to visitors during the nesting season as they are key habits for many of the birds. In all, nearly 300 species of birds are known to have visited the islands, which provide an excellent nesting area on the migratory route between the southeast United States and Central America. The two birds most noteworthy are the Sooty Tern, whose population during nesting season can soar to 100,000, and the Masked Booby, who live year round on Hospital Key. I also saw brown pelicans, turnstones, terns, cormorants, gulls and even a burrowing owl.
A burrowing owl perched in a tree in the parade grounds |
A brown pelican preens itself near the dock as the royal terns look on |
A ruddy turnstone mills about on the brick lining of the moat wall. |
Another important protection added by designation as a national park was the protection of the underseas areas. In addition to protection the shipwrecks extensively mapped during the 1990's, the reefs and the wildlife they support gained more rigorous protection by the designation. This was augmented even further in a 46 square mile Research Natural Area (RNA) designated in the park in 2007. The zone prohibits any fishing activities and divers are to adhere to a strict no-take regulation to give refuge to fish and other sea life in the RNA.
The park averaged fewer than 20,000 visitors a year prior to the National Park designation except for a brief flurry of visitation of up to 43,000 annually in the mid 1960's. Visitation steadily increased in 1992 from the 20,000 a year average to up to 83,700 in 2000. Since then, it has tapered off to averaging around 64,000 per year. There is only one commercial ferry service to the islands. The Yankee Freedom II out of Key West takes visitors out on day trips to Garden Key and Fort Jefferson daily. It carries up to 150 passengers a day. Arrival by private or charter boat or by sea plane are also possible, but there is obviously no means of driving to the islands.
Camping is permitted for the nominal fee of $3 per person per night, but you must bring your own supplies (food, WATER, tent, etc). A popular activity on trips to Garden Key, other than touring the fort, is snorkeling along the south, west and north sides of Garden Key.
This has been the sixth in a series of user contributed features on the national parks. Our previous features are
- Jackson Hole National Monument
- Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine
- Capitol Reef National Park
- Petrified Forest National Park
- Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
Next week, birdbrain64 will be contributing a feature on Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument. If you are interested in writing a feature about a park, please volunteer at our
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