HISTORY68 - Florida Keys

Two family members suggested topics that led to my writing this article on the history of the Florida Keys.  A few years ago, Pat recommended a book about an old railroad that used to run along the length of the Keys - a book that proved both illuminating and fascinating.  Then, more recently, my brother Al suggested that I write about the little-known Fort Jefferson at the southwestern end of the Keys.

 

So, after a short introduction, I will talk about the landscape of the Florida Keys, the first native peoples in the Keys, Spanish and English exploration and occupation, and then the United States history of the Keys, including Fort Jefferson, the overseas railroad, and the overseas highway.  I will close by discussing selected events in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, today’s economy and tourism in the Florida Keys, and protected marine reserves and wildlife refuges.

My principal resources include The Greatest Railroad Story Ever Told:  Henry Flagler & the Florida East Coast Railway’s Key West Extension, by Seth H. Bramson, 2011;  “Florida Keys,” “Dry Tortugas National Park,” “Fort Jefferson National Park,” “Fort Jefferson (Florida),” “Overseas Railroad,” “Overseas Highway,” “Key West,” “Fort Zachary Taylor State Park,” “Naval Air Station Key West,” and “Timeline of Florida History,” Wikipedia; “Florida Keys,” britannica.com; “Florida Keys History,” floridakeysnews.info;  “Florida Keys,” newworldenclyclopedia.org; “The Florida Keys - Rich in History,” “The Highway That Goes to Sea,” and “A Historical Timeline of the Rise and Fall of the Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad,” fla-keys.com; “The Overseas Railroad:  Florida’s ‘Key’ to a Perceived Paradise,” thehistorybandits.com; plus numerous other online sources.

Introduction

The Florida Keys are an archipelago of about 1,700 coral islands in the southeast United States.  They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about 15 miles south of Miami, and extend in an arc, southwest by south, and then westward to Key West, and on to the Dry Tortugas.  Key West is the southernmost city of the continental United States, and at the nearest point, the southern tip of Key West is just 94 miles from Cuba. 

The Florida Keys extend from just south of Miami in an arc southwest by south, and then westward to Key West, and on to the Dry Tortugas. 

 

The islands, stretch for a distance of 220 miles, along the Florida Straits, dividing the Atlantic Ocean to the east from the Gulf of Mexico to the west, and defining one edge of Florida Bay.  The Dry Tortugas, a small archipelago of seven major islands, are located about 70 miles west of Key West, and are the home of Dry Tortugas National Park and Fort Jefferson.

The Overseas Highway (U.S. Highway 1) extends 113 miles from Key Largo to Key West and incorporates 42 bridges, leapfrogging from island to island.

The total land area of the Keys is only 137.3 square miles, about 13% of the area of the smallest U.S. state, Rhode Island. (The total land area of the Dry Tortugas is 0.2 square miles.)  The 2020 United States census tabulated the total population of the Florida Keys at 82,847, although much of the population is concentrated in a few areas such as the city of Key West, which is home to 32 percent of the entire population of the Keys.

The word Key comes from the Spanish word cayo, which means little island.  The name Florida Keys, therefore, means “little islands of Florida.”  The name Dry Tortugas derives from the fact that when Spanish explorers arrived, no fresh water could be found, and the small hump-shaped islands looked like tortoise (tortuga in Spanish) shells from a distance.

Landscape

Geology.  The Florida Keys have taken their present form as the result of the drastic changes in sea level associated with periods when glaciers were present over the land.  Beginning some 130,000 years ago melting glaciers raised sea levels to approximately 25 feet above the current level.  All of southern Florida was covered by a shallow sea.  Several parallel reefs formed along the edge of the submerged Florida plateau, stretching south and then west from the present Miami area to what is now the Dry Tortugas.

Starting about 100,000 years ago, formation of a glacier began lowering sea levels, exposing the coral reef and surrounding marine sediments.  By 15,000 years ago the sea level had dropped to 300 to 350 feet below the level today.

The northeastern Keys are remnants of large coral reefs, which became fossilized and exposed as sea level declined.  The southwestern Keys are composed of sandy-type accumulations of limestone grains produced by plants and marine organisms.

Soil ranges from sand to marl (rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt) to rich, decomposed leaf litter.  In some places, "caprock" (the eroded surface of coral formations) covers the ground.  Rain falling through leaf debris became acidic and dissolved holes in the limestone, where soil accumulated and tree roots found purchase.

 

Satellite view of the eastern end Florida Keys, without the Dry Tortugas.

Climate.  The Florida Keys are in the subtropics between 24- and 25-degrees north latitude.  The climate and environment are closer to that of the Caribbean than the rest of Florida.  The climate is tropical, and the Keys are the only frost-free place in Florida.  

There are two main seasons:  hot, wet, and humid, from about June through October, and somewhat drier and cooler weather from November through May.  Many plants grow slowly or go dormant in the dry season.  Some native trees are deciduous, and drop their leaves in the winter or with spring winds.  Despite occasional exposure to tropical systems, the Dry Tortugas are the driest place in Florida.

Hurricanes present special dangers and challenges to the entire Florida Keys.  Because no area of the islands is more than 20 feet above sea level, and water surrounds the islands, nearly every area is subject to devastating flooding as well as hurricane winds.  

Flora and Fauna.  The native flora of the Florida Keys is diverse, including mangroves, sea grasses, and trees such as red maple, slash pine, and oaks, growing at the southern end of their ranges, plus mahogany, gumbo limbo, stoppers, and Jamaican dogwood.  Several types of palms are native to the Florida Keys.

The well-known and very sour Key lime (or Mexican lime) is a naturalized species, apparently introduced from the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where it had previously been introduced from Malaysia by explorers from Spain.  The tree grows vigorously and has thorns, and produces golf-ball-size yellow fruit which is particularly acidic (even in highly alkaline coral sand soil) and uniquely fragrant.  Naturally, Key lime pie was invented here as well.

Some of the Tortuga Keys have thin growths of mangroves, while others have only small patches of grass, or are devoid of plant life.

The climate also allows many imported plants to thrive.  Some plants that seem to define the Keys today are not native, including coconut palm, bougainvillea, hibiscus, and papaya.  Nearly any houseplant known to commerce, and most landscape plants of the South, can thrive in the Keys’ climate.

The Keys are also home to unique animal species, including the Key deer and the American crocodile.  Other fauna include sea turtles and the endangered manatee.  More than 600 species of fish live in the reefs.

First Peoples

The Florida Keys were originally inhabited by Calusa and Tequesta Native Americans.

The Calusa people inhabited Southwest Florida, and were descendants of Paleo-Indians who resided in Florida approximately 12,000 years ago.  Calusa territory reached from Florida’s southwest coast to the islands of the Florida Keys.  Hunting animals, and gathering roots and fruit that grew on trees, was a mainstay until they discovered the waters contained a wealth of fish. This new food source required significantly less time than hunting and gathering their food, and allowed the Calusa time to establish a centralized government, the construction of a canal system for farming, the beginnings of organized religion, and the creation of many art forms.  Calusa political influence and control also extended over other tribes in southern Florida, including the Tequesta (see below).  Estimates of the total Calusa population at the time of European contact range from 2,000 to 20,000. 

The Tequesta were a small, peaceful, Native American tribe, one of the first tribes in South Florida, and they settled near Biscayne Bay in the present-day Miami area in about the 3^rd century BC.  They built many villages at the mouth of the Miami River and along the coastal islands. They also occupied the Florida Keys at times.  Like the other tribes in South Florida, the Tequesta were hunters and gatherers.  The Tequesta situated their towns and camps at the mouths of rivers and streams, on inlets from the Atlantic Ocean to inland waters, and on barrier islands and keys. The Tequesta were dominated by the more numerous Calusa.  Estimates of the number of Tequesta at the time of initial European contact range from 800 to 10,000.

Spain and England:  1513 - 1821

The Florida Peninsula and the Florida Keys, including the Dry Tortugas, were first charted and claimed for Spain in 1513 by explorer and conquistador Juan Ponce de León (1474-1521).

 

Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon first charted the Florida Keys in 1513.

Note:  Spain maintained control of Florida for 250 years, until 1763, when the French and Indian War ended with the Treaty of Paris, and Florida was split into West and East Florida, both territories of Britain.  Then, in 1783, with the Treaty of Paris, ending the American Revolutionary War, Britain ceded Florida back to Spain.

The Spanish didn’t see any use for the Florida Keys except logging mahogany and taking Native Americans as slaves.  The Spanish were really after gold and they didn’t find any in the Keys. 

However, the Spanish found plenty of gold in Mexico and Peru, as they conquered the Aztec and Inca Empires.  From the mid-1500s to almost 1800, the Straits of Florida, east of the Florida Keys, saw hundreds of Spanish galleons traversing the area bound for Spain with gold and riches from Central America.  The ships traveled through poorly-mapped reefs that could easily sink them.  The slow-moving, heavily laden galleons were also prime targets for pirates.  One of the greatest fears was tropical storms and hurricanes.  With no way to forecast the storms or to predict their tracks, ships were completely at the mercy of wind and waves.

Spanish sea routes, to carry New World riches back to Spain, traversed the Straits of Florida, east of the Florida Keys.

  

Note:  An astounding 681 ships are known to have been sunk between 1492 and 1898 off the coast of the Americas.  It is believed that less than a quarter of them have been found.

Between 1763, when Great Britain took control of Florida from Spain, and 1821, when the United States took possession of Florida from Spain, there were few or no permanent inhabitants anywhere in the Florida Keys.  Cubans and Bahamians regularly visited the Keys, the Cubans primarily to fish, while the Bahamians fished, caught turtles, cut hardwood timber, and salvaged wrecks.  Smugglers and privateers also used the Keys for concealment. 

During both the British and Spanish periods, neither nation exercised effective control of the Florida Keys.

United States

On February 22, 1821, Spain officially ceded Florida to the United States as part of the Adams–Onís Treaty that settled boundaries between Spanish and American territories.

Note:  On March 30, 1822, the Florida Territory was organized, combining West Florida and East Florida (including the Florida Keys).  And on March 3, 1845, Florida was admitted to the Union as the 27^th U.S. state.

The first permanent non-native settlers arrived in the Florida Keys at Key West in about 1822, and engaged in fishing and salvaging shipwrecks.  (The rest of the Keys remained au naturel and deserted until the 1870s.) 

After legislation was passed in 1828 by the U.S. Congress, requiring salvage from wrecks in U.S. waters to be brought to an American port of entry, Key West became the wealthiest city per capita in the infant United States - by salvaging old shipwrecks. 

Major industries included salvage, fishing, turtling, and salt manufacturing.  From 1830 to 1861, Key West was a major center of U.S. salt production, harvesting the commodity from the sea (via receding tidal pools). 

The isolated outpost was well located for trade with Cuba and the Bahamas, and was positioned on the main trade route from New Orleans. 

In 1845, construction of Fort Zachary Taylor (named after the 12^th president of the U.S.) began in Key West, as part of a mid-19^th century U.S. plan to defend the southeast coast through a series of forts after the experience of the War of 1812. 

The city of Key West in 1856.

  

During the American Civil War, Florida seceded and joined the Confederate States of America, but Key West remained in U.S. Union hands because of the military base. 

Fort Zachary Taylor was an important Key West outpost during the Civil War.  In 1861, construction began on two other forts, East and West Martello Towers, which served as side armories and batteries for the larger fort.  When completed, they were connected to Fort Taylor by railroad tracks for movement of munitions.  Early in 1864, 900 men from the 2^nd United States Colored Troops (USCT) arrived in Key West as replacements for the 47^th Pennsylvania Volunteers.  Many of these men would see action in southern Florida and the 2^nd USCT would become "one of the most active" black regiments in Florida. 

Note:  Fort Zachary Taylor was heavily used during the 1898 Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, and the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Fort Taylor was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and designated a National Historic Landmark and State Park in 1973.

 

Aerial view of Fort Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West.

 

After the outbreak of the Civil War, Union troops shut down the salt industry, when Confederate sympathizers smuggled the product into the South.  Salt production resumed at the end of the war, but the industry was destroyed by an 1876 hurricane and never recovered, in part because of new salt mines on the mainland.

In the mid-1870s, the U.S. government looked toward the rest of the Florida Keys with an eye towards developing its homesteading program.  These new settlers used whatever they could find to build their homes, including wood washed up on shore from shipwrecks.  They managed to grow pineapple, melons, coconuts, and oranges on the rocky land.  They used small boats to carry their produce out to larger boats that took their wares to larger markets.

In the 1860s and 1870s, during the Ten Years' War (an unsuccessful Cuban war for independence), many Cubans sought refuge in Key West.  Several cigar factories relocated to the city from Cuba, and Key West quickly became a major producer of cigars.  A fire on April 1, 1886 destroyed 18 cigar factories and 614 houses and government warehouses.  Some factory owners chose not to rebuild, leading to a slow decline in the cigar industry in Key West.  Still, Key West remained the largest and wealthiest city in Florida at the end of the 1880s, with a population of 18,000 people.

USS Maine sailed from Key West on her fateful visit to Havana, where she blew up and sank in Havana Harbor on February 15, 1898, igniting the Spanish-American War.  Crewmen from the ship are buried in Key West, and the Navy investigation into the blast occurred at the Key West Customs House.

Fort Jefferson:  1846-1874

While Key West was developing, 70 miles to the west, in the Dry Tortugas, the stage was being set for construction of another military installation, as a companion to Fort Zachary Taylor.

In 1825/1826, a lighthouse was built on Garden Key to guide ships around the area’s reefs and islands, along one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. 

In 1845, it was recognized that the spacious Garden Key harbor, nestled within the islands and shoals that make up the Dry Tortugas, offered ships the chance to resupply, refit, or seek refuge from storms.   

Moreover, officials realized that Garden Key and its harbor was a perfect location for an additional military base to help defend the southeast coast of the United States.  By fortifying the harbor, the United States could maintain an important “advance post” for ships patrolling the Gulf of Mexico and the Straits of Florida.  In enemy hands, the Tortugas would have threatened the heavy ship traffic that passed between the Gulf Coast (including New Orleans, Mobile and Pensacola) and the eastern seaboard of the United States.  It could also serve as a potential staging area, or “springboard” for enemy forces.  From here they could launch an attack virtually anywhere along the Gulf Coast.  

Ironically (see below), a key recommendation to build a fort on Garden Key was made by Robert E. Lee, then a Captain in the U.S. Army. 

Construction of Fort Jefferson (named after the third U.S. president) began on Garden Key in December 1846.  Poised to protect this valuable harbor was one of the largest forts ever built -  a six-sided structure, with two walls measuring 325 feet, and the other four measuring 477 feet.    

Note:  Nearly thirty years in the making (1846-1875), Fort Jefferson was never finished nor fully armed.  Yet it was a vital link in a chain of coastal forts that stretched from Maine to California.  Though never attacked, the fort fulfilled its intended role.  It helped to protect the peace and prosperity of a young nation.

Fort Jefferson today, on Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas portion of the Florida Keys.

At the onset of the Civil War in 1861, Union troops were moved to the fort, preventing it from falling into the hands of rebel forces.  Throughout the war, the incomplete fort was staffed with Union soldiers.  Union warships used the harbor in their campaign to blockade Southern shipping.  The fort was also used as a prison, mainly for Union deserters, peaking at 882 prisoners in 1864.  Its most famous prisoner was Dr. Samuel Mudd, the physician who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth.

The fort’s seawall was finally completed in 1872, and 243 large-caliber guns were emplaced. (The guns were never fired.)

In 1874, frequent hurricanes and yellow fever epidemics convinced the War Department to remove the garrison, leaving only a small caretaker force for the armaments and ammunition.

In 1889, the Army turned the fort over to the Marine Hospital Service to be operated as a quarantine station.  The U.S. Navy used the Garden Key as a station to store coal to refuel ships.

Neglected, stripped by vandals, swept by repeated tropical storms that crushed brick and concrete and bent girders, Fort Jefferson deteriorated rapidly.  It remained unoccupied until war with Spain broke out in 1898.  The American fleet was stationed there.

In 1902, the property was transferred to the Navy Department, and coal rigs and water distilling plants were built.  When these were destroyed by hurricanes in 1906, the fort was again abandoned. Two years later the entire group of islands was set aside as a federal bird reservation.  Until 1934, Garden Key and the crumbling ruins were merely a rendezvous for fishermen and tourists.

During WWI, the lighthouse was decommissioned, but a wireless station and naval seaplane facility were operational.

Note:  On January 4, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, designated the area as Fort Jefferson National Monument.  Between 1935 and 1938, the Works Progress Administration performed structural renovation and historic preservation work on site.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 10, 1970.  On October 26, 1992, the Dry Tortugas, including Fort Jefferson, was established as a National Park.

Overseas Railway:  1905 - 1935

The Keys were long accessible only by water. This changed with the completion of Henry Flagler's Overseas Railway in the early 1912. 

Henry Flagler (1830-1913) was a principal in the firm of Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler, and later a founder of Standard Oil during the Gilded Age in the United States. The wealthy Flagler took an interest in Florida while seeking a warmer climate for his ailing first wife in the late 1870s.  Returning to Florida in 1881, he became the builder and developer of resort hotels and railroads along the east coast of Florida.

Beginning with St. Augustine, he moved progressively south.  Flagler helped develop Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach, and Palm Beach, and became known as the Father of Miami, Florida.

Flagler's rail network became known as the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC).  By 1904, the FEC had reached Homestead, south of Miami.

Henry Flagler built the “impossible” Overseas Railroad.

 

The industrialist had already transformed Florida’s east coast into the vacation hotspot it remains today, by bringing together its hotel, railroad, and steamship development into a systematic enterprise accessible to tourists. An overseas railroad to Key West would be his crown jewel, the final feat to fulfill his romantic vision of a revolutionized Florida.

In 1905, after the United States announced the construction of the Panama Canal, Flagler became particularly interested in linking Key West to the mainland.  Key West, the United States' closest deep-water port to the Canal, could not only take advantage of Cuban and Latin American trade, but the opening of the Canal would allow significant trade possibilities with the West Coast.

Construction began on the Overseas Highway in 1905 in Homestead, Florida, looking to reach Key West with an ambitious series of 23 over-water railroad trestles, linking islands along the route.   One of the longest bridges, the so-called Seven Mile Bridge, connected Knight's Key to Little Duck Key.  The piling-supported concrete bridge was 6.79 miles long. 

Construction of concrete piers for the Overseas Railway.

 

Workers stayed in 14 camps established throughout the Keys, including several two-story floating dormitories.  At one time during construction, four thousand men were employed. 

During the seven year construction, three hurricanes - one in 1906, 1909, and 1910, claimed 200 lives, and threatened to halt the project.

Despite the hardships, the final link of the Florida East Coast Railway to Trumbo Point in Key West was completed in 1912 for a total project cost of more than $50 million ($1.25 billion in 2019).

On January 22, 1912, a proud Henry Flagler rode the first train into Key West aboard his private railcar, marking the completion of the railroad's oversea connection to Key West and the linkage by railway of the entire east coast of Florida.

The first Overseas Railway train arrived in Key West on January 12, 1912.

 

During its years of operation, freight traffic volume on the single-track overseas extension was disappointing, as the anticipated growth in Panama Canal cargo shipping through Key West failed to materialize.  Other American coastal cities, like New Orleans and Miami, had successfully claimed increased trade business.  Moreover, the overseas railroad was expensive to maintain and faced constant exposure to storms. 

Local Key West and online freight consisted of coal, fruit, and building materials.  Trains of tank cars brought potable water to Key West from mainland Florida.

Before the Great Depression hit, passenger traffic consisted of both local and long-distance trains.  In 1929, the Havana Special was the premier train, providing year-round coach and sleeping car service between New York and Key West, daily except Sundays, with connecting ferry service beyond to the Cuban capital.  With speed restricted to 15 miles per hour on the long bridges, it took a leisurely four and a half hours to travel the distance between Key West and Miami.

Overseas Railway train traversing a long trestle.

 

The death knell of the Overseas Railroad came courtesy of Mother Nature with the Category 5 Labor Day Hurricane of September 2,1935.  Winds were estimated to have gusted to 200 mph, raising a storm surge more than 17.5 feet above sea level that washed over the islands.  More than 400 people were killed.

Note:  The Labor Day hurricane was one of only four hurricanes to make landfall at Category 5 strength on the U.S. coast since reliable weather records began (about 1850).  The other storms were Hurricane Camille (1969), Hurricane Andrew (1992), and Hurricane Michael (2018).

When rescue workers, one of whom was a young Ernest Hemingway, arrived on the scene, they found total destruction and heavy losses of life and property.  The forty-plus miles of track between Key Largo and Key Vaca were destroyed.   Nineteen miles of track had been swept off its roadbed, with an additional six miles disappearing completely.  The bridges, however, survived with minor damage.

The hurricane rendered Key West inaccessible by a direct land route for the first time since 1912.

The storm ended the 23-year run of the Overseas Railway.  With the U.S. in the grip of the Great Depression, the damaged tracks were never rebuilt.

In 1979 the three longest historic railroad bridges were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.    In August of 2004, the remaining 20 historic Railroad Bridges and the Overseas Highway were listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Overseas Highway:  1938 - Present

The Overseas Highway replaced the railroad as the main transportation route from Miami to Key West.

The concept of an Overseas Highway began with the Miami Motor Club in 1921.  The Florida land boom of the 1920s was underway and the club wanted to attract tourists to fishing areas on the Florida Keys, which could only be reached by boat or train at the time.  The land boom also attracted real estate interests, who sought vehicular access to the upper Keys where there were thousands of acres of undeveloped land.  The completion of the railroad further proved a highway through the Keys was feasible.

But it wasn’t until 1935, after the destruction of most of the Overseas Railway due to the Labor Day hurricane, and the ending of railroad transportation from Miami to Key West, that the Overseas Highway project really got going.

The old railroad roadbed and remaining bridges were sold to the State of Florida, which built the Overseas Highway to Key West, using much of the remaining railway infrastructure.

The railroad's bridges, which withstood the hurricane and were in good condition, were retrofitted with new two-lane wide concrete surfaces for automobile use.

Construction of the Overseas Highway, 1936.

 

Construction proceeded rapidly, and the Overseas Highway was opened for use on March 29, 1938. 

Running from the mainland to Key West, the 113-mile highway connects all of the main islands and is one of the longest overwater roads in the world, with 42 bridges, including the old Seven Mile Bridge.

The highway route became the southernmost segment of U.S. Route 1, which previously terminated in Miami. 

Portions of the road were tolled until April 15, 1954; toll booths were located on Big Pine Key and Lower Matecumbe Key.  Pigeon Key, roughly the midway point of the Seven Mile Bridge, served as the headquarters for the "Overseas Road and Toll District."  The toll for automobiles was $1, plus 25 cents per passenger.

Since the 1950s, the Overseas Highway has been refurbished into a main coastal highway between the cities of Miami and Key West.

In the early 1970s, parts of the highway were expanded to a four-lane divided highway.  The widening was the beginning of a much larger project to rebuild much of the Overseas Highway, which included replacing the aging repurposed railroad bridges with more modern bridges, some of which are able to accommodate more than two lanes of traffic.  The more modern bridges were completed in the early 1980s.

Overseas Highway traversing the Seven Mile Bridge.

 

Note:  In 2009, the Overseas Highway was designated as Florida's first and only All-American Road by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, among only 30 other roadways in the nation that have earned the prestigious title.

Selected Significant Events of 20^th and 21^st Centuries

In 1917, a U.S. naval submarine base was established on the main island of Key West.  Its mission during World War I was to supply oil to the U.S. fleet and to block German ships from reaching Mexican oil supplies.  The base was designated as Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West in December 1940, and served as an operating and training base for fleet aircraft squadrons, to include seaplanes, land-based aircraft, carrier-based aircraft, and lighter-than-air blimp squadrons.  Today, NAS Key West is an air-to-air combat training facility for fighter aircraft of all military services, with favorable flying conditions year-round and nearby aerial ranges. 

In 1926, Pan American Airlines was founded in Key West, originally to fly visitors to Havana.  The airline contracted with the United States Postal Service in 1927 to deliver mail to and from Cuba and the United States. 

During World War II, more than 14,000 ships came through Key West’s harbor. The population of Key West, because of an influx of soldiers, sailors, laborers, and tourists, sometimes doubled or even tripled at times during the war.

In 1942, a pipeline bringing fresh water from the Everglades was put in through the Keys, and the government began promoting the Florida Keys as a vacation destination.

Starting in 1946, U.S. President Harry S. Truman established a working vacation home in Key West, the Harry S. Truman Little White House, where he would spend 175 days of his presidency.

Prior to the Cuban revolution of 1959, there were regular ferry and airplane services between Key West and Havana, and large numbers of Cubans settled in Key West.  But, with the takeover of the Cuban government by Fidel Castro in 1965, these services stopped.  The Keys still attracted Cubans, fleeing repression and poverty in their home country.

In 1982, the United States Border Patrol established a roadblock and inspection point on U.S. Highway 1, stopping all northbound traffic returning to the mainland at Florida City, to search vehicles for illegal drugs and illegal immigrants.  After various complaints and legal actions against the blockade, the inspection station roadblock was removed.

Today’s Economy and Tourism. 

Tourism and commercial fishing are the major components of the Florida Keys economy today.  Recreational activities in the Keys include snorkeling, scuba diving, and world-class sportfishing,

Successful sportfishermen off the Florida Keys.

 

The Florida Keys attract several hundred thousand tourists annually.  While some visitors arrive via Key West International Airport and Florida Keys Marathon Airport in Marathon, cruise ship or ferry from Miami or Fort Myers, the vast majority of tourists drive from the mainland on U.S. 1.   This influx of traffic, coupled with the two-lane nature of U.S. 1 through most of its length in the Keys, and the fact that no alternative road routes are available, contribute to the Keys having the highest per capita rate of fatal automobile accidents in the state of Florida.

Principal tourism areas of the Florida Keys.

 

Some of the tourist highlights (traveling north to south in the Keys; see map above) include:

Key Largo, the largest of the Keys, about 30 miles long and formerly known for its plantations of key limes.  John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, which contains large living coral formations, was the first undersea park in the United States.  It is some 25 miles long and three miles wide, and lies along Key Largo’s east coast.  

Islamorada, located mainly on Upper Matecumbe Key, has a monument to World War I veterans and victims of the 1935 hurricane. 

Long Key State Park is on Long Key, just southwest of Islamorada. 

Marathon, the main town of the middle keys, is a center of extensive resort development.  Nearby is the Museum of Natural History of the Florida Keys and a dolphin research center. 

Bahia Honda State Park, on Bahia Honda Key, features a large area of tropical palms and beach recreation facilities.

Key West tourist activities include Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, the Audubon House and Gallery, Key West Aquarium, the Ship Wreck Treasure Museum, the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum, the Butterfly and Nature Conservancy, the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, and Harry Truman’s Little White House.  There are local eco, jet ski, and wildlife tours; snorkel & sail adventures; and dolphin watches; plus daily trips to Dry Tortugas National Park by ferry, chartered seaplane, and private boat

Protected Areas

Most of the Florida Keys fall within the boundaries of marine reserves and wildlife refuges, including three national parks.  These protected areas are shown on the map below.

Protected areas of the Florida Keys.

 

Here is some information the larger protected areas:

Everglades National Park, the third-largest national park in the lower 48 states after Death Valley and Yellowstone National Parks.  Most of the Keys in Florida Bay are within the park.  Everglades has been declared an International Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site, and a Wetland of International Importance.

Biscayne National Park is located a short distance south of Miami Beach.  Ninety-five percent of the park is water, and the shore of the bay is the location of an extensive mangrove forest.  Several of the northernmost Keys are included in the 207-square-mile park.  The offshore portion of the park includes the northernmost region of the Florida Reef, one of the largest coral reefs in the world and one of the top scuba diving areas in the United States.  The park also preserves Biscayne Bay, a shallow lagoon that is approximately 35 miles long and up to 8 miles wide.

The Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge runs along the north side of the Keys in the area that borders the Gulf of Mexico.  The 203-square-mile refuge, 10 square miles of land) was established in October 1938 as a haven for great white herons, migratory birds, and other wildlife.  Approximately three-square miles of the refuge are designated as a National Wilderness Area.  The refuge is administered as part of the National Key Deer Refuge.

Dry Tortugas National Park preserves historic Fort Jefferson and the Dry Tortugas section of the Florida Keys. The park covers 101 square miles, mostly water, about 68 miles west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico.  All the westernmost keys are included in this park.  It is famous for abundant sea life, colorful coral reefs, and legends of shipwrecks and sunken treasures.

The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, established in 1990, includes a 3,700-square-mile area surrounding the Keys, and reaching into the Atlantic Ocean, Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.  It includes the third-largest coral barrier reef in the world.  It also has extensive mangrove forest and seagrass fields. 

 

Another place to add to my bucket list.