Is It Really the Southernmost Point in the Continental U.S.?

The buoy says “Southernmost Point Continental U.S.A.” in big block letters, and generations of visitors have taken it at its word. The short answer to whether that is true is no, not exactly. The longer answer is more interesting, and it explains why this corner still earns the title in spirit.

Farther South on Key West Itself

You do not even have to leave the island to beat the buoy. Two spots on Key West reach slightly closer to the equator:

Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, a short walk west, extends roughly 500 feet farther south than the buoy. It is open to the public for a small entrance fee, and its beach is one of the best on the island.
Whitehead Spit, inside the Truman Annex naval property, is the true southernmost tip of Key West, about 900 feet farther south than the buoy. It is restricted U.S. Navy land with no civilian access, which is one reason the city put its marker where it did.

Ballast Key: The Real Winner

The actual southernmost point of Florida, and of the continental United States, is Ballast Key, a small island about nine miles west of Key West. It sits at roughly 24.524° N, about a mile and a half farther south than the buoy’s 24.547° N.

For decades Ballast Key was privately owned by Key West developer David Wolkowsky, who kept a home there. He later donated the island to The Nature Conservancy, which transferred it to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Today it is protected wildlife habitat rather than a destination, so there is no dock for tourists and no line for photos.

What Does "Continental" Mean Here?

Strictly speaking, Key West is not on the North American continent at all. It is an island at the end of a chain of islands. When the buoy says “continental U.S.A.,” it means the lower 48 states and the islands that belong to them, as opposed to Hawaii and the U.S. territories. The southernmost point of mainland Florida, meaning the continent itself, is Cape Sable in Everglades National Park, more than 30 miles north of Key West’s latitude.

The Southernmost Points of the Whole U.S.

Take away the “continental” qualifier and Key West is not even close:

Ka Lae (South Point), Hawaii on the Big Island, at about 18.9° N, is the southernmost point of the 50 states, nearly 400 miles farther south than Key West.
U.S. territories reach much farther. American Samoa lies south of the equator entirely, putting its southern reaches around 14° S.

So Why Is the Buoy Here?

The corner of South and Whitehead is the southernmost point you can reach on a public street in the continental United States, free and open at any hour. Whitehead Spit is off-limits, Fort Zach has gates and an entry fee, and Ballast Key is a wildlife refuge across open water. The buoy sits where anyone can walk up to the edge of the country and look out toward the Caribbean. That is what the marker celebrates, even if a surveyor would add a footnote.

Key West also has a solid claim to being the southernmost city in the continental United States, a title nobody disputes. That is why so many businesses on the island put “Southernmost” in their names. See our guide to Key West’s other “southernmost” landmarks.

The buoy’s other famous claim, the distance to Cuba, gets its own fact-check in Is Cuba Really 90 Miles Away?

Sources: Wikipedia: Southernmost Point Buoy, Wikipedia: Ballast Key.

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