Egmont Key and Tampa — Tampa, Florida

Egmont Key sits at the mouth of Tampa Bay, roughly where Gulf shipping enters the bay, and it is part of Hillsborough County, the county that contains the City of Tampa. The county's own history series refers to it as Hillsborough County's Egmont Key, and the U.S. Lighthouse Society research catalog lists the light station's county as Hillsborough. The Museum of Florida History files the island under Tampa, Hillsborough County, and calls Egmont Key historically significant to the defense of the Tampa area.

Three threads tie the island to Tampa. The Army built Fort Dade there to guard the bay approaches during and after the Spanish-American War. The Tampa Bay Pilots Association has used the island as its lookout and boarding station for more than a century. And Hillsborough County's history program documents the wreck that sank off its shore in 1866. The modern refuge and state park sit on top of all three layers.

The Museum of Florida History states that construction of Fort Dade began in 1898 as part of the coastal defense system tied to the Spanish-American War. The same war touched the Tampa side of the bay: the MacDill Air Force Base history page notes that the Interbay Peninsula, where the base now stands, was used as a military staging area during the Spanish-American War. Fort Dade's guns covered the water that troop and supply ships used to reach Tampa.

The museum records five artillery batteries on Egmont Key, plus a town complete with railroad, school and movie theater. WKMG ClickOrlando reported in April 2026 that the island's population peaked at over 600 people, that the post served as a training center for the National Guard Coast Artillery during World War I, and that it had electricity, a hospital, tennis courts and a bowling alley.

Three gun batteries still stand, according to WKMG. Battery McIntosh, the southernmost and first built, once mounted two 8-inch guns that were removed in the 1920s. Battery Howard, named for Maj. Guy Howard, lost its guns to the European front in World War II. Battery Mellon, the northernmost, remained in operation until 1920. Advances in naval guns made the fort obsolete, and WKMG reports that Fort Dade was deactivated in the early 1920s, with nearly all residents moved off the island.

Ships entering Tampa Bay take on a local harbor pilot, and Egmont Key is where that has happened for generations. The Tampa Bay Pilots Association states that it was founded in 1886 and originally waited for ships at the Egmont lighthouse, whose height let pilots see approaching vessels from great distances. The association states that for more than a century Tampa Bay Pilots have met vessels from the pilot station on Egmont Key. WKMG reports that the association set up operations on the island after Fort Dade closed.

The association's facts page states that its state-regulated and licensed harbor pilots have directed foreign-flagged cargo and cruise ships into and out of Tampa Bay since 1886, serving the ports of Tampa, Manatee and St. Petersburg around the clock. Pilot fees are set by the Pilotage Rate Review Committee of the Board of Pilotage Commissioners, whose members are appointed by the Governor. Most Florida harbor pilots, the association states, graduate from a four-year federal or state maritime academy and then typically serve 10 to 12 years on ocean-going vessels.

The island's federal history predates Fort Dade by half a century. The Museum of Florida History states that the U.S. Light Service built a light tower and support buildings on Egmont Key in 1848. The U.S. Lighthouse Society catalog dates the current brick tower and its original third-order Fresnel lens to 1858, and WKMG reports that this tower replaced one devastated by a hurricane ten years earlier and that the Coast Guard took over the light in 1939. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service states that Egmont Key is on the National Register of Historic Places for its role in Florida's Seminole Indian Wars, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, and WKMG notes a cemetery holding Spanish-American War soldiers and Seminole people detained on the island in the 1800s.

The Civil War left a wreck. Hillsborough County reports that on January 4, 1866, the Union tug USS Narcissus, heading north to be decommissioned, hit a sandbar off the northwest coast of Egmont Key during a storm; its boiler exploded and all 26 Navy sailors were lost. In 2015 the Florida Department of State dedicated the wreck, scattered about 2 miles off the island in roughly 15 feet of water, as Florida's 12th underwater archaeological preserve. The county notes that it is a military grave and property of the U.S. Navy.

World War II brought the island back into the Tampa Bay defense system. The Museum of Florida History states that from the early 1930s the Coast Guard conducted training on Egmont Key, that observation towers manned by Army and Navy personnel formed part of the coastal watch, and that inbound merchant ships had to stop at Egmont Key to off-load explosive munitions before entering the bay, reloading them on the way out.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service established Egmont Key National Wildlife Refuge in 1974 to protect the island's natural, historical and cultural resources from the threat of development. The Service describes a remote 250 acre island at the mouth of Tampa Bay with habitat for nesting sea turtles, gopher tortoises and over 30,000 nesting pairs of birds, and bird sanctuaries covering about one third of the island. Its About Us page adds that the refuge preserves the remains of historic Fort Dade, is managed within the Crystal River NWR Complex, and is cooperatively run by the Florida Park Service as Egmont Key State Park.

The island is shrinking. WKMG reports that since the early 1940s Egmont Key has lost around half its land to beach erosion and rising sea level, from more than 500 acres to about 250, and the Fish and Wildlife Service published an Egmont Key hurricane factsheet in May 2025 on cleanup and restoration after the 2024 storms. For Tampa Bay shipping, the pilot station and the 1858 lighthouse on the island's north end remain in daily use.