Indian Key: Kayaking to a ghost town of the Florida Keys

Indian Key seen from the landfill of the Overseas Highway. First image: This is the distance that one needs to paddle to reach the island - License our images here.

From the distance, looks like the island never was inhabited. Just another green spot on the emerald blue of the Atlantic. But behind the bushes, there are remains of a town from the 19th century. 

There is only one way to go to Indian Key: paddling. But the paddle to this state park is short. Less than a mile. We landed by the dock, paid the entrance fee in the iron ranger, and took on the trails to see the ruins of a town destroyed by Indians in the summer of 1840.

The landing "beach" of Indian Key is a rocky place. 

There is not much left of the place. Water cisterns, the ruins of the warehouse, some dirt from old dwellings here and there. The forest is back. Sweet vengeance. 

Remains of old water cisterns engulfed by the forest in Indian Key. 

The warehouse was the biggest construction. It was three stories tall with an observatory on the top according to Hester Perrine Walker, one of the inhabitants of Indian Key.

Three angles of the ruins of the Indian Key warehouse. 

Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda wrote the first accounts of the area. He spent two-decade captive of the Calusa in the 1540s and visited the villages of Guarungunbe and Cuchiyaga in the Florida Keys. The first one is believed was in Lower Matecumbe, the island neighboring Indian Key. 

Another old tale is about Antonio Gómez, a Portuguese that built a trading post here in the 1600-1700s. But this comes from a Miami resident of the 1860s, meaning that nobody is sure. 

Another story is related to a massacre of shipwrecked French sailors in Indian Key - probably a confusion with the massacre at the Matanzas Inlet in 1565. Interesting that the old name for Indian Key was "Cayuelo de la Matanza" - slaughter key. It appears in old maps. "French's Key" was another name given to this island.   

The name "Indian Key" shows up after 1775. The area was a wrecking paradise thanks to the many reefs. The first permanent settlers came by 1824 and soon followed a shady character named John Jacob Housman. 

Mr. Housman is associated with the rise and fall of Indian Key. A sailor and adventurer from New York, he stole a ship from his father and shipwrecked in the Florida Keys. Saved by wreckers, he became a wrecker and bought land in Indian Key. 

The village grew and being bigger than Miami, got a post office in 1834. Its Tropical Hotel lured tourists with national ads. 

Old map of Indian Key showing the streets and the docks - State Archives of Florida.  

The French naturalist François-Louis Laporte wrote about the Indian Key of the 1830s:

There are about 50 inhabitants, 20 of them Negroes. Almost all of them live on the wreckage of shipwrecks common to these parts.

While another visitor, the explorer John Lee Williams, said:

Much of the island is improved as a garden, the rocky surface being covered by a bed of mould [sic] drawn up from the channel. Several buildings ornament the island; a superb Hotel overtops them all, erected by the enterprising proprietor, Mr. Housman.

Even John James Audubon spent a night here in 1832. He added Indian Key to one of his drawings: "Booby Gannet, male" - the image is a crop of the original in the New York Public Library. 

Section of "Booby Gannet, male" from Audubon showing Indian Key in the background - Original: New York Public Library. 

All was good until Indian Key was attacked on August 7, 1840. Chief Chekika - or Chakaika - was the commander of the Indian raid. He is described as a six feet tall man that spoke a mix of "Indian and Spanish". Nobody is sure if he was Calusa or Seminole. His warriors surprised a sleepy town and killed some residents, including children and a black slave.

Drawing from the "Narrative of Miss Perrine on the Massacre and Destruction of Indian Key Village in Aug. 1840." - State Archives of Florida. 

Among the dead was Dr. Henry Perrine, a former Consul of the United States in Mexico. He tried to negotiate with the Indians and was killed in his house. His family escaped alive. 

Captain Housman fled through a window when Seminole warriors entered his home. He swam to a nearby schooner. 

The Indians plundered and burned the town. Indian Key didn't recover. Most people never returned, and Jacob Houseman moved to Key West ending crushed between the hulls of two ships during a wrecking operation. The State of Florida purchased Indian Key in 1971 and the place became a historic park.

We also visited another state park in the Florida Keys only accessible by boat or paddling: Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park. 

(Around this area of the Florida Keys you can also check Windley Key State Park to see coral fossils.)