Cedar Key

 

January 30, 2022

Cedar Key

Sometimes you just have to make the best out of what are less than ideal circumstances. Kathy and I are involved with a lawsuit involving our property in Colorado and we had been assigned a two-day court hearing ,so we opted to drive out to Colorado Springs for the hearing. Unfortunately ,we were just about to cross the Florida border into Alabama when we received word from our attorney that the court had granted a continuance to one of the other concerned parties so we decided that rather than drive that far for nothing, we would take a mini-vacation in Florida and slowly make our way back to Key West. 

We had a friend from New York, who was house-sitting so we did not think it was right to rush back since she was hoping for some peace and quiet in Key West, so we looked at the map and decided to make our way down the Gulf Coast south and explore some areas of Florida where we haven’t spent a great deal of time. 

Our first stop was Cedar Key. The Cedar Keys are a small cluster of islands on the West Coast of Florida with the main population center found on Way Island which is commonly known as Cedar Key after the once abundant red cedar trees found there.  Cedar Key is a historically famous area that continues to be a popular tourist destination even though the permanent population is something under 1,000 residents. 

We found a quaint little hotel on third street that was within easy walking distance to the old fishing village that constitutes the downtown area. The waterfront is filled with shops and regionally well-known restaurants, mostly serving locally caught seafood. We had an excellent meal at a place called Steamers Clam Bar and Grill before taking in the small, quaint downtown area. 

We shopped and walked along the waterfront and it was pretty chilly by Florida standards with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid fifties as well as a pretty stiff wind blowing across the islands. We also spent some time at the Cedar Key Museum State Park. 

The park features a museum that houses a collection of local artifacts including an extensive shell collection and an assortment of native American artifacts as well as dioramas and displays that focus on the important history of Cedar Key. There is also a house that was built in the 1880s and restored to depict life on Cedar Key in the 1920s. 

There is a nature trail along the water’s edge and a placard that marks the visit of naturalist John Muir to the site in 1867 while on his famous 1000 mile walk to the sea from Kentucky.  It is all in all a pretty cool place to visit and hopefully we will return at some point. 

On our way out of town, we stopped at the location of the infamous Rosewood massacre.  The location is marked by a roadside marker just up the road from Cedar Key and there is a lone house nearby that is all that is left from the horrible destruction of the town of Rosewood and the massacre of a number of its black citizens in a racially motivated attack in January of 1923. 

It is always difficult to visit the sites of such tragedies, but it is also vitally important that even the darkest moments of our history be recognized and remembered in hopes that such knowledge will deter such things from happening now or in the future. We certainly could use a good lesson these days.

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