Atsena Otie Key

Overview

The first Cedar Key

Before there was a town of Cedar Key, there was Atsena Otie. The small island half a mile offshore was a trading post in the 1820s and an Army depot in the Second Seminole War. In August 1842 Colonel William J. Worth met Seminole leaders here and declared that war over. Augustus Steele then claimed the island, renamed it Atsena Otie Key and built cottages for planters. The Cedar Key post office opened on the island in 1845, and the state chartered the town of Atsena Otie in 1858. The 1860 census counted 215 people.

The railroad from Fernandina reached the Cedar Keys in 1861, but its terminal went to Way Key, the island where today's Cedar Key stands. Atsena Otie's own boom came after the Civil War, when the Eberhard Faber pencil company built a cedar mill here in 1868. Oysters, green turtles and fishing added work, and by 1895 more than 50 households lived on the island.

On September 29, 1896, a hurricane and a 10-foot storm surge crossed the island. The mill was destroyed, and with the cedar mostly cut, no one rebuilt it. A few houses and a business building were floated over to Cedar Key, and most people followed. The last houses were gone by 1950. The island now belongs to the Suwannee River Water Management District and is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge. What is left of the town is a cemetery in the oaks, mill foundations and scattered concrete in the scrub.

Video

By kayak from Cedar Key to the cemetery

A kayaker paddles over from Cedar Key, lands on a beach strewn with brick and walks the island's trail through palmettos and storm-broken trees. Along the way: a shelter with an information board, a sign pointing to the cemetery, a round concrete cistern, scattered foundations and rusted iron. The cemetery has standing headstones and iron-fenced plots. On the way back the camera passes the old dock, now bare pilings. The narration's "more than 200 people" matches the 1860 census count of 215. Its guesses at a windmill and the use of the iron pieces are the creator's own.

Play “Kayaking to Atsena Otie Key | Florida’s Lost Island Town” from YouTube

Timeline

Depot, mill town, hurricane

1. 2,000+ years agoPeople live on the island. A skeleton found there in 1999 was dated to more than 2,000 years old, per Wikipedia.
2. 1818 to early 1820sA trading post on the island, important during the First Seminole War.
3. 1840General Walker Keith Armistead orders a hospital built on the island. Army headquarters for the Second Seminole War move here and the island becomes Depot Key.
4. August 1842Colonel William J. Worth meets Seminole leaders on Depot Key and declares the Second Seminole War over.
5. October 1842A hurricane wrecks the post and the Army leaves.
6. 1843Augustus Steele claims the island under the Armed Occupation Act, renames it Atsena Otie Key and builds summer cottages for planters.
7. 1845The Cedar Key post office opens with Steele as postmaster.
8. January 1858The legislature charters the town of Atsena Otie.
9. 1860The census counts 215 people in 30 households on the island.
10. January 1862Sailors and Marines from USS Hatteras burn the harbor facilities and blockade runners at Depot Key, in what became known as the Battle of Cedar Key.
11. 1868The Eberhard Faber pencil company builds a cedar mill on the island to supply its New Jersey factory.
12. 1895More than 50 households live on the island.
13. September 29, 1896A hurricane with a 10-foot surge destroys the Faber mill and most of the town. Surviving houses are floated across to Cedar Key.
14. 1940s to 1950The last houses go. Wikipedia says the last wooden house was torn down in the 1940s and that Hurricane Easy destroyed the last one in 1950.
15. 1997 or 1998The Suwannee River Water Management District buys the island and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages it as part of Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge. Wikipedia gives 1997; the Service gives 1998.

Sources differ on some details. The fact sheet we used says all residents had left by 1897, while Wikipedia says some stayed into the 20th century, and WUSF reported in 2023 that the island has had no residents since 1910. The meaning of the name Atsena Otie, and why Steele chose it, is not known.

What's left

What you'll see

A long wooden dock once reached out from the island's north side, facing Cedar Key. In March 2011 a red sign on it read "Dock Here." Florida Rambler, in an article updated in September 2025, calls it "hurricane-ravaged" and says power boaters should anchor offshore and wade in. In a kayak video posted in May 2026, only pilings and crossbeams stand in the water, with cormorants on them. Kayaks land on the beach, where broken brick lies in the sand.

From the landing a sandy trail runs under live oaks to the cemetery. The 1955 USGS sheet below marks "Atsena Otie Cem" on the south side of the island. A sign there lists the burials recorded by Rex Andrews and Lindon J. Lindsey, with death years from 1877 to 1916. Several marble headstones still stand, one grave has a low brick border, and the May 2026 video shows rusted iron fences around family plots. A small sign points the way to the cemetery from the trail. WUSF called the graveyard all that remains of the town in 2023.

The remains also include foundations of the Faber mill, old artesian wells and a survey marker, according to the fact sheet we used. Photos from 2011 show a low concrete dome in the scrub and concrete blocks with iron fittings. The 2026 video shows a round concrete structure with a lid that the creator took for a cistern, brick and coquina fragments, half-buried iron and a rusted framework the creator guessed was a windmill. Many trees along the trail are dead or broken. We found no source that identifies the ruins one by one. Refuge rules forbid collecting artifacts.

• Cemetery with marble headstones (1877 to 1916)
• Faber mill foundations
• Concrete ruins and old wells in the scrub
• Pilings of the old dock
• Trail from the beach to the cemetery
• Rusted iron fences around family plots
• Beach facing Cedar Key

Visiting

Getting across

The only way over is by water. The Fish and Wildlife Service says you need a vessel to paddle, operate or rent to reach the refuge islands, and that boundary signs mark them; other islands nearby are private. Florida Rambler describes the paddle as half a mile across open water and calls it a very easy 20-minute kayak trip. It says kayak outfitters in town rent boats and that a tour boat will drop people on the island and pick them up later. Check with the operators for current prices and times.

We found no current source for drinking water or restrooms on the island; bring what you need from Cedar Key. Fires, camping, dogs off-leash and collecting plants, animals, shells and artifacts are prohibited across the refuge.

Historic maps

Atsena Otie Key on USGS maps, 1954–1978

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19541:250,00019551:24,00019781:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Drive to the town of Cedar Key on SR 24, then cross to the island by boat or kayak. Chiefland, on US 19, is the nearest larger town. From Gainesville, SR 24 runs southwest all the way to Cedar Key. Both routes end on Dock Street on the Cedar Key waterfront, about a mile north of the island.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Directions go to Dock Street on the Cedar Key waterfront, where the boat trip starts, where the drive ends, not to the townsite.

Photos

Atsena Otie Key in photos

Atsena Otie Key from the air, May 2010The long dock on the island's north shore, March 2011The dock's "Dock Here" sign and the beach, March 2011The beach and palms beside the dock, March 2011Driftwood and broken brick on the beach, March 2011The sandy trail under the live oaks, March 2011A low concrete dome in the scrub, March 2011A concrete block with an iron fitting in the sand, March 2011A square concrete footing among the palmettos, March 2011The cemetery path, March 2011A marble headstone in the cemetery, March 2011A brick-bordered grave, March 2011The cemetery sign listing burials from 1877 to 1916, March 2011Looking across the channel toward Cedar Key from the island's beachThe island from the water on the way over, March 2011Eberhard Faber's cedar mill, captioned only "Cedar Key," about 1890

Visitor reports

Been to Atsena Otie Key?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Atsena Otie Key

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Florida index.

• Cedar Key1.7 mi NW · Levy
• Rosewood9.9 mi NE · Levy
• Romeo36.1 mi E · Marion
• Mannfield42.3 mi SE · Citrus
• Bay Port46.0 mi SE · Hernando
• Fort King57.2 mi E · Marion
• Hague57.7 mi NE · Alachua
• Newnansville57.8 mi NE · Alachua

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Atsena Otie Key", retrieved October 2026: the 1999 skeleton, the trading post, Depot Key and Armistead's hospital, Worth's 1842 declaration, the October 1842 hurricane, Steele and the 1845 post office, the 1858 charter, the 1860 census, the Battle of Cedar Key, the 1868 Faber mill, the 1895 households, the 1896 hurricane and the houses floated to Cedar Key, the last houses in the 1940s and 1950, the 1997 sale.
2. ghosttowns.com, Atsena Otie Key: fact sheet (county, best time, climate, remains: mill foundations, cemetery, survey marker, artesian wells, trails, boat or kayak access) and history, including all residents gone by 1897 and the island once being called Cedar Key.
3. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge, Visit Us, Rules and Policies and About Us, read October 29, 2026: access only by vessel, boundary signs, the prohibited activities, the refuge phone, the 1998 purchase by the Suwannee River Water Management District.
4. Stephanie Castellano, "Living on the edge: Leaving Atsena Otie," WUSF, March 30, 2023: the graveyard as the town's remnant, no residents since 1910, management by the Fish and Wildlife Service.
5. Florida World Nature, "Kayaking to Atsena Otie Key | Florida’s Lost Island Town", YouTube, posted May 25, 2026: the video on this page; the kayak crossing, the trail, the cistern, the cemetery and its iron fences, the dock reduced to pilings.
6. Bonnie Gross, "Atsena Otie: Cedar Key's easy, fun & scenic kayak trip to an island," Florida Rambler, updated September 16, 2025: the half-mile paddle ("a very easy 20-minute kayak trip"), the hurricane-damaged dock and wading in, the trail to the cemetery, kayak outfitters and a drop-off boat.
7. Commons photos of the island by Ebyabe, March 2, 2011 (camera dates), including the cemetery sign "The Cemetery at Atsena Otie" and its list of burials.
8. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• Atsena Otie Key from the air, May 2010: U.S. Geological Survey, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• The long dock on the island's north shore, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• The dock's "Dock Here" sign and the beach, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• The beach and palms beside the dock, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Driftwood and broken brick on the beach, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• The sandy trail under the live oaks, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• A low concrete dome in the scrub, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• A concrete block with an iron fitting in the sand, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• A square concrete footing among the palmettos, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• The cemetery path, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• A marble headstone in the cemetery, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• A brick-bordered grave, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• The cemetery sign listing burials from 1877 to 1916, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Looking across the channel toward Cedar Key from the island's beach: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• The island from the water on the way over, March 2011: Ebyabe, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Eberhard Faber's cedar mill, captioned only "Cedar Key," about 1890: Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Gainesville 1954, 1:250,000; Seahorse Key 1955, 1:24,000; Cedar Keys 1978, 1:100,000.