Dry Tortugas

The words

1. Bush Key

   Bush Key’s sandy shore and vegetation support breeding colonies of sooty terns and brown noddies. Shifting sand can join it to Garden Key or leave water between the islands.

   Park Service: Bush Key’s nesting habitat (opens a new tab)

2. Casemate

   An enclosed, vaulted gunroom within a fort’s defensive walls.

   Fort Jefferson’s plan stacked gunrooms in three tiers around its walls. The masonry arches formed the fort’s structural framework, and some second-tier rooms were later used to house soldiers and prisoners.

   Park Service: Fort Jefferson nomination (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Fort Jefferson tour booklet (opens a new tab)

3. Fort Jefferson

   Fort Jefferson guarded a deepwater harbor used by Union warships during the Civil War. Enslaved workers from Key West helped build the fort, which remained unfinished after decades of construction.

   Park Service: Fort Jefferson’s harbor (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Fort workers and prisoners (opens a new tab)

4. Frigatebird

   Magnificent frigatebirds are among the park’s seabirds. Long, angular wings and hooked bills distinguish them; adult males have a red throat pouch used in display, while females have a white chest.

   Park Service: Dry Tortugas seabirds (opens a new tab) · Audubon: Magnificent frigatebird (opens a new tab)

5. Garden Key

   Garden Key holds Fort Jefferson and the park’s headquarters, visitor center and campground. This concentration of buildings and activity has made it the most heavily altered of the Dry Tortugas islands.

   Park Service: Garden Key (opens a new tab)

6. Green Turtle

   Green sea turtles nest on the islands and use nearby marine habitats between nesting visits. Adults eat seagrasses and algae, while young turtles offshore eat a mixture of plants and small animals.

   Did you know?

   Their name refers to the greenish color of their fat; their shells can show several other colors.

   Park Service: Green sea turtle biology (opens a new tab)

7. Harbor Light

   The iron harbor light was built atop Fort Jefferson in 1876, replacing an earlier Garden Key lighthouse damaged by hurricanes. Its metal structure was chosen to reduce shrapnel if struck by artillery.

   Park Service: Fort Jefferson tour booklet (opens a new tab)

8. Moat Wall

   The low wall around Fort Jefferson’s moat was designed as a breakwater against waves and storm surge. Inside it, the water-filled moat formed a barrier between the fort and potential attackers.

   Park Service: Fort Jefferson tour booklet (opens a new tab)

9. Noddy

   The brown noddy is a dark tern with a pale cap and a wedge-shaped tail. It nests on Bush Key, sharing the island with nesting sooty terns.

   Park Service: Dry Tortugas seabirds (opens a new tab) · Audubon: Brown noddy identification (opens a new tab)

10. Parade Ground

    Fort Jefferson’s open parade ground was used for marching and military training. During the long, unfinished construction project, the same interior space also served as an extensive work yard.

    Park Service: Fort Jefferson tour booklet (opens a new tab)

11. Ponce de Leon

    Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León reached the islands in 1513 and named them Las Tortugas, meaning The Turtles, after the sea turtles he found there.

    Did you know?

    Mariners later added Dry to the name as a warning that the islands had no fresh drinking water.

    Park Service: Tortugas naming and history (opens a new tab)

12. Queen Conch

    The park’s reef surveys track queen conch, large marine snails that graze on algae and plant material. Juveniles are especially associated with seagrass beds, while adults also use sand and rubble bottoms.

    Did you know?

    Once mature, a queen conch stops growing longer; its shell’s flared lip continues to thicken.

    NOAA: Dry Tortugas reef survey fields (opens a new tab) · NOAA: Queen conch biology (opens a new tab)

13. Samuel Mudd

    Mudd, a physician and slave owner, treated John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg. Convicted as a conspirator in Lincoln’s assassination, he was imprisoned here, helped during the 1867 yellow fever outbreak and received a presidential pardon in 1869.

    Park Service: Samuel Mudd’s biography (opens a new tab) · Park Service: Fort workers and prisoners (opens a new tab)

14. Sooty Tern

    Sooty terns nest along Bush Key’s beaches in dense colonies. These long-winged seabirds spend much of their lives over tropical oceans, with blackish backs, white underparts and a pale forehead.

    Did you know?

    Their noisy calls continue around the nesting colony by day and night, earning them the sailors’ nickname “wide-awake.”

    Park Service: Bush Key’s nesting habitat (opens a new tab) · Audubon: Sooty tern identification (opens a new tab)

15. Totten Shutter

    A hinged protective cover for a fort’s cannon opening.

    At Fort Jefferson, the shutters were balanced to swing open briefly as a cannon fired, then return to a closed position. This reduced the time gun crews were exposed to enemy fire.

    Did you know?

    Saltwater caused the iron to rust and expand inside the walls, pushing bricks apart and creating a serious preservation problem.

    Park Service: Totten shutters and masonry (opens a new tab)