History
Egmont key was surveyed by Spanish explorers in 1757. In 1761, the English named the island Egmont Key for the Earl of Egmont. With the rest of Florida, it passed back and forth between Spain and England and finally to the United States in 1827 In 1847, concerns with hazardous navigation at the mouth of Tampa Bay led the construction of the first lighthouse. The Great Gale of 1848 swamped the island and all but destroyed the lighthouse. The lighthouse keeper reportedly rode out the storm in a rowboat tied to a palmetto. After the storm had passed, he rowed to Fort Brooke and tendered his resignation. In 1858, the lighthouse was replaced.
Defense considerations during the Spanish-American War led to the construction of Fort Dade. Egmont Key remained a military reservation for years. In 1974 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took over and turned the island over to the State of Florida in 1989 and it became a state park. In 2009, budgetary concerns led to a proposal to close the park.
Read more about this topic: Egmont Key State Park
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Philosophy of science without history of science is empty; history of science without philosophy of science is blind.”
—Imre Lakatos (1922–1974)
“Properly speaking, history is nothing but the crimes and misfortunes of the human race.”
—Pierre Bayle (1647–1706)