Come with me -- to Cedar Key!
Text and photography by Jo Clark If you cannot abide spending the entire winter in the New River Valley, consider this for a new vacation idea: Cedar Key, a tiny jewel glistening three miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, off Florida’s northwestern coast. Highway 24 provides the only way into Cedar Key, cutting through marshes and across small bridges. The 30-minute drive may take an hour because of the picturesque views on both sides of the highway. Laid-back Cedar Key is a fishing community that 800 full-time residents call home. It offers a simpler way of life — enjoy this chance to “unplug.” Ask a local, and they’ll tell you it is a drinking town with a fishing problem.
Nature Coast Biological Station. Between November and March, record numbers of migrating birds pass through the 53,000-acre Lower Suwannee and Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge following the Great Florida Birding Trail as if using a GPS. There are lovely hiking trails and the Indian Shell Mound, a 28-foot mound of oyster and clam shells covering five acres.
History Lesson Two museums tell the story of Cedar Key. The islands were covered in cedar trees, and they were used so heavily (for pencils!) that they were decimated in three years. Next, residents turned to oystering to make a living, and they quickly depleted the supply. Along came the hurricane of 1896, and its 10.5-foot storm surge just about leveled little Cedar Key. By 1920, residents who doggedly rebuilt used palm tree fibers to make brooms and brushes. Native American artifacts and seashells are displayed in a restored 1920s home at the Cedar Key State Park Museum. The Old Cedar Key
Natural Beauty John Muir walked 1,000 miles from Indiana to Florida in 1867. He developed malaria and stayed in Cedar Key to recover. With his walk and the Florida beauty surrounding him, he began writing about man’s relationship with nature, which led to the 1892 founding of the Sierra Club. Cedar Key is home of the University of Florida’s 40
NRV MAGAZINE
Jan/Feb
2022
