Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of Indian Key, a small wooded island ringed by a pale rocky shore in turquoise water, with a dock on its left side

Indian Key

A wreckers' town on a small island off the Overseas Highway, briefly the seat of Dade County. A raid in 1840 burned it, and the last cabins went in 1960. Cistern and building foundations stand among the trees of a state park you can only reach by water.

24°52′41″N 80°40′37″W · ≈8 ft

Photo: U.S. Department of Transportation (National Archives), Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Closed for dock work

Florida State Parks says the park has been completely closed to the public since April 2026 while contractors rebuild its dock, a project "slated to take up to six months." The notice was still posted on October 17, 2026 (archived copy of the park page). Call the park at 305-664-2540 before you plan a paddle.

Overview

The wreckers' island

Indian Key from the Overseas Highway on the Indian Key Fill, July 2020
Indian Key from the Overseas Highway on the Indian Key Fill, July 2020 · Photo: Upstateherd, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Indian Key is an island of about 11 acres in the upper Florida Keys, half a mile off the Overseas Highway. In the 1820s and 1830s it was a busy base for wreckers, the crews who rescued sailors and salvaged cargo from ships that ran onto the reef. A store opened there in 1824. In 1830 or 1831 Jacob Housman, a wrecker who had fallen out with the salvage trade at Key West, moved in, bought most of the island and ran it as its landlord. It had a store, a hotel, homes with cisterns, warehouses and wharves, and from 1834 a post office. Housman's lobbying made it the seat of the new Dade County in 1836.

The Second Seminole War ended all that. Before dawn on August 7, 1840, a war party led by Chakaika landed on the island. Most of the 50 to 70 people living there got away, but 13 were killed, among them the botanist Henry Perrine, whose family survived by hiding under the house. The raiders looted the town and burned it. Housman left and died the next year in a salvage accident; he is buried on the island. The county seat moved to Miami in 1844.

A few families stayed on through the 1850s, and one wrecker lived there until after 1880. In the 20th century the island was a fishing camp and picnic stop. Hurricane Donna took the last cabins in 1960. Florida bought the island in 1971, and today it is Indian Key Historic State Park, deserted except for the ruins. Since April 2026 it has been closed while its dock is rebuilt.

Video

The old streets and the tower

A visitor walks the island in January 2021, the month the description gives: the town square and its unexplained "mystery feature," the warehouse foundations and the street down to the old wharves, Jacob Housman's grave, the view over the island from the observation tower, the brick cisterns, the cottage foundations, the Perrine and Howe home sites and the bare site of the Tropical Hotel, reading the trail signs along the way. Filmed when the park was open. It has been closed to all visitors since April 2026 while the dock is rebuilt.

Play “A look at Indian Key in the Florida Keys.” from YouTube
“A look at Indian Key in the Florida Keys.”, by JJ's Wanderings on YouTube. The player loads from YouTube when you press play.

Timeline

Store, county seat, raid and hurricanes

  1. A hurricane wrecks 19 ships of the Spanish treasure fleet on the reef nearby. Some survivors camp on Indian Key until rescue.
  2. Bahamian and Cuban crews use the island as a base for fishing, turtling, logging and wrecking, staying for months but never settling.
  3. Two Key West men send Silas Fletcher to open a store on the island. A settlement of wreckers and turtlers grows around it.
  4. Jacob Housman, a wrecker at odds with Key West, moves to Indian Key and buys up the island. Wikipedia gives 1830; another account gives 1831.
  5. Indian Key gets an inspector of customs in 1832 and a post office in 1834.
  6. Housman persuades the territorial council to create Dade County, with Indian Key as its seat.
  7. Dr. Henry Perrine, a former US consul in Mexico and a plant collector, settles on the island to wait out the Second Seminole War.
  8. A war party led by Chakaika lands before dawn. Most of the 50 to 70 residents escape, but 13 are killed, Perrine among them. The town is looted and burned.
  9. Housman dies in a salvage accident. He is buried on the island.
  10. The Dade County seat moves to Miami, and the upper Keys go back to Monroe County.
  11. A few families stay. Two are left in 1860, and the wrecker William Bethel lives there until some time after 1880.
  12. Two operators of a fishing camp on the island die in the Labor Day hurricane.
  13. Hurricane Donna destroys the last cabins.
  14. Florida buys the island and makes it a historic state park. It is listed on the National Register on June 19, 1972.
  15. The park closes completely while contractors rebuild its dock, a job slated to take up to six months.

What's left

What you'll see

Agave and limber caper growing over a masonry ruin on Indian Key, December 2007
Agave and limber caper growing over a masonry ruin on Indian Key, December 2007 · Photo: Jason Hollinger, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The park describes the island as deserted except for the ruins of the 1830s town. Paths follow the grid of the original streets, with signs naming them, and lead past the foundations of cisterns and buildings in thick, jungle-like growth. An interpretive trail of about a third of a mile runs through the old town, and an observation tower looks out over the island and the water. Housman's grave is on the island. Plants from Perrine's gardens, sisal among them by Wikipedia's account, have grown over many of the ruins.

From the air the layout is clear: a cleared square in the middle of the trees, the foundations around it, a rocky shore all round and the dock on the side facing the highway. The 1971 USGS sheet below shows the island alone on the flats south of the highway, with a channel running past its east side and the highway fill to the northwest. The 1983 sheet adds the names around it: Lignumvitae Key to the north, Teatable Key and the Indian Key Fill along US 1.

  • Cistern and building foundations of the 1830s town
  • Re-created street grid with street signs
  • Jacob Housman's grave
  • Observation tower
  • Interpretive trail, about a third of a mile
  • Dock (being rebuilt in 2026)
USGS topographic map of Indian Key southeast of the Overseas Highway
USGS The National Map, topo. Indian Key sits alone in the water southeast of the Overseas Highway, with the Florida Circumnavigational Paddling Trail passing between them.
Aerial view of Indian Key, a wooded island with a cleared square at its center
Aerial imagery, same area. The wooded island with its cleared central square, the shallow flats around it and a channel to the east.

Historic maps

Indian Key on USGS maps, 1971–1983

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.

USGS topographic map around Indian Key, 1971
Upper Matecumbe Key sheet, 1971, 1:24,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

There is no road to Indian Key. Both routes end on the Overseas Highway (US 1) at the Indian Key Fill, the strip of road across the water from the island, about 0.7 miles away. From there you need a boat or a kayak, and the park is closed until its dock work is done.

USGS topographic map of the Overseas Highway from Islamorada to the Indian Key Fill, with Indian Key offshore and the route drawn on it

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

From Islamorada on Upper Matecumbe Key4.3 miabout 7 min
  1. From Islamorada, follow the Overseas Highway (US 1) southwest to the Indian Key Fill, across the water from the island.4.3 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Directions go to Indian Key Fill on US 1, across the water from the island, where the drive ends, not to the townsite.

Road and safety notes

  • The drive is on the Overseas Highway (US 1) all the way; the island itself is about 0.7 miles offshore from where the routes end.
  • When the park is open it is reached only by boat. Kayaks cross the shallow seagrass flats; Florida Rambler puts the paddle from Robbie's Marina, where kayaks are rented, at 30 to 45 minutes (May 2026).
  • Florida Rambler (May 2026) says parking at the Indian Key Fill is forbidden while restoration work there continues, and that Robbie's Marina no longer allows private kayak launches.
  • Kayak rentals, per the park: Robbie's Marina (305-664-4878) and Backcountry Cowboys (305-517-4177).

Photos

Indian Key in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Indian 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.

Nearby

Other sites near Indian Key

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Indian Key", retrieved October 2026: the 1733 fleet wreck, the Bahamian and Cuban crews, the 1824 store, Housman's arrival in 1830, the customs inspector (1832) and post office (1834), Dade County and its seat (1836 to 1844), the August 7, 1840 raid led by Chakaika (50 to 70 residents, 13 killed, Perrine among them), the census families of 1850 and 1860, William Bethel, the 1935 and 1960 hurricanes, the 1971 purchase and the June 19, 1972 National Register listing, the coordinates.
  2. ghosttowns.com, "Indian Key": Housman setting up in 1831, the store, hotel, cisterns, warehouses and wharves, Perrine's arrival in 1838 and his plantings, the family hiding under the house, Housman's death in 1841 and his grave on the island, the gardens overgrowing the ruins, the climate and best time.
  3. Florida State Parks, Indian Key Historic State Park, archived copies of October 17 and September 21, 2026: the closure "effective April 2026" for the dock rebuild, slated to take up to six months; hours of 8 a.m. to sunset; the $2.50 fee; the phone; boat-only access; the 11-acre island "deserted except for the ruins"; the kayak rental phones.
  4. Florida State Parks, Indian Key "Experiences & Amenities", archived September 3, 2026: the re-created street system, the interpretive trail of about a third of a mile, paddling across the flats, the no-lifeguard and diver-down-flag rules.
  5. Florida State Parks, "History of Wreckers on Indian Key", archived 2025: how wrecking worked, the warehouse lookout, the 1840 attack and the Navy's later use of the island.
  6. Bonnie Gross, "Indian Key: Favorite Florida Keys kayak trail to historic island," Florida Rambler, updated May 30, 2026: the April 2026 closure notice, the paddle of 30 to 45 minutes from Robbie's Marina, the parking ban at the Indian Key Fill, Robbie's Marina rules, the cistern and building foundations, street signs and observation tower, the dock damaged by Hurricane Irma in 2017.
  7. National Archives, "Florida Keys Scenic Highway - Over Indian Key" (via Wikimedia Commons, public domain): the aerial view showing foundations of buildings and cisterns from the 1830s beside a modern dock.
  8. Historic maps: USGS Upper Matecumbe Key 1:24,000 (1971) and Islamorada 1:100,000 (1983) sheets. Current topographic map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map.
  9. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.
  10. JJ's Wanderings, "A look at Indian Key in the Florida Keys.", YouTube, posted March 28, 2021: a walk on the interpretive trail and the observation tower, filmed in January 2021 per its description (the video on this page); checked against its captions and storyboard frames.

Photo and map credits