Ft. Jefferson/Dry Tortugas

[RJNorton]

Thanks to Bob Cook for sending this link.

[KateH.]

Wow. The website makes the island look beautiful. Between the palm trees, the sand, and the blue water, if you didn't know the history of the Dry Tortugas or Fort Jefferson, you might think it was some tropical island vacation spot with fancy ruins.

[Gene C]

It certainly looks and sounds much nicer than Sam Arnold described it in Memoirs of a Lincoln Conspirator.

[Jim Page]

What the photos don't show are insects. Having lived for a while in the Florida Keys, I can assure you that they are sometimes something to be reckoned with in that area.

--Jim

[L Verge]

Years ago, the Lincoln Group of D.C. had an NPS Ranger (female) speak on what it was like being posted at Ft. Jefferson. She had done a fantastic slide show - in the days before PowerPoint - showing not only the historic structure, but flora and fauna on the island and sunrises, sunsets, and tropical fish in the surrounding waters as seen from the plane to the island. She also brought samples of the flora and fauna with her, right down to the seaweed types. I might have considered spending 2-3 days there.

[LincolnMan]

It does look quite beautiful. But then again, it depends on why one is there. If the place is where one is imprisoned-it obviously is quite isolated, hot, and forbidding.

[Liz Rosenthal]

The Dry Tortugas are/is a birding mecca. Someday, I hope to get there! Incidentally, there is also good birding at Fort Delaware, which is on an island off the coast of Delaware. This fort was another prison for various miscreants of the Civil War as well as some of the unlucky.

[Rsmyth]

Hi Liz,
That is correct. When I was there a section was off limits due to nesting birds.

[LincolnMan]

There is no fresh water at the location, correct?

[Laurie Verge]

I believe you are right, Bill.

Also, Liz, wasn't one of the little land masses around Ft. Jefferson named Bird Key? I believe that was where O'Laughlen's body was buried during the Yellow Fever epidemic.

[Laurie Verge]

Speaking of O'Laughlen's body, Dr. Houmes made excellent points during his conference presentation on just how much of Michael O'Laughlen was brought back for burial in Baltimore's Green Mount Cemetery in 1869. As in most warm waters along the East Coast, there was an abundance of crab populations in the waters around the Keys. As most of you know, crabs are the vultures of the deep and move swiftly to gorge themselves on available flesh. Most likely, Michael became a substantial meal once placed on a key that was below sea level.

[Houmes]

I believe you are right, Bill.

Also, Liz, wasn't one of the little land masses around Ft. Jefferson named Bird Key? I believe that was where O'Laughlen's body was buried during the Yellow Fever epidemic.

O'Laughlen was buried on Hospital Key (formerly called Sand Key or Middle Key), about 1.5 miles northeast of Fort Jefferson, which is located on Garden Key. Bird Key was about a mile southwest of Fort Jefferson. Bird Key disappeared during a storm in 1935. In 1862 a smallpox epidemic broke out, and ill soldiers were quarantined on Bird Key. It was later used as a burial ground for Union soldiers, but in July 1865 (just before the arrival of the Lincoln conspirators) an uprising occurred between the soldiers and the engineers building Fort Jefferson. One of the engineers had a financial sideline raising hogs to provide meat at the fort, and he used convict labor to move his herd to Bird Key for better pasture land. Hogs forage by rooting, the graves where quite shallow, and you can figure out what they started eating.

[Jim Page]

If the keys comprising the Dry Tortugas are anything like the keys I lived on or visited back in the mid-1960s, there is very little in the way of dirt. That's why, in high school in Marathon, they didn't let the boys play football. The coral rock under the thin layer of dirt would slice you like a razor if you fell on it.

Another aspect of living in the Florida Keys that I learned the hard way was that the white coral was like new snow in one respect: It can cause snow blindness, which was why I had to wear very dark prescription sunglasses day and night, indoors and out, for a period of time.

In spite of that, the Keys were a great place to live. Another odd aspect of Key life was that the big fresh-water pipe serving the Keys ran parallel to U.S. Highway One, from Islamorada to Key West, and at least a couple of times a week someone would hit it with their car. That would shut the water off south of where that occurred, so folks living in the Keys usually had five-gallon fresh-water dispensers in their homes.

--Jim

[RJNorton]

Here is a link to some very nice photos:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura..._with.html

[RickBeaver]

Reminds me of "The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd" movie. I think they had a placard above the entry door that said "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here" or something like that!

Scary!