The Pirate Folklore of Key Marco: A Haunting Local Legend

Long before it was known as Key Marco, the shell mounds of Horr's Island held a dark secret.  Local folklore tells of a treacherous pirate band that used the sheltered coves near Caxambas Pass as a base for their raids around the year 1799.

 

These buccaneers were infamous, plundering merchant ships sailing from New Orleans with bloodthirsty abandon.  Their reign of terror grew so notorious that the U.S. Navy was dispatched on a mission to eradicate the pirate village hidden north of Cape Romano.

 

After a fierce confrontation, naval forces overwhelmed the pirates, who were still recovering from a night of revelry.

 

Six captured buccaneers were brought before the naval commander to face justice.  As the story goes, they were sentenced to hang from a large gumbo-limbo tree on the island, known as 'The Hanging Tree'.

 

But before the nooses tightened, the pirate leader issued a chilling curse.  He swore that he and his men would return to haunt the shell mounds forever if they were executed on that spot.

 

The warning was ignored, and the pirates were hanged as the moon rose over the Ten Thousand Islands.

 

To this day, the legend persists...

 

Some residents claim that on the night of the harvest moon, the ghostly lights of a pirate campfire can still be seen flickering near the old hanging tree, a timeless echo of Key Marco's violent past.