Ghost Stories of Cedar Key

Both Cedar Key and the surrounding areas are rich in history as well as numerous stories of ghost tales and haints, many folks were steeped in superstition.

A long time ago two talented ladies teamed up and wrote a short booklet about some of them titled "Cedar Key Legends," I don't know whether or not the booklet is still available to purchase, it is great little read if you can. 

I have asked several people, and they don't know either. You might be able to get a copy through a library or get a copy at Amazon.com.

Photo courtesy of
Carmen Day Williams 

The two ladies were Sally Tileston who was quite a talented artist, she owned and operated a local art gallery. I worked in her gallery for awhile and got to know her quite well. Sally along with Bessie Gibbs, was one of the founders of the annual Cedar Key Art Festival.

Her friend was Dorthea Comfort, and Ms. Dottie was also an artist.They had heard the stories over the years and decided to record as many of these ghost tales as possible before they were all forgotten; because most were handed down by word of mouth.

One of the stories they wrote about was also painted in watercolor by Ms. Dottie.

She titled it “The Wailing Widow”. There used to be and still might be a house in Cedar Key that had a widow’s walk that was built on top of the house, for the purpose of the lady of the house to walk around and watch for her husband’s boat coming in from the Gulf.

It was said that the widow walked around the walkway on stormy nights and wailed, mourning the loss of her husband who had been lost at sea during a storm. Many still believed this house was haunted and that her ghost still walks around the rail and wails on stormy nights..

Another ghost story is the one about the headless horseman that rides the beach at Seahorse Key on moonlight nights. 

Lafitte's Landing

The tale was told that one of the pirates (Jean Lafitte) left a treasure buried on the Island and he left a man with a horse for him to ride the beach and guard the treasure till he returned.

Someone came to steal the treasure and killed the man by decapitating him with a sword.

Several of the older fishermen would not go on Seahorse Key any night, moonlight or not, and they swore they had seen this headless horseman on moonlight nights still riding the beach.

Headless Horseman

One of the most famous tales is the lady at Shell Mound; I have heard that her name was Annie Simpson, many have also sworn to have seen her more than once. She too was connected somehow to a buried treasure.

Whether or not there is buried treasure on any of these Islands I don't know, and I am not sure that anyone else knows this for certain. I do know many have searched for it, and many tales have been told about their searches!

I used to ride with my friend Janie Robinson, at night, out to Shell Mound to pick up her husband Curley, when he came in late from crabbing. Janie claimed to have seen this lady many times, and if memory serves; the lady carries a lantern in one hand, and she has a dog with her, and sometimes a monkey, but I have never seen her.

Shell Mound view from the sky
 by
Diana Beckham Topping
Down Home Adventure trips and tours

Janie said, “The first time I ever saw her Curley and I were going out fishing one night, and we ran aground on one of the little sandbars in the channel, I looked back to see how far we were from the beach.

Shell Mound Low Tide

Curley was overboard trying to push us off, I saw her walking down the hill when I looked back, and it scared me so bad I jumped overboard and helped Curley push us off so we could get the hell outa there!”

Many other locals claim to have seen this lady; some who claim that they had never even heard the story about this ghost before seeing her.

There are numerous other ghost stories connected to Cedar Key and other islands. There are three or four connected to the Island Hotel, which was built in 1859-60, has the Neptune Bar, Dining Room, and Rooms, they tell you in their advertisement about the Ghost Stories. 

Island Hotel Cedar Key, Florida

There was one ghost story about McClamery that my husband and the two Andrews brothers (Joe and Kenny) laid to rest one night when they were young guys fishing together at night. You will read this story "Wonder of Nature" in another place among my rambling memories.

What I have written here is only a small portion of all of the stories and tales told about ghosts and haints that surround and still haunt these Gulf Coast Islands.