Egmont Key State Park

Welcome to Egmont Key State Park. I am delighted you have made the journey across the waters of the Gulf of Mexico to reach this remarkable and deeply historic island. …

We have now arrived at the island's Guard House, a modest yet deeply significant structure that serves as the intellectual gateway to the interior of Egmont Key. In its prime, this building functioned precisely as its name…

Rising majestically before us is the Egmont Key Lighthouse, arguably the most iconic and historically continuous structure on the entire island. Standing at an impressive eighty-seven feet tall, this gleaming white tower is a…

We have now ventured into one of the most evocative and hauntingly beautiful areas of Egmont Key: the sprawling ghost town of Fort Dade. As we walk along these remarkably preserved, shaded brick pathways, you are traversing the…

As we continue our northward progression along the island's interior, the dense canopy suddenly parts to reveal an imposing, brutalist concrete structure. This is Battery McIntosh, the first of the massive coastal defense…

Following the trail further to the northwest edge of the island, we encounter two additional military installations that formed the broader defensive network of Fort Dade: Battery Guy Howard and Battery Charles Mellon. While they…

Descending from the concrete heights of the military batteries, we now emerge onto the sun-drenched, pristine expanse of Egmont Key's western shoreline. The transition from the dense, shadowy confines of the maritime forest to…

As our time on Egmont Key draws to a close, and we begin making our way back toward the ferry landing, I invite you to reflect on the extraordinary journey we have just completed. We have traversed a landscape defined by profound…