What's in a Name?By Nanette Holland
Like all places, early explorers and settlers of Tampa Bay left their mark in the descriptive names they gave to parts of the bay. These names, though rooted in fact, now serve primarily as tantalizing reminders of the colorful and captivating history of the bay and its peoples.
Here are a few examples:
- Cockroach Bay
- Lore has it that this beautiful smattering of mangrove coves and seagrass beds in south Hillsborough was named for the horseshoe crabs that still breed along its shores, creatures that reminded pioneers of seagoing cockroaches.
- Jump Pass
- Named for a shortcut boaters used to reach Cockroach Bay.
- Ballast Point
- This spit of land near downtown Tampa got its name because it was the place where sailing ships routinely dumped their ballast before entering the shallow waters of Hillsborough Bay. The ballast, in the form of large stones and boulders, still litters the shoreline here.
- The Kitchen
- Early settlers named this area of the bay in south Hillsborough County for its abundant fish and shellfish. Food was so plentiful here, they said, that you had only to drop a net out of your kitchen window to capture the makings of a meal. Near The Kitchen is another bayou named for its abundant food resources, Hog and Hominy Cove.
- Frenchman's Creek
- This small tidal stream in south Pinellas County may have been named for a notorious French plume hunter who regularly raided nearby nesting colonies to acquire feathers which he sold to manufacturers of ladies' hats.
- Weedon Island
- Named for Dr. Leslie Weedon, a renowned authority on yellow fever, who acquired the 1,250-acre island in 1898 in what is now north St. Petersburg. Weedon had a keen interest in Indian culture, and developed a weekend retreat on the island, from which he began excavations that first revealed the importance of the site as an Indian burial mound. A Smithsonian expedition to the island in 1923-24 further documented the importance of the site, which is now managed as a county preserve. Weedon Island also housed a dance club and movie studio in the 1920s, and was the site of the bay area's first airport in 1930.
- Whiskey Stump Key
- During Prohibition, moonshiners delivered their homemade whiskey on this small island south of the Alafia River mouth. Customers left their money and an empty bottle under a tree stump on the island, and returned to find the money gone and the bottle filled with liquor. Whiskey Stump is now a protected bird sanctuary.
- Hooker's Point
- Contrary to popular belief, this spit of land near the Port of Tampa was actually named for General Joseph Hooker, who commanded Army forces in Tampa during the Civil War. It now houses the city's wastewater treatment plant.
- Devil's Elbow
- A particularly tricky fork of the Little Manatee River near Ruskin where boaters could quickly find themselves marooned at low tide - not to be confused with Hell's Half Acre, an equally confusing mangrove-fringed labyrinth in Manatee County's Bishops Harbor.
- Coffeepot Bayou
- This embayment in northeast St. Petersburg is named for its dark, coffee-colored water.
- Mullet Key
- Now the site of Fort DeSoto Park in southernmost Pinellas County, Mullet Key was the center of a thriving mullet fishery in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Excerpt from Ecology of Tampa Bay, by J. Nicholas Ehringer, et al, available at www.amazon.com
Nanette Holland, formerly an award-winning environmental reporter for the Tampa Tribune, is public outreach coordinator for the Tampa Bay Estuary Program.
Top
|
