New Florida museum throws spotlight onto one of America's least-known island chains
By CHRIS LEADBEATER
PUBLISHED: 14:16 GMT, 2 April 2013
The sun-kissed islands of the Florida Keys are largely seen as the last hurrah for the United States – at least, in the south-east of the country. This curling chain of sandy slivers is connected to Miami and the rest of mainland Florida by US Highway 1 – a dramatic stretch of road that swoops south-west before rolling to a halt at Key West.
An end-of-the-line holiday hotspot – with little hotels, seafood restaurants and historic ties to writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams – Key West tends to be the stopping-point for many tourists who come to seek out the USA’s extremities. But – little observed and only visited by those in the know – there are further American islands that lurk beyond Key West: the remote Marquesas Keys and the Dry Tortugas.
Now, the latter archipelago has come into focus thanks to a new museum that has opened in Key West – just in time to celebrate the 500th anniversary of America’s ‘discovery’. Florida was first sighted by European explorers in April 1513, when the Spanish adventurer Juan Ponce de Leon sailed west from what is now Puerto Rico, and made landfall somewhere on the future US state’s Atlantic coast.
Following his ‘discovery’ (during which he almost certainly encountered America’s indigenous population), he also journeyed south, and is thought to have spotted the Florida Keys in May of the same year. The Spaniard’s voyage sowed the first seeds for the founding of the United States – and Florida is marking this grand anniversary with state-wide festivities throughout 2013.
The launch of the new Dry Tortugas and Key West Bight Interpretive Center, set up on Key West Bight – a natural deep-water harbour on the island’s west side – is part of the celebrations. And it throws a spotlight onto one of America’s least-acknowledged areas.
The Dry Tortugas lie some 70 miles west of Key West in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. There are seven islets in total, and together with the surrounding ocean, they constitute Dry Tortugas National Park, a zone that has been safeguarded since 1992. This, in part, is due to the rich feathered life found among these patches of mangrove and coral. Seabirds such as Sooty Terns and Masked Boobies call the islets home. However, for all their idyllic appearance – especially on a warm, blue-skied day – the Dry Tortugas have a story that goes far back into the past.
They reputedly gained their name from Juan Ponce de Leon, who also located these tiny fragments on his odyssey of 1513. ‘Tortugas’ refers to the sea turtles which were visible on the shore in considerable number, ‘Dry’ to the islands’ lack of natural water supply. Three centuries later, Garden Key, the second largest of the islets, would be made a military stronghold with the construction of the giant Fort Jefferson. This brick structure, designed to protect US shipping interests in the Gulf of Mexico, was begun in 1846.
Due to complications such as the outbreak of the American Civil War, the fortress was never entirely finished – but it would be used as both a prison and a hospital during the 19th century, and it remains an imposing building, looming above the waves of the Gulf.
The fort is featured in scale-model version at the new museum, which also includes exhibits on the wildlife found on the islands, and on Fort Jefferson’s most famous inmate when it was used as a prison. Samuel Mudd was a doctor who was jailed for helping the gunman John Wilkes Booth in the wake of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
Visitors to Key West who want a closer glimpse of this distant archipelago than museum testimony affords can – if they have a spare day – make the crossing to the Dry Tortugas via the ferry service that offers a daily return journey to Fort Jefferson. This catamaran jaunt takes two hours 15 minutes, and provides four hours amid the islands, giving holidaymakers a chance to explore the semi-forgotten fort and enjoy time on the beach.
The archipelago’s shape on the map is not entirely permanent. While there are currently seven islands to the Dry Tortugas, there have been up to 11 in the past two centuries. Thanks to their low-lying nature, the islands are prone to damage from sea surges and passing hurricanes. The former Bird Key – now a submerged sandbar that sits a mile south-west of Garden Key – ‘disappeared’ as recently as 1935.