Ghosts of Egmont Key

Have you ever heard about the Egmont Key Ghost Town? If there’s a story about a ghost town, there must surely be ghosts, so I was intrigued to learn more.

Early Inhabitants

Perhaps we should begin with the history of Egmont Key. As with the majority of coastal Pinellas County, human habitation of this small island near Fort DeSoto can be traced back more than 2,000 years. However, it wasn’t until 1757 that Don Francisco Maria Celi, a pilot of the royal Spanish fleet, made the first recorded landing and named the island La Isla de San Blas y Barreda. The name would be short-lived. Just six years later, Florida became a British colony, and the island was named after John Perceval, the Second Earl of Egmont. Even though Florida was ceded back to Spain in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the name stuck.

The Second Seminole War (1835-1842) took place when the U.S. Army tried to get the Seminole tribe to move west to the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Egmont Key was used as a detention area for Seminoles awaiting transfer; many did not survive their stay.

In 1848 work was completed on the island’s first lighthouse. In September of that year, a hurricane hit the island, covering it with six feet of water. It is said that the lighthouse keeper and his family rode out the storm in a small boat, tied to a tree. After the storm passed, they rowed to Tampa and never returned. A few weeks later Egmont Key was hit with another hurricane, and a third swept over the island in 1852. Work began to rebuild the lighthouse in 1857. It was moved about 90 feet inland, and in 1858 it was put back in service.

Strategic Strongholds

The lighthouse lens was removed by Confederates during the Civil War to frustrate the Union Navy’s efforts to blockade Tampa Bay. Egmont Key was captured by Union forces in July 1861, who used it as a base to attack Confederate ships around Tampa Bay, as a military prison and a refuge for pro-Union sympathizers. A cemetery for Union and Confederate soldiers was opened on the island in 1864 and maintained until 1909, when the bodies were moved to other military cemeteries.

Fort Dade on Egmont Key and Fort DeSoto on nearby Mullet Key were built in 1898, when the Spanish-American War was imminent. The forts were to work in conjunction with each other and protect Tampa Bay from attacks by the Spanish Navy. The Spanish fleet never made it here, due to its destruction by the U.S. Navy in Cuba, followed shortly thereafter by Spain’s surrender. A hostile shot was never fired from the fort, although a hospital at Fort Dade was used to quarantine American soldiers returning from Cuba.

By 1910, more than 300 people called Fort Dade/Egmont Key home, living in large barracks, freestanding homes for officers and civilians, and segregated housing for African American workers. Residents enjoyed such amenities as a movie theater, bowling alley and tennis courts. During World War I, Fort Dade was used as a training center for National Coast Guard artillery units. The fort was deactivated in 1921, and was briefly reactivated during WWII before the military permanently abandoned it in 1946.

In 1974 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took possession and turned the island over to the State of Florida. That year the key was designated a National Wildlife Refuge and in 1989 Egmont Key State Park opened.

The Ghost Town

Today only remnants of buildings still stand, both on land and underwater, where much of the onetime 580-acre island has been reclaimed by the sea, leaving less than 300 acres above the water. Heavy jungle growth has invaded much of the island, but a grid of idyllic red brick streets have withstood a century of Florida’s weather. This area is often referred to as the Ghost Town of Egmont Key.

According to Greg Jenkins, author of Florida’s Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore: The Gulf Coast and Pensacola, at least one park ranger has seen a spirit on Egmont Key., swearing that late one night, he encountered a man dressed as a Civil War soldier. There have also been reports of shadowy figures skulking around the lighthouse, which still stands today, and a pale face peering out.

Who could be behind the ghostly encounters? Seminole warriors, Spanish explorers, Union and Confederate soldiers, or lighthouse keepers of old?

Explore the ghost town on this historic island and decide for yourself. Egmont Key State Park is open to the public daily from 8am until sunset. You can take a private boat or book a ferry from Fort DeSoto.

UPDATE 11/20/17: Photos submitted by one of our readers, Tricia Koch. “Zoom in and you and can see the children and something else in the window panes. In the 3 pictures, there is something different in each one.”

What do you think? Do you think the lighthouse is haunted? Let us know in the comments!

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Jack Spinrad
Jack was born many years ago Brooklyn, NY. Hopping from coast to coast, he finally settled in St Petersburg in the Magnolia Heights Neighborhood in 1991. He is happily married to his wife Cookie and father to three kids. Now retired, he spends most of his time as President of the Magnolia Heights Neighborhood, repairing their mid-century house, and writing for Green Bench Monthly.

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