Dry Tortugas

Remember like 2 months ago when I mentioned in passing that I went to the Dry Tortugas? Well, I finally am putting pictures up from it! 

Basically the Tortugas are a small cluster of islands 70 miles directly west of Key West. They were named for the turtles (Tortugas is spanish for turtle) that used to mate all along them and for their lack of fresh water.

The islands are right in the middle of the natural channel that all large sea vessels have to take if they want to leave the Gulf of Mexico for the Atlantic Ocean. In the 1800's, the United States decided it was necessary to have protection there and so they built Fort Jefferson.

During the Civil War the Union kept it from the Confederacy and used it as a prison for Confederate soldiers. One of the inmates was actually Dr. Mudd, the doctor that set John Wilkes Booth's leg when he broke it after shooting Lincoln, even though the doctor claimed to have no knowledge of what his patient had done. He was eventually released after he had to treat many of the soldiers and inmates during an outbreak of yellow fever.

I can't even imagine how many of the soldiers ended up getting heat stroke from those uniforms they had to wear all the time. But the Dry Tortugas is definitely one the most beautiful places I've ever been.