Long Key

Early historical charts show Long Key variously labeled as Viper Key or Rattlesnake Key, a name that is believed to have come from the island's rough shape like that of an open-mouthed snake head.  In 1845, the War Department took possession of the island with the intent to build a reservation on it, a plan that never came to be.  By 1880, parts of the island were being privately acquired and large stands of coconut trees were being planted here.  Coconuts were prized not so much for their fruit, but for their fibers which were used to make rope and also to seal the hulls of sailing ships to make them watertight.

By 1906, railroad workers had reached Long Key and construction of the viaduct from Long Key to Conch Key was underway.  In October of that year, a hurricane struck Long Key and swept away a barge housing 150 railroad construction workers.  Nearly half of them were lost as the barge broke up in deep water.  Shortly thereafter, the railroad set to building many quarters and other buildings on Long Key to house railroad workers and other construction activity.

By 1907, the train itself had arrived at Long Key and construction of the viaduct began in earnest.  The Long Key viaduct was the second longest bridge on the railroad, at just over two miles, and was Flagler's favorite.  Many of the bridges were utilitarian structures that were purpose-built.  The Long Key Viaduct was a sweeping structure of concrete arches.  The bridge still stands today, although traffic no longer uses it.


Train Crossing the Long Key Viaduct

When the viaduct was completed, construction moved on and many of the railroad buildings were used for the Long Key Fishing Camp.  The camp enjoyed enormous popularity from 1908-1909 onward, with guests coming from Miami on the train.  More buildings were constructed, including a 75 room hotel, a post office, a general store and many cottages.  In 1911, cowboy and writer Zane Grey vacationed at Long Key, and returned every year thereafter.  In 1917, the Camp officially organized as the Long Key Fishing Club with Zane Grey as its president.  Many notable Americans belonged, including presidents Hoover and Roosevelt.

Of course, we all know what happened in 1935.  The Labor Day hurricane destroyed the fish camp and along with it, the Long Key Fishing Club.  The island remained a ghost town until the mid-1940's when it was acquired by Del Layton.  Layton set about re-establishing first the fish camp, with cabins and a restaurant, then expanding it into the city of Layton, which incorporated in 1963.  Layton remains an incorporated city today.

Be careful driving in this area, as the speed limit drops in the incorporated town of Layton and doesn't rise again until you leave Long Key.  You will see a police car on the side of the road in Layton, but it is empty and has been here for at least 19 years.  I think it is an empty shell of a car they just repaint every year.  In any event, the real police are usually not far behind and it's very easy to get a ticket in Layton.

The central and southern side of Long Key is taken up by the Long Key State Park.  This is an EXCELLENT park to spend a day in if you are staying in the middle or upper keys. There are several nature trails that offer views of the mangroves and the things that live in them, and a canoe "trail" you can follow in the shallow waters of the lagoon with stops along the way to see the plant and animal life on the bottom.  Canoes are available for rental at the park.  Otherwise, there is little to see or do on the island as you pass through.

Leaving the island, you will cross the new Long Key Viaduct, the 12th bridge you'll cross in the Keys.  Just before you do, though, at around MM 65.5, there is an opportunity to pull off to the left (heading south) and walk out onto the old viaduct.  Unfortunately, without a boat it is difficult to get a good view of the majestic old arches of the original viaduct. 

After crossing the bridge, you'll be on Conch Key.  Conch Key was briefly a construction camp for the railroad.  At the time, the railroad skirted the southern edge and everything to your left as you head down, did not exist.  This land was dredged up and created sometime in the 1950's.  Today, Conch Key is home to about 100 residents, but little for the traveler to see or do.

Conch Key is connected by a filled causeway to the next island, Little Conch Key - also known as Walker's Island.  Little Conch Key was public land until 1946 when it was sold to the Walker family who built a home and several rental cottages here.  By 1960 a causeway connected it to the highway.  Today, about eight private homes are down the causeway on Walker's Island.

Leaving the Conch Keys, cross your 13th bridge at MM 61.5 - Tom's Harbor Bridge #3 (no, I don't know what happened to bridges #1 and #2 any more than I know what happened to channels 1, 3 and 4) on to Duck Key, as you approach the extremely built-up area of Marathon.

Craig and Fiesta Keys

54 days to go.  It's been 10 days since I wrote in here, sorry about that, I've been traveling and sort of busy!

So where were we?  Right, we had just left Anne's Beach on Lower Matecumbe Key and crossed the Channel #2 bridge just past MM 73 (bridge #10).  When Henry Flagler was constructing the Overseas Railroad in this area, he encountered the second longest stretch of open water that needed to be bridged - nearly four miles from the tip of Lower Matecumbe to Long Key.  The water in this area, though, is mostly shallow, and Flagler set out doing what he did best after building railroads - building land.  About halfway between Lower Matecumbe and Long Key and just south of the straight line route between them is a shallow flat that Flagler immediately set to filling.  This area is today just south of MM 72 and is the southwestern half of what is now one big island called Craig Key.  The two bayside island appendages prior to MM 72 did not come until much later.  Craig Key was unique at the time as the railroad was double-tracked at this point and even three-wide in one place.  This created a wider-than-normal fill, which left a lot of land (relatively) to be built on after the hurricane destroyed the railroad.  The waters on either side of Craig Key remained open as they were deepwater channels difficult to fill.  These are Channel #2 and Channel #5.  No one seems to know what happened to Channels 1, 3 and 4.

Following the opening of the railroad in 1912, Craig Key was the location of maintenance and construction facilities to maintain and support the railroad.  A deepwater dock was constructed and likely a small fishing camp.  By the 1920's, Craig Key became a popular location for fishing charters out of Miami complete with a train station and the aforementioned dock.  In the early 1930's, after the completion of the railroad and before its destruction, much of the island was leased from the railroad by a Captain R. W. Craig - a lease that was honored by the state highway department after the hurricane destroyed the railroad and the island reverted to the highway department when it acquired the railroad right-of-way.  By the mid-1930's, the island sported a hotel, a post office and a small town with a population between 20 and 30.  Still populated in the 1950's, the two additional islands north of the fill were constructed and joined to the main fill.

Today, nearly all of the original settlement at Craig has been destroyed by the expansion and widening of the highway.  A few houses remain on the two small islands constructed in the 1950's, but little else exists there now.

Leaving Craig Key, cross Channel #5 (bridge #11, MM 71) to the fill leading to Fiesta Key.  The Channel #5 bridge is a spectacularly high span, nearly a mile long, that will provide you sweeping vistas in every direction.  If you did not already feel like you were driving across the sea, it's around here that you probably will.

From here, you'll enter a contiguous piece of land from Fiesta Key to Long Key.  Originally, the railroad completely bypassed Fiesta Key (then known as Jewfish Key and later Jewfish Bush Key), running just to its south.  The first Overseas Highway, opened in 1928, crossed this section of the Keys on the ferry from Lower Matecumbe to No Name Key.  With the railroad to the south, and the ferry to the north, little happened on Jewfish Key.  When the Bonus Army arrived in the Keys to construct the roadway from Lower Matecumbe Key to begin replacing the ferry, work began on a road from Lower Matecumbe to Long Key, starting with a bridge from Lower Matecumbe to Jewfish Key.  This is the bridge of which nothing remains but eight concrete pilings and a small fill off of MM 73.

With the destruction of the railroad, this project was abandoned and the railroad right-of-way repurposed for the road.  As more and more fill was dredged up and more and more land constructed, Jewfish Key eventually became connected to the roadway.  By the mid-1940's, bus service had been established to Key West by Florida Motor Lines, later acquired by Greyhound.  Fans of Humphrey Bogart will recognize Florida Motor Lines as the bus ridden by Major Frank McCloud at the beginning of the 1948 Bogart/Bacall film "Key Largo".

Greyhound set about building a rest stop and restaurant on Jewfish Bush Key.  This was an enormously popular stop for a while with dozens of busses a day carrying military personnel back and forth to Key West.  By the early 1950's, a post office was constructed and the island rechristened "Greyhound Key".  By 1966, bus traffic had fallen off and Greyhound sold the island to KOA Kampgrounds of America who once again renamed the island, this time to Fiesta Key.  The island remained a KOA until it was sold in 2006 to a developer of luxury vacation homes.  The KOA closed in 2007, but the luxury homes never materialized and the property changed hands several times since.  It's currently a sad and run-down RV park.  Avoid the turnoff here and continue on to Long Key.