The island, which sits about 50 yards off shore, is home to four monkeys: Ebony, Emily, Eve and. Hamlet had originally captured those monkeys for use in perfecting the polio vaccine in America. Monkey Island resides in the middle of the Homosassa River and is often called Monkey Alcatraz. John Hamlet, a naturalist who had worked at Weeki Wachee before working for Furgy at the wildlife attraction. Included in the attraction was a group of monkeys who were brought to America by Dr. This was a wildlife attraction (which later became the Homosassa Wildlife State Park) featuring imported plants and exotic animals. Meanwhile, Furgy had another business venture going further upstream.
#MONKEY ISLAND HOMOSASSA FREE#
Many boaters discovered the rocks just a moment too late when they crashed over them – losing the bottom of the boat in the process! Furgy left instructions with a dragline operator who was working for him at the Crow’s Nest to “pile some dirt around those rocks so the boaters would see them better.” Apparently the dragline operator got a bit carried away – when Furgy returned to Homosassa, he found that a small barren island had appeared in the river just outside the Yardarm! In an effort to dress up what he considered to be an eyesore, he first built a small lighthouse on the island. Free launches are available in Homosassa from the boat dock at MacRaes or from the kayak launch behind Riversport Kayaks we recommend the kayak launch and its easy trailer parking area. Instead, it was a pile of rocks hiding just below the surface that could not be seen at high tide. At that time, Monkey Island was not an island at all. In the 1960’s, Furgy traveled to Africa on an extended trip for the Cattle Company.