Cabbage Key

It took a pile of oyster shells, heaped by by the Calusa, to create Cabbage Key. Although it’s been a popular destination since the 1930s, its roots go much deeper.

Underlying this island in Pine Island Sound is a massive mound, created a thousand years ago or more.

Shell deposits spilling from the mound

It was built here by the tribes who lived on Pine Island in a city they called Tampa. A seagoing culture, their tools were based on shells, their diet seafood.

They built mounds atop their discards of shells to have high ground above the surrounding water where they could place their dwellings.

Looking over Pine Island Sound from the mound

Only accessible by boat, Cabbage Key is home to the Cabbage Key Inn and Restaurant, with its mouthwatering cheeseburgers and renowned Key Lime pie.

But before you tuck into a meal on this quiet island, take a loop around the island on the nature trail to dig into the mysteries that lie beneath your feet.

A gopher tortoise grazes among midden shells

Resources

South Florida Explorers Guide book cover

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Overview

Location: Cabbage Key
Length: 0.5 mile loop
Trailhead: 26.6565, -82.2225
Address: Channel Marker 60, Pine Island Sound
Fees: The cost of getting there
Restroom: at the visitor center
Land manager: Cabbage Key Inn & Restaurant
Phone: 239-283-2278

While it welcomes guests daily, Cabbage Key is privately owned. Private boaters welcome. Pets are not permitted.

No smoking on the trail. Expect mosquitoes along the trail.

Accommodations include six rooms in the inn and a collection of cottages ranging from the historic 1930s buildings to larger multi-room stilt homes.

Directions

You can only get to Cabbage Key by boat. If you don’t own a boat, several tour operators include the island among their destinations. All of them make sure you have time for lunch on the island. Tours start around $40 per person and do not include your meal.

The approach to Cabbage Key by boat

From Punta Gorda, King Fisher Fleet offers a full day journey from the mouth of the Peace River through Charlotte Harbor to Cabbage Key, departing at 9 AM and returning after 4.

Departing Punta Gorda with King Fisher Fleet

From Pine Island, three different operators run trips to Cabbage Key and water taxi service to neighboring Useppa Island. You’ll find information about them from Tarpon Lodge, sister property to the Cabbage Key Inn.

Leaving Useppa Island for Cabbage Key

From Captiva, Captiva Cruises runs regular tours to Cabbage Key. Theirs depart at 10 AM and return by 3 PM. Our most recent journey to the island was with their crew.

Taking Captiva Cruises to Cabbage Key

Hike

Edged with mangrove forests, Cabbage Key mirrors the coastline of Pine Island and other other interior islands of Pine Island Sound.

There are no beaches here. That’s because the barrier island of Cayo Costa sits to its west, capturing the waves off the Gulf of Mexico.

Passing the south end of Cayo Costa on the way to Cabbage Key

There are no roads here, either. Just a surprisingly steep pathway from the marina up to the restaurant, which sits atop the midden, 38 feet above the sound.

The island is on the National Register of Historic Places. This is the vicinity where Ponce De Leon sailed through in 1513, when the Calusa still thrived along these shores.

Climbing the midden from the boat dock

Contact with the Europeans, unfortunately, brought both disease and slavery. The last of the Calusa escaped from their ancestral homes along this coast in 1760.

A homesteader moved to the island from Punta Gorda in 1896, planting coconut palms and tropical fruit trees.

Poinciana and other tropical trees still top the midden

In 1936, the son of mystery writer Mary Roberts Rinehart bought the island and had a winter estate built, as was fashionable among wealthy Northern families.

The water tower, boathouse, and several cottages date back to that era. The home was converted to the inn and restaurant, opening in 1944.

Front of the restaurant, formerly a winter home

Once you’ve climbed up from the boathouse and gotten a reservation set up at the restaurant, follow the broad path to the left of the porch towards the water tower.

Signs indicate where the trail is located. You’ll notice an osprey nest atop the tower. Save the climb for the end of the hike.

Along the footpath to the tower and trail

Keep following signs past the horticultural area, the cottages, and the side paths that lead to other lodgings.

Look for the Smokey Bear sign. It marks the beginning of the nature trail, which provides useful interpretive markers all the way around the loop.

Start of the nature trail, past the cottages

The well-maintained footpath leads into the tropical hammock that tops the high ground of Cabbage Key.

The forest is edged by the dense mangrove forest that protects this island from storms. When you get to the Y in the loop, keep right.

A tree cactus that lost its tree. Others dangle above.

On our first visit here, we were impressed by the obvious narrow canals through the mangroves, so we chose the counterclockwise walk to see those first.

Archaeologists agree that the Calusa who plied this coastline in their canoes dug their own canals in many places, not just on these islands but all the way to Lake Okeechobee.

Calusa canal Cabbage Key — Canal among the mangroves on Cabbage Key

As the forest opens up, the trail provides views of Pine Island Sound through the trees beyond the great blue heron interpretive marker.

When you’re reading these markers, don’t forget to look up and down. We kept encountering unexpected wildlife.

This lizard-chasing black racer surprised us at one marker

On the high ground, the sandy path continues between the tropical trees and palms, dappled in sunshine for a short stretch.

An interpretive marker talks about the Calusa mound and other excavations done on nearby islands, including the extensive dig at the Randell Research Center on Pine Island.

Interpretive signs about plants and animals on the island add to the hike

As the trail loses elevation, it reaches the edge of the mangroves again. One of the trees in the tropical hammock pointed out here is the Spanish stopper, which has a skunky aroma.

It’s unlikely there are skunks on Cabbage Key. But lizards, snakes, and gopher tortoises are common. Watch the trunks of the mangroves for mangrove crabs.

The trunk of an ancient sea grape tree

Where a side path goes off to the right around halfway around the loop, keep left as the sign indicates.

The trail is close to the shoreline, with lots of sea grapes overhead. More interpretive signs call your attention to native plants.

Walking under a bower of sea grape leaves

Shards of fossilized shells dapples the footpath as it climbs out of that low area up to one of the odder sights along the trail, a strangler fig with outstretched prop roots but no trunk.

If you look closely, you can see just a foot or so of the remains of the cabbage palm that it strangled, hanging below the tangle of roots.

An unusual sight to see

Cabbage palms and sea grapes dominate this part of the walk, with the mangroves right behind them. There tend to be a lot of mosquitoes in this stretch.

Dark water glistens between the mangroves and buttonwoods. You pass a live oak tree as the trail ascends.

On the ecotone between hammock and mangroves

Coming back to the beginning of the loop, turn right. Walk back past the cottages and through the tropical plantings.

Take the time to climb the water tower for an panorama from the top across the islands of Pine Island Sound.

At the restaurant, it’s worth wandering around the interior to see a sight you won’t see often: thousands and thousands of dollars in cash.

The dollar bills started going up on the walls when the bar opened in 1971. Of course, rumor spread it was good luck to pin one on the wall. We added to the collection.

Dollar bills cover the walls and ceiling of the bar and restaurant

Inside the restaurant, it’s obvious this was once a home, a fishing lodge in one of the best destinations for tarpon in the world.

Rich paneling and a tarpon over the fireplace

While many people who stop here to dine head right for their cheeseburger, said to have inspired Jimmy Buffet, we found their shrimp salad a delightful choice on a hot day.

Even better, the key lime pie. There are so many ways this Florida standard can be presented, but this one was semi-frozen and just perfect.