Dismal Key facts for kids
 Dismal Key
Location in Florida
Dismal Key
Location in Caribbean
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| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Gulf of Mexico |
| Coordinates | 25°53′22″N 81°33′07″W / 25.88944°N 81.55194°W |
| Archipelago | Ten Thousand Islands |
| Administration | |
| State | Florida |
| County | Collier |
Dismal Key is a small, unique island located in the Ten Thousand Islands area of Florida. This area is part of the Gulf of Mexico. What makes Dismal Key special is that it's not a natural island. It was actually built by people!
Ancient people from the Glades culture created this island. They built it up over about 1,500 years. This building happened after a very old time period called the Archaic period in Florida. People likely stopped living on Dismal Key a couple of centuries before Europeans first arrived in Florida. Later, in the 1900s, some people known as hermits lived on the island.
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Building with Shells: Shell Works
The southwest coast of Florida has many large structures made by people. These are called shell works. They are huge piles of shells left by human activity. You can find shell works from Charlotte Harbor all the way down to the Ten Thousand Islands. Many of these shell works are surrounded by water. This makes them artificial islands, often called keys.
These shell works were once busy villages. The people who lived there mostly fished for food. They also hunted and gathered wild plants. Shell works are built in complex ways. They seem to have different areas for different uses. Some parts were for homes, others for public gatherings, and some for sacred ceremonies.
The northern shell works area was home to the Caloosahatchee culture. This stretched from Charlotte Harbor to Estero Bay. The southern area, including Marco Island and the Ten Thousand Islands, was where the Glades culture lived. When Europeans first arrived, the Calusa people lived in both these areas.
Archaeological finds suggest that around the year 1300, the tools and pottery in the Ten Thousand Islands started looking like those from the Caloosahatchee culture. This might mean the Calusa people took over or had a strong influence. Many shell works in the Ten Thousand Islands seem to have been left empty just before 1300. Some experts think the people living there might have moved into Calusa territory.
Dismal Key is about 30 hectares (74 acres) in size. The whole island above water is made of these shell works. It has different parts that seem carefully planned. The island is shaped like a crescent moon and is mostly the same on both sides. The way Dismal Key is built is similar to other shell works in the Ten Thousand Islands. These include Fakahatchee Key, Russell Key, Sandfly Key, Key Marco, and Chokoloskee Island. This suggests they all followed a similar building plan.
The Shell Ring
On Dismal Key, there's a "c"-shaped shell ring. It's about 275 meters (900 feet) wide and up to 4 meters (13 feet) high. Inside the open part of the shell works, this ring surrounds a central open space. This space is about 50 meters (160 feet) across and has a deep pond in the middle. The opening of the ring faces northeast, away from the rest of the shell works.
The ring was built with layers of clean, whole oyster shells. These layers were mixed with layers of crushed oyster and other shells. Some fish bones were also found. It looks like the ring was built quickly in several stages. The layers of crushed shell might have been floors where people lived. Archaeologists found pottery, tools made from shells and bones, shark teeth, and stingray spines here. They also found a piece of chert, a type of rock. The closest place to find chert is 250 kilometers (155 miles) away.
Some small pieces of human bone and a human tooth were found. However, archaeologists stopped digging in that spot. They wanted to avoid disturbing what might be an ancient burial site. Scientists used radiocarbon dating on six shell samples from the ring. The dates showed the ring was built between 450 BCE and 50 BCE. This was very early in the Glades culture period. The shell ring seems to have been a place where people lived. But it's more than just a garbage pile (called a midden). About 4 meters (13 feet) of shells were added in just 150 years. There is no sign that people used the shell ring after 50 BCE.
Flat Shell Fields
Inside the shell works, there are flatter areas called shell fields. These cover about 6.5 hectares (16 acres). They are separated from the shell ring by mangrove trees. A series of mounds partly surrounds these shell fields. The shell fields have some very low ridges and shallow dips or ponds. Some experts think these dips might have been pits for roasting oysters or places where structures stood.
The shell fields are mostly made of small oyster shells. They also contain some conch and whelk shells. Many artifacts, like pottery and shell tools, were found here. The very bottom layer of the shell fields is a mix of broken and whole oyster shells. It has no artifacts and very little soil. On top of this base, there's a very thin layer of crushed oyster shell. This is thought to be an old ground surface. Possible post holes, now filled with soil, go from this layer down into the base.
Above this old ground surface is a midden layer. This layer has oyster shells mixed with about 20% soil. It also contains pottery and shell tools. The top surface today is sandy soil. The pottery found here is from the late Glades I period, dating from 500 to 750 CE. Two shell samples were dated to between 400-580 CE and 450-620 CE. This time period matches when the shell fields at Fakahatchee Key were built.
A long, narrow, and fairly straight low shell ridge extends from the southeastern end of the island. It runs south of the shell ring. This feature is similar to one found at Key Marco. It has been compared to a breakwater, which protects against waves. This structure is made of clean, whole oyster shells. No artifacts were found in it. A shell sample from this ridge was dated to between 300 and 490 CE.
Mounds and Ridges
An arc of mounds partly surrounds the shell fields. These mounds cover about 6 hectares (15 acres). Four of these mounds are 100 meters (330 feet) or more long. They are at least 30 meters (100 feet) wide and 5 to 7.5 meters (16 to 25 feet) high. Next to these large mounds are eight smaller ones, 3 to 4 meters (10 to 13 feet) tall.
Three of the largest mounds are in the center. A canal runs between two of the tallest mounds. The second largest mound, 6 meters (20 feet) tall, is at the northern edge of the shell works. The tallest mound has a ramp leading to the shell fields. The third tallest mound has a ramp leading away from the shell fields. This ramp goes to an area with shell ridges and "water courts." Shell samples from the tops of the largest mounds were dated to between 580 and 860 CE.
A dozen "finger ridges" spread out from the arc of mounds towards the water. These ridges are 20 to 40 meters (65 to 130 feet) wide and 60 to 70 meters (200 to 230 feet) long. Canals separate these finger ridges. Several finger ridges are connected to "water courts." These are depressions deep enough to hold water. Some might have stored rainwater for drinking. Others, connected to the open water, may have been used as fish traps.
The finger ridges are also built from clean, whole oyster shells. But they are covered by a midden layer of black earth and shells. This layer contains many artifacts and fish bones. Shell samples from the lower parts of the finger ridges were dated to between 660 and 810 CE. Samples from below the midden layer were dated to between 990 and 1290 CE. Some of the pottery found in the midden layer is from the Glades IIIa period, 1200 to 1400 CE. There is no sign that people lived on Dismal Key after this period, until the 20th century.
Hermits of Dismal Key
Dismal Key has been home to hermits at different times during the 1900s. A house was built on the island around 1913. A cistern (a tank for collecting water) gathered rainwater from the roof. This cistern was the only regular source of fresh water on the island.
Archaeologist Aleš Hrdlička visited Dismal Key in 1918. He found a settler named Gandeese living there. Later, Eardley Foster Atkinson moved to Dismal Key in the early 1950s. After Atkinson passed away, Al Seely moved to the island and was living there in 1988. In 1992, a hermit known only as Niranjan lived on Dismal Key. By 2003, the island was empty.
