Just a short trip from the docks at Robbie’s in Islamorada lies Indian Key, barely 10 acres in size. Much like Pigeon Key in the Middle Keys, the tiny island is rich with history. Only stone ruins remain of the once prosperous community located at Mile Marker 78.5 oceanside. </p><p>In its heyday, Indian Key served as headquarters for Jacob Housman, a noted wrecker who moved there when his efforts to establish himself in Key West were not well-received by the locals.</p><p>Today, Indian Key is a state park and historic site. Visitors did have the option of taking ranger-guided tours of the island prior to the storm season of 2005, when Hurricane Wilma destroyed what was left of its already battered dock. Repair of the dock is under way.</p><p>Due to the destruction of the dock, Rose said visits to the island have decreased significantly. </p><p>"It’s hard enough for us to get on the island much less a visitor, and we can’t allow anybody to use the dock at this point, so all of that is closed," he said. "We strive to keep people from using it even though it still happens. Without looking at the figures carefully I’d say we’re probably off 80 percent."</p><p>Even though the dock is no longer accessible and the ranger-guided tours have ceased, visitors are welcome to explore the island on their own. Indian Key is still easily accessible by kayak or canoe, while small boats may anchor and wade into shore. </p><p><b>Walk through history</b></p><p>On the island, you can walk the "streets" as they were laid out in Housman’s time and view what remains from the structures of his day. You will see the remains of several houses, as well as several cisterns used for the gathering of fresh water.</p><p>Rose said a series of brand new interpretive markers were recently installed on the island. The original markers, which describe the sights on the island, were washed away during Hurricane Wilma.</p><p>As Mark Poetz, manager of nearby Robbie’s marina, said, Indian Key is a great place to "snorkel, fish, sightsee, sunbathe and relax."</p><p><b>Island history</b></p><p>Rose said that Housman and his predecessors may have populated Indian Key for many of the same reasons one might visit there today. </p><p>"One of the critical factors is that the island almost never has any mosquitoes on it," he said. "It’s a rare day to go out to Indian Key and have them biting you. Because it is just so windswept, they pop out and hatch right there on the island and then the wind blows them away."</p><p>Another important factor was easy access. In the early 1800s, Indian Key was surrounded by deeper water. Rose says the flats that now surround the island were created by Flagler during the construction of Indian Key Fill.</p><p>Jacob Housman was far from the original inhabitant of Indian Key, though he is easily the most recognizable. He was from a well-to-do family in the Northeast and came to Key West in hopes of breaking into the wrecking business — watching the reef for sinking ships and agreeing to salvage them in exchange for the rights to a certain percentage of the cargo’s value.</p><p>Wrecking was a very high-risk, high-reward business, and meant working in the worst possible conditions. Rose said the average lifespan of a wrecker was only two years. </p><p>"Housman was one more person trying to be in the business that everybody else was trying to be in and that was wrecking," said Rose. "It didn’t sit well with the locals because it was another person taking a piece of the pie. What you find is Housman wasn’t thought very highly of by anybody."</p><p>Seeking a more favorable environment in which to conduct his business, Housman came to Indian Key around 1830. In 1831, writes Jerry Wilkinson on www.keyshistory.org, Housman purchased a two-story house, a store, a nine-pin bowling alley, billiard room, guest house and kitchen from then-residents Thomas and Anne Gibson for $5,000.</p><p>"Ultimately he has the opportunity to set up his own little community right there on Indian Key, and because of his wealth he was able to buy his way into acquiring the things he needed," said Rose. "Through legal and illegal means, I would put it, he acquired the status of being Dade County’s seat."</p><p>During this time, Housman had voiced complaints regarding Indians. He even went so far as to offer bounties on their heads, which only exacerbated his problems with them. </p><p>"The Indians were the first salvagers, but they weren’t your savior because nine times out of ten when they got you back to shore they killed you anyway," Rose said. "The bounty was fairly large for the time, more than most could make doing a legal job, so you had people going around literally hunting Indians."</p><p>On the morning of Aug. 7, 1840, a group of about 150 Indians sacked Indian Key. Housman survived, though as Wilkinson put it, "his Indian Key empire was in ashes."</p><p>Housman returned to Key West. "He was forced to sell his boat for money to live on," said Rose. "While there he went to work with a wrecking company and was killed in an accident where he fell between two ships and was crushed to death."</p><p>Upon his death, Housman’s wife Elizabeth Anne brought Jacob back to be buried at Indian Key, where she felt he belonged. </p><p><b>Botanical history</b></p><p>Dr. Henry Perrine moved to Indian Key from Mexico in December of 1838. A noted physician and horticulturist, Perrine was interested in cultivating tropical plants such as agave, tea, coffee, bananas and mangos. Even though he was apparently fully aware of the dangers during the ongoing Second Seminole War, Perrine still decided to come to Indian Key while he awaited a land grant approval from the Congress. Perrine was killed during the Aug. 7 attack, though his family escaped.</p><p>The plants Perrine had introduced to the island during his time there have gradually grown over much of the ruins. </p><p>The island changed hands several times in the years prior to its acquisition by the state and has been uninhabited since the early 1900s. </p><p><b>Want to visit?</b> Robbie’s is a full-service marina located only minutes away from Indian Key on the bayside. It offers kayak and boat rentals, private charters and jet-ski tours of the surrounding islands. People with their own kayaks or canoes can launch nearby. Robbie’s is also the departure point for the state park boats that take visitors to nearby Lignumvitae Key. (And eventually, back to Indian Key.)</p><p>Without a doubt, the most famous attraction there are the tarpon. Kids of all ages delight in feeding buckets of thread herring to the ever-increasing school of fish that congregate along the dock. For only $3 a bucket and $1 per person, you can watch 100-plus pound tarpon jump out of the water and snatch a fish from your grasp.