Cedar Key, Florida
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Cedar Key is a city located in Levy County, Florida. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 790.
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History
Founded in 1842 as a resort for wealthy planters, Cedar Key became a center for pencil manufacturing when the Eberhard Faber Pencil Company bought huge tracts of land, for 50 cents per acre ($124/km²), in 1855. The town was originally located on an outer island locally known as Atsena Otie, but was rebuilt on a more protected island after a terrible hurricane struck at approximately 4 a.m. September 29, 1896. Today there are a few remnants of the original town on Atsena Otie, including stone water cisterns, and a graveyard whose headstones conspicuously date from only before 1896. There are also many of the juniper (Juniperus virginiana subsp. silicicola) trees that originally drew the pencil company. These were misidentified as cedars by early settlers, whence the name 'Cedar Key'.
The old-fashioned fishing village is now a tourist center with several regionally famous seafood restaurants. The village holds two festivals a year, the Spring Sidewalk Art Festival and the Fall Seafood Festival, that each attract thousands of visitors to the area.
After a statewide ban on large scale net fishing went into effect July 1, 1995 a government retraining program helped many local fishmen begin farming clams in the muddy waters. Today Cedar Key's clam-based aquaculture is a multi-million dollar industry.
A local museum exhibit displays a reproduction of one of the first air conditioning installations. The system, with compressor and fans, was created in Cedar Key to ease the lot of malaria patients. It is certainly hot and humid in the summer.
Geography
Image:FLMap-doton-CedarKey.PNG Cedar Key is located at Template:Coor dms (29.145558, -83.041544).Template:GR
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.3 km² (2.0 mi²). 2.4 km² (0.9 mi²) of it is land and 2.9 km² (1.1 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 55.39% water.
Demographics
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 790 people, 411 households, and 244 families residing in the city. The population density was 335.2/km² (864.7/mi²). There were 686 housing units at an average density of 291.1/km² (750.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.47% White, 0.13% African American, 0.63% Native American, 0.25% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.51% from other races, and 1.01% from two or more races. 1.52% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 411 households out of which 14.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.7% were married couples living together, 8.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.4% were non-families. 34.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.92 and the average family size was 2.42.
In the city the population was spread out with 13.2% under the age of 18, 4.8% from 18 to 24, 15.6% from 25 to 44, 40.1% from 45 to 64, and 26.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 54 years. For every 100 females there were 91.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.2 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $32,232, and the median income for a family was $41,190. Males had a median income of $27,375 versus $31,806 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,568. 11.1% of the population and 6.6% of families were below the poverty line. 10.5% of those under the age of 18 and 9.9% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.