{"id":230302,"date":"2026-04-13T21:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230302\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T21:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T21:23:07","slug":"egmont-key-tour-to-explore-its-past-as-a-concentration-camp-for-seminoles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/230302\/","title":{"rendered":"Egmont Key Tour To Explore Its Past As A Concentration Camp For Seminoles"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, FL \u2014 While Egmont Key<\/a> has a reputation as a scenic wildlife refuge that\u2019s home to nesting sea turtles, gopher tortoises, thousands of birds, and other animals, and historic ruins, many locals and visitors are probably unaware of its \u201cpretty dark history,\u201d Cathy Salustri, writer, historian, and publisher of The Gabber newspaper, told Patch. <\/p>\n

The 250-acre island, located at the mouth of Tampa Bay, once served as a concentration camp for captive Seminoles during the third phase of the Seminole War in the late 1950s. <\/p>\n

Salustri will lead a group tour of Egmont Key<\/a> and share this painful part of the island\u2019s history on Saturday as part of Nerd Nite\u2019s new Nerdscursion series. <\/p>\n

Since forming in 2019, Nerd Nite\u2019s passionate speakers<\/a> have brought an array of nerdy topics to St. Petersburg \u2014 public health and death, space travel, beer making, Marvel.<\/p>\n

The series expanded last month to start offering Nerdscursions, small, themed adventures led by former Nerd Nite speakers.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s five-hour trip to Egmont Key runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The $75 fee includes round-trip ferry transportation. Tickets can be purchased here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Salustri will lead the group, sharing the history of the island\u2019s role during the Seminole War. It was used as a detention site for Seminole people who were captured and awaiting forced removal from Florida during the war as part of the federal Indian Removal Act. It was under this act that most of the state\u2019s Native Americans were relocated. <\/p>\n

Those captured were brought to either Fort Myers or Fort Brooke in Tampa by ox cart and then sent from those locations to Egmont Key by boat. <\/p>\n

Once they had captured enough Seminoles, they would send them by boatload up the Mississippi River, where they got off at the Arkansas River and were marched into Oklahoma, Salustri said. <\/p>\n

She will also share the story of Emateloye, who was part of a small group of Seminole women who were able to escape the island and their forced removal to Oklahoma. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an incredible, incredible story about women and fighting back against the oppressor,\u201d Salustri said. <\/p>\n

She also included Emateloye\u2019s escape in her book \u201cFlorida Spectacular.\u201d<\/a> Those attending Saturday\u2019s tour will get a PDF of that chapter. <\/p>\n

The island served as \u201cthe only concentration camp during the Seminole Wars,\u201d Salustri said, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to me that people don\u2019t think of Egmont Key as a dark place, but if you were a Florida Indian, it definitely was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people are bothered by using the term concentration camp in reference to Egmont Key, she noted. \u201cThey felt like it\u2019s dishonoring the Holocaust. But the reality is, we were the bad guys; we did this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salustri added, \u201cIt\u2019s the textbook definition of a concentration camp. You have people imprisoned based on ethnicity or race without the benefit of a trial, and they were held there with no chance of them getting out. It ticks every box when you look at the definition.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it might be difficult to hear stories about this part of Egmont Key\u2019s \u2014 and Florida\u2019s \u2014 past, it\u2019s necessary, she said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to learn about this history so we don\u2019t repeat it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, FL \u2014 While Egmont Key has a reputation as a scenic wildlife refuge that\u2019s home to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-230302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}