Three Keys Parks: Flagler’s Lost Fishing Camp, a Buried Arsenal, and a Quarry Full of Coral
Three state parks sit along the Overseas Highway, and each one is built on something that was there first: a resort, an arsenal, and a rock quarry.
Long Key State Park, Layton
Henry Flagler put a fishing camp on this land, and it drew the best saltwater anglers of the era. The park names Zane Grey among them, along with sitting presidents. The Labor Day hurricane of 1935 destroyed the whole facility and it never reopened. The park now runs about 983 acres. Day use is $4.50 for one person, or six dollars for two or more plus fifty cents a head. One thing to plan around: as of July 12, 2026 all primitive camping and the Golden Orb hiking trail are closed for construction, with no stated end date. Treat this as a day stop for now.
Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, Key West
In 1968 a volunteer named Howard England started digging into long-abandoned parts of the fort, looking for what had been walled up and forgotten. He kept at it into the mid-1970s. What came out is what Florida State Parks calls the largest cache of Civil War era seacoast cannons in the United States. The park covers roughly 57 acres and charges six dollars per vehicle. The grounds and the beach run 8 a.m. to sundown, but the fort itself closes at five, so go there first.
Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park, Islamorada
This was a working quarry. Crews cut limestone here from the early 1900s into the 1960s and shipped it out on Flagler’s railroad as polished decorative stone sold as Keystone. The Key West post office is built from it. What the quarrying left behind are sheer walls of exposed ancient reef, coral you can walk right up to and read like a cross section. Thirty-six acres, $2.50 per person. Note the schedule: open Thursday through Monday, 8 to 5, and closed Tuesday and Wednesday.
Windley Key runs a ranger-guided tour from December through April, which is the version of this stop worth planning around.
