Remains of 19th-century underwater hospital, graveyard found near Dry Tortugas

DRY TORTUGAS NATIONAL PARK, Fla. — Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 19th-century hospital and cemetery on a submerged island in the Florida Keys near Dry Tortugas National Park.

>> Read more trending news

According to a news release, the National Park Service said that the quarantine hospital and cemetery were found near Garden Key.

While only one grave has been identified, historical records indicate that many people, mostly U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Jefferson, may have been buried on the island. The graveyard has been identified as the Fort Jefferson Post Cemetery, according to the National Park Service.

Park officials said the small hospital was used to treat patients with yellow fever at the fort between 1890 and 1900.

Officials said that the person buried in the one grave was John Greer, a laborer who died on Nov. 5, 1861. He died of unknown causes while working at Fort Jefferson.

According to the National Park Service, Greer’s grave was marked with a large slab of greywacke, a variation of sandstone that was used to construct the first floor of Fort Jefferson. The rock was carved into the shape of a headstone and inscribed with Greer’s name and date of death.

“This intriguing find highlights the potential for untold stories in Dry Tortugas National Park, both above and below the water,” Josh Marano, maritime archaeologist for the South Florida national parks and project director for the survey, said in a statement. “Although much of the history of Fort Jefferson focuses on the fortification itself and some of its infamous prisoners, we are actively working to tell the stories of the enslaved people, women, children and civilian laborers.”

It is unclear when the island near Garden Key became submerged.

The work to find the gravesite began in August 2022 by park archaeologists, who were assisted by the National Park Service’s Submerged Resources Center, the Southeast Archaeologist Center and graduate students from the University of Miami.

Allyson Gantt, a park ranger and spokesperson for Dry Tortugas National Park, told the Herald that the site was discovered by accident when a park worker flew over shallow water in an airplane and saw something manmade.

“Right angles usually don’t occur in nature,” Gantt told the newspaper.

The Dry Tortugas, a 100-square-mile park about 70 miles from Key West, includes seven islands, including Garden Key, the Miami Herald reported. Fort Jefferson, located on Garden Key, is a former coastal fortress that was shut down in 1873, according to the newspaper.

The park is only accessible by boat or seaplane.

A prison was located at Fort Jefferson during the 1860s and 1870s. Its most famous inmate was Dr. Samuel Mudd. the physician who treated an injured John Wilkes Booth after the actor assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

Mudd worked at the prison’s carpentry shop and was instrumental in treating patients during a yellow fever epidemic on the island in 1867. He was pardoned and released from the prison two years later.