Qualla: Fort De Soto Park: Five Islands, Five Centuries

Fort De Soto Park: Five Islands, Five Centuries: Introduction

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0. Percy Roberts was a plumber from St. Petersburg with a simple plan: lease an abandoned military island, run a passenger boat to it, and serve fried mullet dinners. In January 1939, Pinellas County granted him access to Mullet Key, the main island of what would become Fort De Soto Park. The Mullet Key Lodge thrived for exactly two years before the U.S. Army Air Corps took the island back as a World War II bombing range. That story captures something essential about this place: every time someone lays claim to these five barrier islands at the mouth of Tampa Bay, something larger intervenes. The Tocobaga harvested shellfish here for five centuries. Spanish conquistadors arrived. The military built forts, then abandoned them, then built them again. A county bought the land, lost it to the Army, and bought it back. Today 328 species of birds share the islands with over a million annual visitors, and the 12-inch mortars of Battery Laidley still point at a sky that never sent an enemy fleet.

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Image: Beyond My Ken | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fort De Soto Park: Five Islands, Five Centuries: Shells and Conquistadors

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Tocobaga lived on Mullet Key and the surrounding barrier islands from roughly 1000 to 1500 CE, harvesting fish, clams, conch, oysters, and whelks from the Gulf of Mexico, supplemented by game and gathered plants. In 1529, the Spanish explorer Panfilo de Narvaez investigated t...

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Image: Ebyabe | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fort De Soto Park: Five Islands, Five Centuries: The Guns of Tampa Bay

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0. Fortifications finally arrived with the Spanish-American War. Fort De Soto was built on Mullet Key and Fort Dade on neighboring Egmont Key, mounting a formidable array of coastal artillery. Battery Laidley held eight 12-inch mortars. Batteries Bigelow and others added 3-inch guns...

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Image: Beyond My Ken | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fort De Soto Park: Five Islands, Five Centuries: The Mullet Key Lodge

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0. Percy Roberts saw opportunity where the Army saw surplus. With financing from Charles R. Carter, president of the Bee Line Ferry Company, Roberts put the passenger boat Hobo into daily service from Pinellas Point. He converted a building left by the Quarantine Service into lodgin...

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Image: Ebyabe | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fort De Soto Park: Five Islands, Five Centuries: America's Best Beach

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Christopher Hollis, Public domain. After the war, the renamed U.S. Army Air Forces sold Mullet Key and four adjacent islands back to Pinellas County for $26,495.54. The county designated the land a recreational area immediately. In 1962, the Pinellas Bayway toll road connected the islands to the mainland, and Fort...

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Image: Christopher Hollis | Public domain

Fort De Soto Park: Five Islands, Five Centuries: The Shifting Sand

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrea Westmoreland from DeLand, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0. Mullet Key is a barrier island with an unusual shape: two arms joined at a right angle, one facing the Gulf of Mexico and shaped by wave energy, the other facing the Tampa Bay entrance channel and shaped by tidal flow. The five islands of the park constantly change as waves, curr...

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Image: Andrea Westmoreland from DeLand, United States | CC BY-SA 2.0