Tides & Towns
Big Bend · FL

Cedar Key

An island fishing town that now farms most of Florida's clams.

Population
687 (2020 census)
First train
March 1, 1861
Clam farming
About 90% of Florida's
Tides
Two highs, two lows, uneven

Then

  1. 1854

    The Cedar Key Light is finished on Seahorse Key.

  2. 1861

    The first train arrives on March 1, completing the Florida Railroad from Fernandina.

  3. 1862

    In January, the USS Hatteras burns ships loaded with cotton and turpentine and wrecks the railroad's buildings.

  4. 1865

    The Eberhard Faber company builds a pencil mill on Atsena Otie Key for the area's cedar.

  5. 1867

    Naturalist John Muir ends his thousand-mile walk from Louisville here.

  6. 1896

    A 10-foot storm surge on September 29 kills more than 100 people.

  7. 1995

    A ban on large-scale net fishing pushes local fishermen into clam farming, now a multimillion-dollar industry.

Now

Cedar Key is a small island town of seafood restaurants and two annual festivals. The Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge, set up by Herbert Hoover in 1929, protects bird nesting islands offshore.

Hurricane Helene set a record 9.2-foot storm surge here in September 2024. The Suwannee River reaches the Gulf just to the north.

On the water

From NOAA's predictions for Cedar Key, FL over the next 365 days. Heights are in feet above mean lower low water (MLLW).

Pattern
Two highs and two lows a day, one noticeably bigger than the other
Typical daily range
3.6 ft
Biggest swing
5.6 ft on Dec 24
Smallest swing
1.8 ft on May 25
Highest high
4.7 ft, Aug 2 at 2:06 PM
Lowest low
−1.5 ft, Dec 24 at 8:12 AM

6 tide stations around Cedar Key

Sources