From The Banks of the Old McKay

From The Banks of the Old McKay
by Charlie Harper

Majestic McKay Creek flows from its beginnings in mid-Pinellas County toward the bay in a graceful ebb of an ever-changing environment. At some points along the creek, the stately herons stand their ever-watchful guard for a next meal; Florida alligators roam along the banks; and as you approach the bay, docks and boats stand ready for easy access to fun on the water. This ancient and historic waterway runs gracefully through subdivisions with well-mannered banks while at other spots it appears little more than a ditch almost decayed with neglect.

One can only imagine what this virgin area appeared like when in 1843 the three McKay brothers first settled on this land of pines and palmettos. The Armed Occupation Act of 1842 promised veterans of the Second Seminole Indian War 160 acres of land free and clear if they would develop five acres and stay on the land for five years. George, Charles and Alex McKay petitioned for 160 acres each. The land they chose in West Hillsborough County started at the banks of this beautiful creek about four miles south of the old Fort Harrison in Clear Water Harbor. The three brothers McKay would become the first white settlers in what some years later would become the City of Largo, Florida.

In 1843, less than 100 white settlers lived in West Hillsborough; miles separated these early homesteads, no roads, not even trails, ran between these far away places.

McKay's Build Their Homes

The McKay’s built their rugged homes of cut pine along the creek which now carries the name McKay Creek. History now tells us that one of the McKay brothers was probably killed along the creek during the great Gale of 1848. By the mid-1850s, the remaining McKays had left the McKay Creek area.
New land owners came prior to the great Civil War. Captain John Lowe sailed past McKay Creek and purchased land just south of the creek, his new settlement that he named Lowe’s Landing. Lowe’s became the first settlers store in the area south of Clear Water Harbor. Union Navy sailors coming south down the bay in 1862 used McKay Creek as a reference point in finding Lowe’s Landing where they burned a sailing craft tied up at the dock. After the war, West Hillsborough County lay in ruin like most of the south, bankrupt with little commerce; the area was slow to grow.

Augustus A. Archer purchased the land on both sides of McKay Creek near the bay in the early 1880s. On the south side of the creek Archer grew cotton, while on the north side a lime grove prospered. The lime grove was followed by a very successful pineapple field. Going north from the bay several other families now settled along the creek. The Dewar’s, Turner’s and James Kilgore cleared land along the creek. Using McKay Creek as a source of water, the land was used for farming and the beginning of a new industry, orange and grapefruit groves.

Roads and Bridges are Built

The first few decades of the 20th century brought little change to the creek as it peacefully graced the area with fresh water and a great place to fish. One of the first bridges, a crude wooden bridge, spanned McKay Creek along the trail that we now call Indian Rocks Road. In 1912, Pinellas County separated from Hillsborough County. One of the first actions taken by the new Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners was to build a series of roads to connect the distant points of the county. About 1916, a brand new 8-foot-wide brick road was built between downtown Clearwater, Anona and Indian Rocks. A wooden-frame bridge was built across McKay Creek; another bridge would be built across McKay Creek in the 1930s as part of a public works project by the CCC. The Civilian Conservation Corps would dig out and enlarge what is now Taylor Lake which at that time was a wide spot in McKay Creek. The new bridge along what is now called Eighth Avenue S. W. was built over the creek (currently Pinecrest Golf Course).

Recalling the Memories at McKay's Creek

Long-time Largo residents and Largo Area Historical Society members Don Forehand and Bob Gibson remember swimming and fishing in McKay Creek as boys. “I was just a boy when the Eighth Avenue bridge was built,” remembers Forehand. “Big ‘ole gators swam along the creek in those days,” Forehand remembers. Bob Gibson reflected about fishing along the creek…”the old snook hole was located on the east side of the bridge just before the creek turned north,” Gibson said. “The snook hole was a very deep spot along the creek where the water ran fast and deep - the snook loved that spot”. In the 1950s, McKay Creek was a popular swimming hole in Largo. Society members Bonnie Fyfe McGee, Lonnie Marsh Wellington and Charlie Harper talk about many a summer day spent swimming along the banks of McKay Creek.

In 2010, McKay Creek still makes it way slowly to the bay. Pollution from septic tanks, runoff from the many subdivisions along the creek, and a disgraceful neglect of the old waterway north of 20th Street have taken much of the beauty away from the old creek. Many new residents have no idea that the historic creek is more than a little drainage ditch. No history signs mark the creek; no nameplates on bridges proudly proclaim the name McKay Creek.

From the bootlegging days of the 1920s when run runners anchored in the creek off-loading their cargo, to kids swimming in the 1950 to the present day, McKay Creek still flows and for many, it is that shining waterway they are proud to call the McKay!