Southernmost Point of the Continental USA

How to Get There

Head southwest on Flagler Ave toward First St. Turn right onto White St. Turn left at the 3rd cross street onto South St

Overview

The Southernmost Point Buoy is an anchored concrete buoy in Key West, marking the southernmost point in the continental United States, the lowest latitude land of contiguous North American states. It is 18 feet above sea level. The large painted buoy was established as a tourist attraction in 1983 by the city at the corner of South Street and Whitehead Street. It is one of the most visited and photographed attractions in the United States. The southernmost point was originally marked with a small sign, before the City of Key West erected the now famous concrete buoy in 1983. The concrete buoy has overall withstood several hurricanes and is a gathering place for photographs and tourists. The painted concrete buoy is 12 feet tall and 7 feet wide. The buoy paint job was done by local painter-artist Danny Acosta, and the City of Key West hired him to paint again after it was damaged by Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Accuracy

A more southern part of Key West Island exists and is publicly accessible: the beach area of Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park, and approximately 500 feet farther south than the marker. Also, the Big Island of Hawaii is farther south than Key West. Further south, land on the Truman Annex property, just west-southwest of the buoy, is the true southernmost point on the island (approximately 900 feet farther south, but it has no marker since it is U.S. Navy property and cannot be entered by civilian tourists. Finally, the true southernmost point in Florida (as well as in the continental United States) is actually 10 miles away at Ballast Key, an island south and west of Key West.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Southernmost Point of the Continental US" which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0