Egmont Key Tour To Explore Its Past As A 'Concentration Camp' For Seminoles

Updated: Tuesday, 9:32 a.m.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — While Egmont Key has a reputation as a scenic wildlife refuge that’s home to nesting sea turtles, gopher tortoises, thousands of birds, and other animals, as well as historic ruins, many locals and visitors are probably unaware of its “pretty dark history,” Cathy Salustri, writer, historian, and publisher of The Gabber newspaper, told Patch.

The 250-acre island, located at the mouth of Tampa Bay, once served as a concentration camp for captive Seminoles during the third phase of the Seminole War in the late 1850s, she said.

Salustri will lead a group tour of Egmont Key and share this painful part of the island’s history on Saturday as part of Nerd Nite’s new Nerdscursion series.

Since forming in 2019, Nerd Nite’s passionate speakers have brought an array of nerdy topics to St. Petersburg — public health and death, space travel, beer making, Marvel.

The series expanded last month to start offering Nerdscursions, small, themed adventures led by former Nerd Nite speakers.

Saturday’s five-hour trip to Egmont Key runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The $75 fee includes round-trip ferry transportation. Tickets can be purchased here.

Salustri will lead the group, sharing the history of the island’s role during the Seminole War. It was used as a detention site for Seminole people who were captured and awaiting forced removal from Florida during the war as part of the federal Indian Removal Act. It was under this act that most of the state’s Native Americans were relocated.

Those captured were brought to either Fort Myers or Fort Brooke in Tampa by ox cart and then sent from those locations to Egmont Key by boat.

Once they had captured enough Seminoles, they would send them by boatload up the Mississippi River, where they got off at the Arkansas River and were marched into Oklahoma, Salustri said.

She will also share the story of Emateloye, who was part of a small group of Seminole women who were able to escape the island and their forced removal to Oklahoma.

“It’s an incredible, incredible story about women and fighting back against the oppressor,” Salustri said.

She also included Emateloye’s escape in her book “Florida Spectacular.” Those attending Saturday’s tour will get a PDF of that chapter.

The island served as “the only concentration camp during the Seminole Wars,” Salustri said, adding, “It’s amazing to me that people don’t think of Egmont Key as a dark place, but if you were a Florida Indian, it definitely was.”

Some people are bothered by using the term concentration camp in reference to Egmont Key, she noted. “They felt like it’s dishonoring the Holocaust. But the reality is, we were the bad guys; we did this.”

Salustri added, “It’s the textbook definition of a concentration camp. You have people imprisoned based on ethnicity or race without the benefit of a trial, and they were held there with no chance of them getting out. It ticks every box when you look at the definition.”

A number of Seminoles also died at the site, though it's unknown how many because of shoddy record-keeping, she added.

The Seminole Tribe also refers to Egmont Key during the Seminole Wars as a concentration camp.

While it might be difficult to hear stories about this part of Egmont Key’s — and Florida’s — past, it’s necessary, she said. “It’s important to learn about this history so we don’t repeat it.”