Egmont Key Light - The Key

The Key

Egmont Key as a whole has a rich history. The entire island is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a National Wildlife Refuge and a state park. At the time the first lighthouse was being built in 1848, Colonel Robert E. Lee was making a survey of the southern coast, and recommended that defensive works be built on Egmont Key because of its strategic location. In the 1850s Egmont Key was used as a temporary holding area for Seminoles before they were shipped to the Indian Territory. Early in the Civil War, Confederate blockade-runners used the island as a base. Union forces captured the island in July 1861 and used it as a base for attacks on Confederate ships and positions in the Tampa area. The Union also used the island as a military prison and a refuge for southern pro-Union sympathizers. A cemetery for Union and Confederate dead was opened on the island in 1864. The cemetery was closed in 1909 and the bodies were moved to military cemeteries at other locations.