Recently we took the kids for an afternoon trip to Fort DeSoto Park. While there we explored the old fort and museum, as well as hanging out at the beach and walking the pier. Fort DeSoto Park is run by Pinellas County and can be reached by a toll road from the mainland. There are a total of five keys that you can reach by boat that are part of the park, but the main island is Mullet Key. Current Cost to enter the park is $5 which you can pay by parking meter kiosk after parking using your license plate number.
Before continuing into the park, we opted to drive through the campground for future reconnaissance. There are three main areas to the campground one for those with pets, two others for those without. Of the two areas for those without pets one has smaller camp sites for tents and small campers, where as the others were larger sites for bigger RVs. Each of the areas had a small playground for kids, though the nicest by far was in the pet area. All three areas also had a small shower house with a washer and drier. We didn't get out to look at them in greater detail, but they seemed adequate. The sites were nice-. All of the center spots were pull through sites, those that butted up to the gulf obviously weren't. They all had water and electric hookups as well as firepits and small charcoal stand grills. We think we'd like to stay maybe the first week back to school, and explore the beach ecosystem as part of science each day.
The historic fort was a bit of a disappointment. In terrible shape, mostly abandon for 75 years nature has taken over much of the grounds, with trees and grasses growing over the top of the battery. You can walk in most of the storage areas under the fort as the old doors have been removed, and of course the kids loved getting pictures in "the jail" which was really the old dynamo room which originally held a Hornsby-Ackroyd oil engine which powered the mortars, the searchlight, and charged the batteries to run the telephone lines for the fort. It maintained one horsepower for one hour on one pint of kerosene. The real interesting historical draw however are the guns. There are four of the 12-inch M1890mortars and two of the 6 inch Armstrong guns still in place at Fort DeSoto, the only others of their kind in the world are located in the Philippines. The kids were impressed by their size and pondered how they might have moved the 1,000 pound ammunition around.
The key was used for stationing Union troops during the Civil War, but the fort itself wasn't built until the Spanish-American War. Additionally a quarantine states was built on the island for inspecting aliens arriving from foreign ports in the Tampa area. Named Fort DeSoto in 1900 to honor Hernando de Soto the first European to land in the area in 1539, the Fort was officially part of Fort Dade on Egmont Key. Begun in 1898 and completed in 1906, the Fort was active until 1910, at which point the heat and mosquitos drove the army to severely reduce the number of troops stationed there. Mostly a caretaker force remained until it was deactivated in 1926. They sold the key off to Pinellas County in 1938. However, in 1939 the War Department decided they wanted the island back, and so in 1941 they reclaimed Mullet Key for use as a bombing range to be used by Fort MacDill throughout WWII. Afterward when they no longer had need of it, the Air Force sold the key along with a few others in the area back to Pinellas County.
Ever since 1948, the key has been a recreational area and tourist attraction. There are two fishing piers on the island, one of which we walked. They are always busy due to the thousands of acres of shallows around the island that encourages good fishing. Near each pier is a bait, tackle and concession stand. There are also picnic areas, one of which we took advantage of to surprise Gary with a birthday cake a day early. An 800 foot boat ramp is also on the island, where 5 to 6 boats can all be launched at a time. Or if you don't have a boat, you can take the ferry across to Egmont Key to explore further.
The island is beautiful. There is a seven mile trail for walking, biking, etc, and a smaller nature trail on the island. The grounds are well kept and there are palm trees everywhere as one might expect on a Florida key. There are two main beaches, East Beach and North Beach. We went to North Beach, near the fort. It's known for being both a stopping point for migrating birds as well as nesting birds, and we saw lots of protected coastline and sea turtle nest staked off while we visited. Due to the shallows around much of the island, the beach was a great place to go with the kids. The water isn't more than waist deep for the first 30 feet, roughly knee high for most of that distance, before gradually growing deeper. The sugar sand was easy on little feet as well. At North Beach you can also see a portion of the fort's batteries that have fallen into the ocean. Much of the fort has been damaged over the years due to hurricanes and the changes they bring. We saw several little girls taking mermaid pictures on the rocks and a few couples getting photos near sunset on the remains.
The first day we went the museum had already closed for the day. So we took the opportunity to travel back over yesterday, and visit the museum and of course spend a little more time in the water. The Quartermaster Storehouse Museum while a small museum has a great snap shot of the key's history, which more than makes up for the lack of description and poor shape of the fort itself. Additionally there is information from each of the military uses for the fort and a number of great artifacts, including, to the kids' delight, a partially exploded cannon ball. We had fun getting a mini history lesson in and playing eye spy to see who could find various artifacts first.
All in all, Fort DeSoto is a great place to spend an afternoon. There is a little something for everyone, some history, magnificent spreads of nature, and of course the beach for some fun in the sun. And it's a nice peaceful stop after braving Tampa traffic and I-275.
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