Cedar Key is a city in Levy County, Florida, United States. The population was 790 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S Census estimates of 2005, the city had a population of 958. The Cedar Keys are a cluster of islands close to the mainland. Most of the developed area of the city has been on Way Key since the end of the 19th century. The Cedar Keys are named for the Eastern Red Cedar, Juniperus virginiana, which once grew abundantly in the area.

History
=Early=
There is evidence of native cultures dating back at least to the Deptford Period, about 500 B.C. The area was first mapped in 1542 by a Spanish cartographer and...

Cedar Key is a city in Levy County, Florida, United States. The population was 790 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S Census estimates of 2005, the city had a population of 958. The Cedar Keys are a cluster of islands close to the mainland. Most of the developed area of the city has been on Way Key since the end of the 19th century. The Cedar Keys are named for the Eastern Red Cedar, Juniperus virginiana, which once grew abundantly in the area.

History
=Early=
There is evidence of native cultures dating back at least to the Deptford Period, about 500 B.C. The area was first mapped in 1542 by a Spanish cartographer and called'Las Islas Sabines'', The Cedar Islands. An Archaeology dig at Shell Mound, nine miles north of Cedar Key, found Artifact (archaeology) dating back to 500 B.C. in the top ten feet of the twenty-eight foot tall midden. The only ancient burial found in Cedar Key was a 2,000 year old skeleton found in 1999.

The Cedar Keys were used by Seminole Indians, by the Spanish as a watering stop for ships returning to Spain from Mexico and by pirates, such as Jean Lafitte and Captain Kidd.

Followers of William Augustus Bowles, self-declared'Director General of the State of Muskogee,'built a watchtower in the vicinity of Cedar Key in 1801. The tower was destroyed by a Spanish force in 1802.

=Indian War=
Permanent historic occupation of the islands began in 1839, when the United States Army, led by General Zachary Taylor, established'Fort No. 4'', which served as a depot and included a hospital, on Depot Key (later known as Atsena Otie Key) during the Second Seminole War. This became the headquarters of the Army of the South. Cantonment Morgan was established on nearby Seahorse Key late in the war and used as a troop deployment station and as a holding station for Seminoles who had been captured or who had surrendered until they could be sent to the West. A hurricane with a twenty-seven foot storm surge struck the Cedar Keys on October 4, 1842, destroying Cantonment Morgan and causing much damage on Depot Key. Some Seminole leaders had been meeting with Army officers at Depot Key to negotiate their surrender or a retreat to a reservation in the Everglades. After the hurricane, the Seminoles refused to return to the area. Colonel William J. Worth had declared the war to be over in August 1842, and Depot Key was abandoned by the Army after the hurricane.