Stories of Elliott Key

For an indeterminate period of time the island was known as Ledbury Key, named after the 1769 wreck of a two-masted square-rigged sailing ship. Mastered by John Lorain, the vessel had set a course from Jamaica to Bristol, England with, among other cargoes, cotton.

Three years after the wreck, cartographer William de Brahm noted the ship’s end story in his 1772 Atlantic Pilot. “The vessel bilged in shallow water, but an anchor was thrown out, and the next day the vessel was found to have grounded on Elliott’s Kay, with its anchor among the trees.”

Located among a collection of nearly 50 islands found north of Key Largo, the approximately eight-miles-long and one-half mile wide Elliott Key is sandwiched between Old Rhodes and Sands keys. Elliott Key, like the once thriving communities of Indian Key and Planter, would become a planting community growing primarily pineapples. Where the Pinder family farmed Indian Key and the Johnson family Planter, fellow Bahamian transplants Asa Sweeting and his family homesteaded and farmed Elliott Key.

Sweeting sailed from Harbour Island, Bahamas, arriving in Key West with his family in 1866. Some years after establishing a life in Key West, the patriarch and his two sons sailed north along the island chain in search of suitable farmland. In 1882 they settled on Elliott Key, initially claiming just over 154 acres under the Homestead Act of 1862 and later purchasing an additional 85 acres.

By 1887 the Sweeting compound had 30 acres of farmland producing pineapples, tomatoes and key limes. As the family expanded, more homes were constructed until six main houses had been built along the Atlantic facing shore. Each was equipped with a corresponding pier stretching out into the Atlantic’s more navigable waters in order to produce viable conduits to the outside world.

Other buildings constructed included a one-room structure used for the dual purposes of school and church, a chicken house, workers’ cabin and a grocery store. A small house was also built in the middle of the island where they could seek refuge during heavy storms and hurricanes.

The community’s resolve would be tested in the later days of October 1906, as would the fortitude of 100 passengers and crew aboard the steamboat St. Lucie unfortunate enough to depart Miami, bound for Key West, just as a hurricane was approaching. The Category 3 storm brought 120 mph winds. Caught in the crossfire of heavy waves and high winds, the St. Lucie attempted to ride the storm out anchored in the shallows close to Elliott Key.

As the storm intensified, the ship’s Captain Bravo ordered three lifeboats lowered and filled with every passenger who would abandon the ship. The lifeboats washed ashore at Elliott Key where survivors clung to the mangroves as the storm raged around them. Back aboard the St. Lucie, the ship began to splinter under the storm’s fury.

Those still aboard were thrown to the mercy of the ocean. Some clung to pieces of the ship and were blown to Elliott Key. Some drowned before reaching the island. In total, 26 passengers perished. Survivors were taken to ports that included Key West while the Sweetings were left marooned on the island for three days surviving on nothing but the milk and meat of coconuts.

Life as usual would not continue for the Sweetings after the storm. The island’s primary cash crop was destroyed by the salt-rich storm surge that washed over the island during the hurricane. The land was ruined for pineapples. The key lime trees, however, continued to flourish and key limes became the island’s primary crop. In less than two decades, the last Sweeting would leave the island — a departure hastened by the Great Depression. By 1932, the Sweeting’s association with Elliott Key remained only for the history books.

The island, however, was not deserted. Charles M. Brookfield purchased 20 acres during the Great Depression years for a reported $160. A local historian, treasure hunter and writer, Brookfield built a home on the island that doubled as a fishing lodge he appropriately dubbed Ledbury Lodge. In addition, Russ and Charlotte Neidhauk served as caretakers on the island in 1934 and 1935 before moving to serve as caretakers at Lignumvitae Key.

In 1961, Elliott Key became part of Islandia, an umbrella place name incorporating a total of 32 islands. The hope was to create an accessible sub-tropical getaway for tourists, as well as to develop Seadade, a major seaport that would necessitate the dredging of a 40-foot deep channel through Biscayne Bay. To reach Islandia, a highway was planned that would have connected Card Sound Road to the northern keys via a highway built through the property known today as Ocean Reef.

Fortunately for the environment, a group of people looking to preserve the natural beauty of Biscayne Bay and the surrounding islands fought the 13 property owners who unanimously voted to create Islandia (and the same group looking to secure tremendous profits). The fight between the two camps proved unduly contentious. At one point members of the Islandia camp brought bulldozers to Elliott Key and carved a swath through the hammock six lanes wide and seven miles long. While environmentalist would ultimately win the war, the resulting path carved across Elliott Key meant solely to deface the habitat earned the nickname Spite Highway.

The event occurred days prior to Congress, led by Rep. Dante Fascell, drafting a bill creating Biscayne National Monument in order to protect, “a rare combination of terrestrial, marine, and amphibious life in a tropical setting of great natural beauty.” The bill was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on Oct. 18, 1968. President Jimmy Carter would sign a bill elevating the monument to Biscayne National Park on June 28, 1980.

Today Elliott Key offers peaceful wonder and overnight camping sites, while Spite Highway, partially reclaimed by nature, offers the island’s only hiking trail.

Brad Bertelli is an Upper Keys historian and author of five books on Florida and Florida Keys history. His column will appear every other week in The Reporter. Reach Brad with comments and questions at WhyPanic@aol.com.

This story was originally published February 10, 2017 at 10:57 AM with the headline "Stories of Elliott Key."