The History of Oysters in Tampa Bay

We are passionate about the Tampa Bay area and its rich oyster history. At one time Tampa Bay was one of the best fishing grounds in the United States. The waters were so full of fish that they even impeded boats. Various sportsmen and tourists that visited the Bay area tell of unsurpassed fishing, hunting, and oysters which were the finest on the continent. There is so much history, picking one story over another is like having to pick your favorite child. So, to keep this less like a history term paper we have taken snippets from some published articles highlighting the oyster history of Tampa Bay. Here are some of our favorite stories dating back to 1757.

 

"In addition to naming Terra Ceia, they also gave the present-day Manatee River its original name – Oyster River. Burger says the Spaniards named it after what looked like large oyster beds blocking off the river’s entrance. The “oyster beds” were actually remnants of the ancient shell mounds connecting the large villages that occupied the area." Sunday Favorites: The History of Terra Ceia Island, Part 2, The Bradenton Times

 

“…Further to the SE is the mouth of a river which I called the River of Franco (Six Mile Creek). Between Key Cajigal and the coast, even up to the mouth of the river, there are keys, all formed by large oysters. These keys have small channels between them where smaller craft can pass." – Senior Don Francisco Maria Celi, Pilot of the Royal Fleet, From Havana to the Port of Tampa 1757: A Journal of the Surveys. Translated by John Ware.

 

"This is an account of an English soldier who was stationed at Fort Brooke in present Tampa at about the time of the Mexican American War. 'There is an excellent oyster bed on a sand bank in the bay, about six miles from the garrison; and occasionally a few of the men, having obtained the permission of the Quarter Master, would take the barge, and go down for a supply of oysters. Going down at low water, it was no hard task to collect as many oysters as the whole of the two companies could consume.'” Autobiography of an English Soldier in the United States Army: Comprising observations and advantages in the United States and Mexico. Stringer and Townsend, New York 1853

 

"Present at the creation of modern Tampa, Army Lt. George Archibald McCall arrived at Fort Brooke in 1824, an outpost on the east bank at the mouth of the Hillsborough River. "By and by," the Philadelphian wrote, "the lower Bay is the finest oyster-ground on the continent. … I have not eaten such oysters anywhere." Fisheries of Tampa Bay. The Fisheries and Fishery industries of the United States: Section II: A Geographical Review of the Fisheries Industries and Fishing Communities for the year of 1880.

 

"About three o'clock in the afternoon we came upon a series of oyster bars which extends clear across the bay (lower Tampa Bay and Sarasota Bay) and nearly two miles up and down it. The tide had gone out by this time, and we had some very hard work poling and occasionally wading, dragging and lifting our boat over the worst portions of the bars." Rustling in the Rockies: Hunting and Fishing by mountain and stream. by G. O. Shields, Belford, Clark, and Co. Chicago 1883

 

“Tampa Bay teemed with fish and turtle. Reefs in the mouths of freshwater rivers were said to provide the finest oysters on the continent and sweet little "raccoon" oysters grew thickly on the roots of the mangroves along many shores.” Tampa Town: 1824-1886: The Cracker Town with a Latin Accent Hurricane House Publishers, Inc. Miami 1968

 

"In 1876 I came to the west coast of Florida from one of the largest-oyster growing sections in the world, Chesapeake Bay. I landed at Cedar Keys and at once became interested in the oyster beds of Florida. After spending three weeks at Cedar Keys, I cruised southward, examining the most prominent oyster beds, such as Crystal River Bay, the bars of the Cootie region, Clearwater Harbor, Point Pinellas, Hillsboro Bay, Old Tampa Bay, and on to a hamlet I found at the mouth of the Hillsboro River known as Tampa… on every hand I found the same condition - oysters, oysters everywhere… On every hand I found these immense reefs and beds of oysters in such seemingly inexhaustible supplies it frequently occurred to me that the great God of nature must have gone ahead of me and, with hands wide open, scattered right and left and out into the depths so far that I failed to find their limits. On the shores, as we landed from time to time, I found for about 150 miles, at short intervals, great mounds of oyster shells, often 25 feet high and 200 feet long, monuments of a magnificent oyster supply antedating all records and traditions, feeding races so far back that ethnology shakes her head and declares, "I never knew them." Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission. The Oyster Bars of the West Coast of Florida: Their depletion and restoration. By: A Smeltz. Vol. XVII. 1897. Washington, D. C. U.S.G.P.O. 1898