Levy County, Florida
Cedar Key
Seventeen sawmills, half a million board feet a week, and then one storm.
Cedar Key supplied the wood the world wrote with: both the Eberhard Faber mill and the Eagle Pencil Company cut pencil slats here until the 1896 hurricane and fire damaged both so badly that they closed soon after.
What this place is
Why Cedar Key is here
Augustus Steele bought the military structures on Atsena Otie Key in 1843 for $227 along with title to its 167 acres, and the island became the nucleus of the first organised settlement in the Cedar Keys.
Cedar milling was the making of the town. The Eberhard Faber mill, set up in 1865, cut red cedar slats for pencils, and by 1886 the 17 sawmills at Cedar Key were turning out nearly half a million board feet a week.
Worth the trip
What to look for
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Atsena Otie Key, the island first settled, where more than thirty-five houses on the high ground survived the 1896 storm surge that locals still call the tidal wave.
- 02
The Eagle Pencil Company site on Way Key at 3rd and G Streets, where cedar slats and pencil boxes were made.
Time your visit
The weekend that matters
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October
Cedar Key Seafood Festival
Run by the Lions Club each October: more than 100 arts and crafts exhibits, live music, a Saturday parade at 11am, and clam chowder, oysters and smoked mullet dip. It is also the rare chance to reach Seahorse Key, a historic island three miles out that is otherwise closed to the public.
Hotels, inns, rentals and campgrounds
Where to Stay
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Little House, Cute, Cozy Artist Cottage
Vacation Rentals
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Hotels
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Hotels
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Campgrounds
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Hotels
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Hotels
Restaurants, seafood, cafes and bars
Where to Eat
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Restaurants · $
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Seafood · $
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Restaurants · $
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Restaurants · $
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Bars Breweries
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Annie's Cafe
Cafes Bakeries · $
Parks, beaches, museums, tours and charters
Things to Do
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Lil Shark Park
Parks Nature
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Parks Nature
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Tours Charters
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Tours Charters
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Tours Charters
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Parks Nature
Cedar Key on the record
Pictures of the place
Archive and Creative Commons photographs of Cedar Key. Nothing here is generated; every image is credited to the person who took it.
69 guides, written from this town’s own record
Guides
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The Best Things to Do in Cedar Key, Florida
Cedar Key is not what it was—seventeen sawmills, half a million board feet a week, and then one storm—but what remains is worth the trip, precisely because it knows it is smaller than its history.
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The Best Restaurants in Cedar Key, Florida
The town is smaller than its history; the menu is longer than the main street.
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Where to Stay in Cedar Key: Hotels, Inns and Rentals
The town of Cedar Key is smaller than its history—819 housing units, 756 people, and a median age that suggests most of them have already lived somewhere else. The sawmills that once cut half a million board feet a week are gone, scattered by the 1896 hurricane and the fires that followed. What remains is a place to sleep, briefly, between the water and the memory of wood.
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A Weekend in Cedar Key: What to See, Eat and Do
Cedar Key is not a resort that happens to be old; it is a town that happened to be big, and the arithmetic of that loss is written in its streets.
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Cedar Key Florida: 16 Things to Know Before You Visit
Cedar Key is a town of 756 people and 819 homes, most of them empty. The cedar that built it is gone. The visitor economy now runs on clams, oysters, and a stubborn sense of place.
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The Best Time of Year to Visit Cedar Key
The best time to visit Cedar Key has less to do with weather than with what you are willing to admit the town has become.
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Cedar Key vs Steinhatchee: Which Florida Town to Visit
Cedar Key was built on cedar, not sand. The difference is still visible in its vacant lots, its old-timers, and the island you can reach only by boat.
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The History of Cedar Key in 6 Landmarks
The storm that remade Cedar Key is still the town’s quiet clock, and these six places tell you why.
Public record
Cedar Key by the numbers
- 756Residents (2023)
- 32.8% Homes held for seasonal use
- 133 Places in this guide