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According to records, the first published mention of Casey Key was in a colorful report of a meeting in 1849 of Captain John Charles Casey with the Indians at Casey’s Pass, the site of the present Jetties.
The famous and courageous Captain Casey, although born in England, was appointed to West Point, where he graduated in the same class with General Robert E. Lee in 1829, eventually becoming connected with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This duty took him to most parts of Florida, especially the West Coast, during the efforts of the Government to drive out the Indians. In retrospect not an admirable action, but at the time, considered justified and a matter of duty.
In 1856 a costal map from Tampa south was formulated mostly from Captain Casey’s detailed notes and sketches, which proved to be amazingly accurate and perhaps responsible for the Key having been named after him.
Casey Key remained a garden spot with wild game and fish in abundance. It was the latter that lured the first settlers from Osprey, across the bay to the Key. Like most of the first fine families who had land grants up and down the mainland coast across from the Key, they were excellent fishermen. Casey Key is grateful for its few remaining old homes.
From then on the Key’s growth was gradual and healthy: friends of friends coming to share the lush, tropical green foliage and the white sand of the unspoiled beaches. About 1917, a resident of the Key attempted to promote a real estate development by changing the name Casey Key to Treasure Island. As an enterprise it failed, but resulted in quite q bit of good-natured feudin’ and figtin’—“Casey Key” versus “Treasure Island”—in later years, as the nom de plume lingered on.
In September, 1921, a terrific hurricane arbitrarily gave approximately two-and-one-half-miles of north Casey Key to Siesta Key by moving the then existing pass just south of Point of Rocks to its present location where it is said, Nature, at midnight, with its frightening force, finally finished. This geographic change started a series of still unsettled litigations between the two Keys as to whose land was where and who owned what.
At the south end of the Key the story was different. Because of the shifting sands of Casey’s Pass, there was more portage than navigation, so some energetic citizens in that part of Venice known as Higelville, along with interested people from Laurel and Nokomis, successfully dug a channel to the Gulf with manpower alone. It was not until the Thirties that the Army Corps of Engineers built the first Jetties.
The Herron Group, Nick Herron and Kathleen Herron have four properties that were built back in the 1940’s. All are on very different locations on the Key. Three are Gulf front properties and one is Gulf to Bay.
Our newest listing is 615 Casey Key Road a Gulf Front home that was built for the Grandmother( who has passed away) as a wedding gift and has been in the family for over sixty years.
The Herron Group, Nick Herron and Kathleen Herron would love to show you some of the Casey Key history. As we say, “Buy a Piece of the Past and Create Your Own Future”.
Beach, Bay or Back Nine…Live the Dream
The famous and courageous Captain Casey, although born in England, was appointed to West Point, where he graduated in the same class with General Robert E. Lee in 1829, eventually becoming connected with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This duty took him to most parts of Florida, especially the West Coast, during the efforts of the Government to drive out the Indians. In retrospect not an admirable action, but at the time, considered justified and a matter of duty.
In 1856 a costal map from Tampa south was formulated mostly from Captain Casey’s detailed notes and sketches, which proved to be amazingly accurate and perhaps responsible for the Key having been named after him.
Casey Key remained a garden spot with wild game and fish in abundance. It was the latter that lured the first settlers from Osprey, across the bay to the Key. Like most of the first fine families who had land grants up and down the mainland coast across from the Key, they were excellent fishermen. Casey Key is grateful for its few remaining old homes.
From then on the Key’s growth was gradual and healthy: friends of friends coming to share the lush, tropical green foliage and the white sand of the unspoiled beaches. About 1917, a resident of the Key attempted to promote a real estate development by changing the name Casey Key to Treasure Island. As an enterprise it failed, but resulted in quite q bit of good-natured feudin’ and figtin’—“Casey Key” versus “Treasure Island”—in later years, as the nom de plume lingered on.
In September, 1921, a terrific hurricane arbitrarily gave approximately two-and-one-half-miles of north Casey Key to Siesta Key by moving the then existing pass just south of Point of Rocks to its present location where it is said, Nature, at midnight, with its frightening force, finally finished. This geographic change started a series of still unsettled litigations between the two Keys as to whose land was where and who owned what.
At the south end of the Key the story was different. Because of the shifting sands of Casey’s Pass, there was more portage than navigation, so some energetic citizens in that part of Venice known as Higelville, along with interested people from Laurel and Nokomis, successfully dug a channel to the Gulf with manpower alone. It was not until the Thirties that the Army Corps of Engineers built the first Jetties.
The Herron Group, Nick Herron and Kathleen Herron have four properties that were built back in the 1940’s. All are on very different locations on the Key. Three are Gulf front properties and one is Gulf to Bay.
Our newest listing is 615 Casey Key Road a Gulf Front home that was built for the Grandmother( who has passed away) as a wedding gift and has been in the family for over sixty years.
The Herron Group, Nick Herron and Kathleen Herron would love to show you some of the Casey Key history. As we say, “Buy a Piece of the Past and Create Your Own Future”.
Beach, Bay or Back Nine…Live the Dream
