Indian Key, Florida

Indian Key, Florida
Unincorporated community
The island of Indian Key where the settlement was located, as seen from U.S. 1 (Overseas Highway)
Coordinates: 24°52′40″N 80°40′37″W / 24.8778°N 80.6769°W / 24.8778; -80.6769
Country	United States
State	Florida
County	Monroe
Area
• Total	0.017 sq mi (0.045 km2)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)

Indian Key was an unincorporated community in Monroe County and, for a while, Dade County, Florida, United States. It was located in the upper Florida Keys on the island of Indian Key and is currently a ghost town.

Some of the survivors of the 19 ships of the 1733 Spanish treasure fleet wrecked on the nearby Florida Reef by a hurricane camped on Indian Key until they were rescued. Beginning in the 18th century, Bahamians and Cubans used Indian Key as a base for fishing, turtling, logging and wrecking. Crews might stay on the island for months at a time, but there were no permanent settlers.

In 1821, Florida was transferred from Spain to the United States, and in 1824, two Key West men, Joshua Appleby and a man named Snyder, sent an employee, Silas Fletcher, to open a store on Indian Key. The store was to serve wreckers, settlers, and Indians in the upper Keys, and settlement of primarily Bahamian wreckers and turtlers grew up on the island. By 1829, the settlement was large enough to include a dozen women.

Jacob Housman (or Houseman), a wrecker who had a reputation of operating in a "high-handed and often illegal manner", was at odds with the established wreckers in Key West. He moved to Indian Key in 1830, began buying property on the island, and soon became the leader of the community and its chief landlord. He made numerous improvements to the island, spending close to $40,000 on it in four years. His store, the only one on the island, grossed $30,000 a year. As a result of lobbying by Housman, Indian Key acquired an Inspector of Customs in 1832 and a post office in 1834. In 1836, Houseman persuaded the Territorial Legislative Council to split Dade County off from Monroe County, with the upper and middle Keys in the new county and Indian Key as the temporary county seat. Housman also campaigned to have Indian Key made a port of entry, so that salvage from wrecks could be landed there, rather than in Key West, but without success.