Fort Jefferson Landscape: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Dry Tortugas National Park, National Park Service

Byrd, Beth; Hasty, David

This CLI, originally published in 2007, was updated in 2022 in order to better reflect existing conditions. Fort Jefferson is located on Garden Key in Dry Tortugas National Park. The Tortugas are a series of small keys off the southernmost point of Florida, 70 miles west of Key West. The keys are individual sandy islands in the Gulf of Mexico surrounded with extensive coral reefs and shoals. Fort Jefferson is located on the second largest of these isolated islands and construction began in 1846, continued for thirty years, though was never completed. The fort is the largest example of a Third System seacoast fortification built for the defense of the Atlantic coast and was used as a military outpost, federal prison, quarantine site, and coal fueling station. The fort was designated a national monument in 1935. Fort Jefferson almost completely covers Garden Key. The fort is six-sided with three tiers and has arched casements along each rampart with a staircase at each bastion. The terreplein above each rampart is covered with grass and forbs and several cannon (10) are still in place. The brick fort encloses a large parade ground planted with coconut palms, and buttonwood trees. Several seaside mahoes, an invasive exotic tree introduced to South Florida in the 1920s, are planned for removal. The parade ground also contains the ruins of the officers' quarters, engineer’s quarters and enlisted men’s barracks as well as the original light house foundation, a monument to Major Smith, and an unmarked grave. A restored brick hot shot furnace and staff house (engineer's quarters) also occupy the periphery of the parade ground. The center of the fort remains open with a turf of mown grass and sandy pathways used by visitors and staff. Other plantings of beach lilies, geiger trees, and seagrapes are located around the perimeter in addition to a brick walkway encircling the interior fronts of the fort. The cistern, placed on the foundation for a chapel that was never built, is still in use. Leaching fields were added (diagonally) near the staff house in recent years. A screen of seagrapes, geiger trees, and coconut palms extends along Front 2 and 3, concealing maintenance and staff areas from view. The parade ground landscape has several makeshift benches (of architectural material from the fort) and picnic tables in the employee housing area. A square brick fountain for birds is located on the parade near the sally port but post-dates the period of significance at Fort Jefferson. A cluster of benches for park interpretative programs is located to the right of the entrance under the shade of several trees. The brick fort is surrounded by a moat and counterscarp, while the remainder of the island has a small campground, beach, boat dock, and remains of the Navy coaling infrastructure. The campground has a picnic table and standing outdoor grill at each campsite with scattered buttonwoods and coconut palms planted in the area. Restroom buildings are located between the campground and south coaling piers. A section of buttonwood trees and coconut palms is roped off to promote restoration and separates the campground from the beach on the southwest shore of Garden Key. On the exterior of Front 1, beyond the counterscarp is a large NPS sign for Dry Tortugas National Park, a large anchor, and a singular row of coconut palms. The main dock is located directly in front of the NPS sign and sally port entrance. This feature is a modern addition. The shoreline next to the main dock is used for seaplane loading and unloading. To the north end of Garden Key is the north coaling dock, an area for dumping architectural materials and storing boats used by Cuban refugees. The brick dump site along Front 6 contains remains from the enlisted men's barracks and the officers' quarters dumped by the NPS in 1960s. Volunteers of bay cedar, buttonwoods, and coconut palms have grown up on this portion of the key.

Fort Jefferson Landscape: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Dry Tortugas National Park, National Park Service

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