Geiger Key is an island in the lower Florida Keys about east of Key West. It is located to the south of, and bridged to, Big Coppitt Key via Boca Chica Road at about mile marker 11 on U.S. 1. It has the small trailer park community of Tamarac, Geiger Key Pub & Grill and Geiger Key Marina. It is part of the census-designated place of Big Coppitt Key, Florida. It was named after Henry Huling Geiger, an early Keys settler, who had obtained land on the Key in 1843 under the "Armed Occupation Act of 1842". . He also owned property in the city of Key West. Henry Geiger was the son of John Geiger of Pennsylvania and Catherine Huling of Maryland, who had emigrated to St. Augustine in Spanish Florida in 1805.. From John Viele's "": "A. D. Bache, in the notes for his Coast Survey conducted in 1861 says of the Key: 'Geiger's Key is 2 miles long and 1 mile wide. It was in good cultivation in 1855 , and was then inhabited by an industrious German, from whom it derived its name'"... referring to Henry Huling Geiger. Henry expanded his holdings in the area through purchase of an adjacent plantation owned by Adolf Santini in 1867. The same reference, and Federal Census Records, also indicate that Henry was a planter/farmer, woodcutter, and tanner, and that he was assisted by a free blackgentleman, Robert Allen, at least two other single men, and at least one slave. Henry had one child, a son, John Robert Geiger, born out of wedlock, for whom he sought legitimacy through an act of the Florida State Assembly in 1850.. No record of a wife or other children has been found. After his death in September 1872, his son and heir, John Robert Geiger, sold his father's land holdings to his uncle, Captain John Geiger of Key West in April 1873. No physical architectural remains of the original Geiger Key plantation have survived. Henry Geiger's younger brother, CaptainJohn Henry Geiger, had previously settled, and was a well-known citizen of Key West, having settled there before Henry's arrival in the Keys. Captain Geiger was a successful Key West wrecker with whom John James Audubon lived during his 1832 stay in the Keys. Audubon painted and named a local species of flowering tree which was growing in Captain Geiger's gardens the "Geiger Tree". Captain Geiger's home and gardens in Key West have been preserved and restored as a museum, store and event venue as "Audubon House and Tropical Gardens".
