Egmont Key and Tampa

Egmont Key matters to Tampa because it sits at the mouth of Tampa Bay, where it has held the bay's lighthouse, its harbor defenses and its pilot station.

The island is part of Hillsborough County, the county that contains the City of Tampa; the county's own history series calls it Hillsborough County's Egmont Key. The Museum of Florida History, part of the Florida Department of State, files Fort Dade under Tampa, Hillsborough County, calls Egmont Key historically significant to the defense of the Tampa Area, and notes that the island is reached by private boat only.

Three threads tie the island to Tampa. The Army built Fort Dade there to protect the bay during and after the Spanish-American War. The Tampa Bay Pilots Association has used the island as its station for about a century. And a Civil War era Navy tug wrecked off its shore in 1866. The Florida State Parks history of Egmont Key adds that the island was named for John Perceval, the second Earl of Egmont, and that both Spanish conquistadors and nuclear submarines have passed its shores entering Tampa Bay.

The island's recorded history runs from an 1848 lighthouse to a 1974 wildlife refuge, with Fort Dade and the pilots in between.

The U.S. Coast Guard history page also lists 1978 as the year the island was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and 1989 as the year the light was automated.

Fort Dade was a coastal defense post begun in 1898 to protect the Tampa Bay area during the Spanish-American War, and it stayed active until 1923.

The Museum of Florida History states that construction of Fort Dade began in 1898 with the development of the coastal defense system associated with the Spanish American War, and that five artillery batteries as well as a town complete with railroad, school, movie theater and other services were built on the island. Florida State Parks says construction on the fort was completed in 1906 and that the post had more than 300 residents, with brick roads, electricity, telephones, a hospital, jail, movie theater, bowling alley and tennis courts.

The same war touched the Tampa side of the bay. The MacDill Air Force Base history page notes that the interbay peninsula, where the base now stands, had been used as a military staging area during the Spanish-American War, and Florida State Parks says temporary tent hospitals on Egmont Key treated soldiers wounded in that war. The state park history gives 1923 as the year the fort was deactivated.

The Tampa Bay Pilots board ships entering and leaving Tampa Bay and have run their pilot station from Egmont Key for about a century.

The Tampa Bay Pilots Association states that it was founded in 1886 and originally waited for ships at the Egmont lighthouse, whose height let pilots see approaching ships from great distances, and that for more than a century Tampa Bay Pilots have met vessels from the pilot station on Egmont Key. Florida State Parks dates the association's operations on the island to 1926, three years after Fort Dade closed, and says the pilots association currently inhabits the island along with one Florida State Park staff member.

The association's facts page states that its state-regulated and licensed harbor pilots have directed foreign flagged cargo and cruise ships into and out of Tampa Bay since 1886, serving the ports of Tampa, Manatee and St. Petersburg 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Florida State Parks explains the job: when ships approach Tampa Bay, a pilot boards and takes the vessel to the docks, and another guides it out again, which helps prevent groundings and collisions. The association's office is at 1825 Sahlman Drive, Tampa, phone (813) 247-3737.

Before and after Fort Dade, Egmont Key served as a lighthouse station, a Seminole detention camp, a Civil War post and a World War II watch point.

Florida State Parks states that the first lighthouse on this Tampa Bay island was completed in 1848, that the Great Hurricane of September 1848 sent tides 15 feet above normal over the island and damaged it, and that another storm led Congress to fund a rebuilt lighthouse in 1858 meant to withstand any storm. The Coast Guard history page tells it differently: the 1848 tower survived the hurricane, was later struck by lightning and cracked, and was replaced by the current tower in 1858 for $16,000. The two official accounts disagree on why the first tower was replaced.

The state park history says that at the end of the Third Seminole War (1855 to 1858) the United States Army detained Seminole prisoners on the island, and that Confederate troops and later the Union Navy occupied it during the Civil War. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service states that Egmont Key is on the National Register of Historic Places for its role in Florida's Seminole Indian Wars, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War.

The Civil War also left a wreck. Hillsborough County reports that on January 4, 1866, the USS Narcissus, a wooden-hulled Navy tug bound for New York to be decommissioned, hit a sandbar off the northwest coast of Egmont Key during a storm; its boiler exploded and the entire crew of 26 Navy sailors was lost. The wreck lies about 2 miles off the island in roughly 15 feet of water, is considered a military grave and property of the U.S. Navy, and is Tampa Bay's only underwater archaeological preserve.

World War II brought the island back into the Tampa Bay defense system. The Museum of Florida History states that from the early 1930s the Coast Guard conducted training operations there, that observation towers manned by Army and Navy personnel formed part of the coastal watch system, and that inbound merchant ships had to stop at Egmont Key to off-load explosive munitions before entering the bay, reloading them on the way out. It also lists amphibious warfare and aerial gunnery exercises.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages Egmont Key as a national wildlife refuge, and the Florida Park Service manages it cooperatively as Egmont Key State Park.

The Fish and Wildlife Service refuge page states that the refuge was established in 1974 to protect the significant natural, historical and cultural resources from the impending threats of development. It describes a remote 250 acre island at the mouth of Tampa Bay with habitat for nesting sea turtles, gopher tortoises and over 30,000 nesting pairs of birds, and bird sanctuaries at the south end making up about one third of the island, with approximately 97 acres set aside for wildlife. The About Us page adds that the refuge preserves the remains of historic Fort Dade and an over 100-year-old lighthouse, and that it is managed as part of the Crystal River NWR Complex.

Erosion is an active concern. The Service lists beach erosion among its research projects on the island, alongside bird, sea turtle, gopher tortoise and box turtle monitoring, and its library holds an Egmont Key Hurricane Factsheet dated May 14, 2025, summarizing cleanup and restoration since the 2024 hurricanes.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the Fish and Wildlife Service refuge pages, the Florida State Parks Egmont Key history, the Coast Guard light history, the Museum of Florida History Fort Dade entry, the Hillsborough County Narcissus article, the MacDill history page and the Tampa Bay Pilots Association pages.