Dry Tortugas National Park

Dry Tortugas National Park is a U.S. national park located 70 miles west of Key West,Florida and 113 miles south of Havana,Cuba is in The Gulf of Mexico.The park is made up of 7 islands and coral reefs.They are the westernmost and most isolated islands in the Florida Keys.The park preserves the 7 isolated islands and Fort Jefferson.The fort is also a rest stop for migrating birds heading north or south during migration attracting birders from across the country.

The park is noted for abundant sea life,breeding grounds for tropical birds,colorful coral reefs,and legends of sunken treasure and shipwrecks.The park's centerpiece is Fort Jefferson,the largest masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere and is made up of 16 million bricks,making it the largest brick fortification in the world.The park is only accessible by seaplane or boat.Popular activities include snorkeling,swimming,picnicking,birding,camping,scuba diving,kayaking and saltwater fishing

Birds
The park has an official list of 299 species of birds.Of these,8 frequently nest within the park:Bridled Tern,Brown Noddy,Magnificent Frigatebird,Masked Booby,Sooty Tern,Brown Pelican,Roseate Tern and Mourning Dove.The park features the only nesting colonies of Sooty Tern,Magnificent Frigatebird,Brown Noddy,Masked Booby in the contiguous United States Birding activity peaks in spring when dozens of migratory species pass through the national park and land in the parade grounds where they are seen at close range.Some common migratory warblers include Northern Parula,American Redstart,Prairie Warbler,Blackpoll Warbler,Ovenbird,Hooded Warbler,Black-and-White Warbler,Black-throated Blue Warbler,Common Yellowthroat,Yellow-rumped Warbler,Cape May Warbler,Northern Waterthrush,Palm Warbler,Black-throated Green Warbler,Golden-winged Warbler,Blue-winged Warbler,Prothonotary Warbler,Yellow-throated Warbler,Pine Warbler.

History
In 1513,when Juan Ponce de Leon discovered Florida,He traveled to the Florida Keys and found an archipelago of 7 tropical islands in the crystal clear azure waters of the Gulf of Mexico north of Cuba.When he set foot on the island,he discovered it was inhabited by sea turtles and he and his crew ate them for dinner.He also hoped to look for The Fountain of Youth (in which he was unsuccessful),but he died in 1521,since the islands were deprived of freshwater.They were then named the Dry Tortugas.309 years later,The United States acquired Florida from Spain.By the mid-1840s,The US Army grew interested in the strategic value of the islands because they could have total control of the Straits of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico and decided to build a fort,so they brought slaves and soldiers to the Dry Tortugas and started building a fort.In 1825,there were plans to build a lighthouse on Garden Key,In 1856,a newer more powerful lighthouse on Loggerhead Key replaced the one on Garden Key.Before and during the Civil War,construction continued,but was halted when the fort became a military prison for deserters and though Florida was part of the Confederacy,The islands remained in Union control along with Key West,Florida's largest and wealthiest city at the time.Its most famous resident was Dr. Samuel Mudd,who helped set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth,the guy who killed Abraham Lincoln.As a prison,Fort Jefferson failed spectaculary because the sewage system emptied out into a self-cleaning moat.However,the tides weren't strong enough to flush out the waste.The result was a doughnut of turds bobbing and stewing in the heat of the tropical sun of August,

In 1867,A massive outbreak of yellow fever hit the entire island and killed half of the 400 prisoners that lived in Fort Jefferson.The disease killed the prison doctor,but only one man plucked up enough courage to save the day and his name was still Mudd.President Andrew Johnson pardoned Dr. Mudd and released him from prison for saving the prisoner's live.In 1874,the fort was abandoned after the Army got fed up with disease,hurricanes and general hardship of an island 70 miles from civilization.A few years later,The navy revived it as a coaling station for ships on patrol and the fort served her country through The Spanish-American War,World War l and World War ll.It then became a national monument on January 4,1935 and then redesignated as a national park in October 26,1992