![]() ![]() It was used for making salt from sea water. ![]() Half-buried in the sand are the remains of a rusting rounded object, looking like half of an old steam boiler. Follow the beach towards the view of Cedar Key’s waterfront. You can stop now, or take a stroll along the beach to look at a Civil-War era artifact. Turn around and make your way back to the windmill.įollow the trail back out to the big sign and the dock. Several huge prickly pears sit at the base of the bluff. Look for a side trail on the right that winds between scattered bricks and heads downhill through a coastal scrub.ĭropping to the edge of the salt marsh, it affords another view over to the docks of Cedar Key. Return to the main path and pass the windmill. As you can guess by its name, it is well earned. The footpath drops down into the coastal hammock along the edge of the salt marsh, with a clear view of Snake Key, another of the islands protected by the refuge. It’s a broad path across a stretch of coastal scrub, out in the open, with gleaming white sand. Keep alert for a side trail on the left before you get to the windmill. Retrace your path through the old cemetery. There is a bench here that makes a prime spot for birding. Gentle waves lap at the glasswort on the shore. A bench provides a sweeping view of the marshes that separate the two halves of Atsena Otie Key.īelow it, the trail ends at the very edge of the water after a half mile. Keep to the left of the cemetery to follow the trail downhill to the salt marsh. From the inscriptions and dates on the tombstones, most of those buried here lived brief, harsh lives. The marble tombstones date back to 1882, some fallen, some as clean as the day they were erected. The trail winds past the town’s cemetery, set on a bluff overlooking the salt marshes. As the trail rises up into a grove of wind-swept sand live oaks waving streamers of Spanish moss, you see the bright red blooms of coral beans. Walking a little further, you reach the remains of a windmill. Army established a supply depot and a hospital, calling it Depot Key.Īfter threats of the island being turned into condos in the 1990s, it was finally permanently protected as part of the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge in 1997. The first modern habitation here was in 1839, when the U.S. This is one of the many artifacts dating back to the homesteading of this island. After it makes a sharp right, it heads through a dense grove of red bay and cedar, arriving at a high spot with a water cistern.Īlthough the bricks are covered with concrete, a spout sticks out of one side. The trail heads down a shady needle-strewn path, flanked by longleaf pines and red bay, saw palmetto and cedars. A massive cedar now grows above the ruins. Hikeĭisembarking from the boat, walk up the dock – or from a kayak, up the beach – to the big “Atsena Otie Key” sign to start your hike.Ītsena Otie means “cedar island,” and you’ll see plenty of them here – which is why the original settlers came here.īricks scattered around a deep hole on the left are all that’s left of the Eberhard Faber Pencil Mill, which washed away in the tidal surge of 1896. Grab a tour boat from the docks at Cedar Key or paddle out to the island, within sight of the launch. From US 19 north of Chiefland, take SR 24 west to the end of the road. ![]()
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