11 Things You Must Eat and Drink in the Keys

The Keys are known for a lot of things, not the least of which is the food and drink.  If you've been here before, there's a good chance you've tried some (or all) of these things.  If this is your first trip down, here are the things you absolutely MUST try while you're here.

Conch Fritters at Alabama Jack's

There are plenty of places in the Keys to get conch fritters.  If you're new to the Keys, conch is a giant sea snail native to the warm waters of the Caribbean, whose sweet meat is a local delicacy.  Conch is available in a lot of different forms, but the most common is in conch chowder, cracked conch (a steak-like filet), and conch fritters.  Conch fritters are a deep-fried fritter of flour, cornmeal, peppers and conch meat - and there are none better than the ones at Alabama Jack's.  While most fritters have tiny little bits of meat, Alabama Jack's fritters are chock full of HUGE pieces of deliciously sweet conch meat.  Served in the outdoor setting on Card Sound, there's no better place to stop for lunch on the way down from the mainland to the Keys.  Honorable mention to the grouper fingers and the conch salad - a marinated, ceviche-like blend of tomatoes, peppers and tons of conch meat.

Smoked Fish Dip at the No Name Pub

Like conch fritters, there are plenty of places to get smoked fish dip in the Keys.  At the No Name Pub, you'll get a huge portion of dip full of great big pieces of smoked Yellowfin Tuna.  Best known for its eccentric decor and odd location, most people rave about the pizza at the No Name, but if you're passing through on your way to Key West and looking for a "different" snack and a cold drink, don't miss the fish dip at the No Name Pub.  Don't forget to cross the bridge to No Name Key and check out the tiny Key Deer while you're here!

Liquid Breakfast at Pepe's

Caroline Street across from Land's End Village.  It's a toss-up between Pepe's and Camille's (below) for the best bloody mary in Key West, and the mimosas made with fresh squeezed oranges are outstanding.  No better place for a hair-of-the-dog liquid breakfast!

Breakfast at Camille's

On Simonton Street at the corner of Catherine.  Camille's is not cheap - bring plenty of money.  But it's worth every cent.  They have a selection of eggs benedict and omelets that is nothing short of decadent.  Crab meat, lobster, shrimp and stone crab piled high on eggs.  No matter what you order, make sure you get the CUBAN toast and forget the grits and hashbrowns and go with the fresh sliced tomatoes.  Wash it all down with bloody marys that rival the ones at Pepe's.

Richard's Very Good Pancakes at Blue Heaven

Choose plain or your choice of pecan, pineapple or banana - the banana are to die for.  You'll get a stack of three of the best pancakes you'll ever taste.  You'll dine outside with chickens running amok around you (don't feed them) and an occasional cat or two (don't feed them, either) in this funky little place on the corner of Thomas and Petronia in Bahama Village.  The wait here can sometimes be as long as two hours.  And don't even THINK about parking around here.

Grouper Sandwich at B.O.'s Fish Wagon

The B.O. here is Buddy Owen, the owner.  Located almost right across the street from Pepe's on the corner of Caroline and William Streets, this is another funky "wooden table and license plates nailed to the wall" kind of outdoor place that sort of looks like a junk heap.  Get the fried grouper sandwich, and be hungry - it's quite a handful.  A great big hunk of fish on a sub roll.  Used to be if you asked for "the special" you'd get free fries on the side, but I don't think they're free anymore since word got out to the tourists about this one.  They serve beer here in bottles, but if you're not in the mood for one or want something lighter, try the fresh-squeezed limeade.

Cuban Mix at Sandy's Cafe

The island is dotted with lots of Cuban cafes in all sorts of odd places.  Sandy's is adjacent to a laundromat (M&M) on the corner of White and Virginia.  Like many of the Cuban places, it's a walk-up window with a handful of stools scattered around outside.  Get the Cuban Mix - a genuine Cuban sandwich with roast pork, ham, cheese, lettuce, and pickles all pressed panini-style on a half-loaf of Cuban bread.  It's definitely big enough to share.  Wash it down with a con Leche.

Almost Anything at El Siboney

El Siboney is off the beaten path and perhaps the best Cuban food on the island.  It's a small, unassuming place in the middle of a residential neighborhood, at the corner of Catherine and Margaret.  The sides here are excellent - no matter what you order, forget the french fries and salad and make sure you get the black beans and YELLOW rice and the fried plantains.  The main courses are the usual assortment of Cuban beef, pork and seafood dishes.  I recommend either the garlic shrimp or the Siboney Steak.  Whatever you do, definitely wash it all down with a glass (or a pitcher) of homemade Sangria.

Key Lime Pie on a Stick

What more can I say about this?  A piece of key lime pie.  A stick in the back end of it.  Dipped in chocolate.  Frozen solid and eaten like a popsicle.  It doesn't get any better than this on a hot day.  You can get them all over the island, but for some reason they always taste best on the waterfront at the Key West Ice Cream Factory.

Key Lime Shooters at Hog's Breath Saloon

Creamy and delicious, it's like drinking a key lime pie.  Order the shooter to try it, or order the drink to get a giant one in a big cup.  Either way it's ridiculously good and is a dessert in and of itself.

The Late Night Pizza Debate

Angelina's or Mr. Z's?  The battle rages on over the best late night drunk food.  Face it, both have good pizza, especially when it's 3:00 in the morning.  Mr. Z's has great cheesesteaks too, but it's way down on Southard.  Angelina's, on the other hand, is closer to the big bars on Duval, right across from Sloppy's and next to Rick's - and they have beer.  And the rowdy kids working there will likely give it to ladies free if you're willing to "show off" ;)

Approaching Key West

Once you leave Sugarloaf Key, you're in the homestretch to Key West.  Despite Key West's popularizing the "Mile Marker 0" location, you actually enter Key West at MM 4m so you're now only 13 miles to Key West.  You'll cross 11 final bridges in those 13 miles as you hop from island to island.  The land here is low.  In her book "Key West & The Florida Keys", author June Keith calls it "a land that's mostly water, a sea that's mostly sky", and that's exactly what it is.  Thousands of mangrove islets dot the water and there is little development over the next several miles.

First up is the Harris Channel bridge (#32) at MM 16.4.  This will take you to the first of the Saddlebunch Keys.  The Saddlebunch Keys are not individually named, and most are not much above sea level.  Next up is the Lower Sugarloaf Channel at MM 15.4, which will take you over to the largest settlement in the Saddlebunch Keys.  The community of Baypoint - on the Ocean Side at MM 15 has about 500 people.  Right at the entrance to Baypoint is Baby's Coffee.  If you like specialty or just good coffee, stop in Baby's - they usually have a large variety of coffees for you to choose from, and all of them are very good.

Saddlebunch #2 bridge is next - look to the Gulf side here to see what the Saddlebunch Keys are about - there are literally dozens and dozens of islands out there, many of which are very tiny.  You can often see single mangrove trees growing out of the water.  Mangrove trees "make islands" - as they spread, their roots capture all sorts of detritus, silt and vegetation and create land.

The only other settlement in the Saddlebunch Keys is on the next island.  After the bridge, around MM 14.4 on the Ocean Side is the tiny community of Blue Water.  Saddlebunch Bridge #3 is next.  You'll notice that the old railroad bridges no longer exist down here - they were removed after the modern bridges were built.  The new bridges down here are now paralleled by narrow bridges that carry a bicycle path.  The islands themselves are devoid of anything except mangroves and the ever-present power line along the highway.

More of the same, crossing Saddlebunch #4, Saddlebunch #5 and Shark Key Channel to Shark Key.  The road runs along a fill on the south end of Shark Key where the railroad was.  The old road, after running along the southern edge of Sugarloaf Key, bypassed the smaller Saddlebunches and crossed over to Geiger Key.  Shark Key, Big Coppitt Key and Geiger Key are all connected by fill now.  After passing MM 11 you'll cross fill to Big Coppitt Key, and Boca Chica Road on your left will take you down to Geiger Key where you'll find a nice bar and restaurant at the marina.

Big Coppitt Key and the Rockland Keys are suburbs of Key West and home to many people that work in Key West or at the Naval Air Station on Boca Chica Key.  As such, they are very highly developed, in stark contrast to the last 5 miles.  Many services line the road here.  If you have a rental and are returning it in Key West, fill up here - you'll save a few dollars on a tank versus filling up in Key West.  You'll do even better on Summerland or Ramrod Keys.

At MM 9.5 you'll cross Rockland Channel to East Rockland Key.  East Rockland, Rockland and Boca Chica Key are all connected through fill.  The railroad ran through this area along the current highway, and the old road ran along Boca Chica Road, south of the Air Station.  The old road is still open most of the way across Boca Chica.  The highway opens up to four lanes here, and the entrance to/from the Naval Air Station is found at MM8 in the form of an actual interchange, the only one along the entire Overseas Highway.  Despite the proximity to Key West here, the entire island is mostly consumed by the Naval Air Station with little to see or do along the road.

At MM 6.3 the four-lane Boca Chica Channel bridge will take you to Stock Island.

Stock Island allegedly got it's name from the livestock that was housed here.  Being an island, no fences were nesessary.  The old road crossed from Boca Chica to Stock Island where Maloney Road is now.  It followed Maloney up to MacDonald, and paralelled the railroad from there to Key West.  Today, the bridge ends at MM 6 where you are actually briefly on railroad fill attached to the southern end of Raccoon Key.  Raccoon Key, to the north of the highway, is mostly the residential community of Key Haven.  The city of Key West is currently trying to figure out how to annex the community of Key Haven since there are many expensive homes there.

A small fill at MM 5.1 takes you to Stock Island proper.  Stock Island is divided north/south by the highway.  Everything north of the highway is within the city limits of Key West, while everything south is unincorporated Monroe County.  Stock Island was briefly an incorporated city of it's own in the 1960's, but that was short-lived.

The city of Key West has no interest in the southern half of Stock Island.  Perhaps this is because this half of the island is covered in trailer parks and lower-value housing.  There is also a higher crime rate here.  The northern half, however, is a base of services for Key West and Monroe County.  The northern half of the island is looped by College Road, which intersects the Highway at MM 5.1 and MM 4.2.  Heading around College Road counterclokwise from MM 5.1, you'll pass the entrance to the Key West Golf Club, which fills most of the inside of the College Road loop, then at the northern tip of the island, the Florida Keys Community College and the Memorial Hospital, next an Elementary School is on the right, followed by the landfill.  The landfill looks like a small mountain, thus it's nickname "Mount Trashmore".  The top of the landfill is the highest point in all of the Florida Keys.  Passing Mount Trashmore, the Monroe County Detention Center is next on the right, followed on the left by a series of Monroe County and City of Key West government buildings on the left, abutting the Golf Club behind them.  Back to the highway at MM 4.2, a right turn will take you to the island of Key West.

If you stayed on Route 1, the mile between MM 5 and MM 4 is littered with auto service stations, scooter rentals, and the ridiculously overpriced Bone Island Liquors, who apparently spend all of their inflated profit on tons of neon.  Primary intersections at Cross Street and MacDonald Avenue take you to the south end of Stock Island.

Two very good seafood restaurants are to be found on Stock Island.  The Hogfish Grill is popular with locals and has gotten lots of press lately, including several visits from Food Network celebrities.  The Rusty Anchor has gotten some not-as-good reviews lately, but had the best cracked conch steak I ever had, the last time I went there.  That was in 2007, though, so caveat emptor.

Sugarloaf Key

Crossing Bow Channel at MM 20 will take you to Sugarloaf Key.  Sugarloaf Key is a U-shaped island.  From MM 20 to MM 19, you're on Sugarloaf Key, then you'll cross a bridge to Park Key, another bridge to a small island, then a third bridge BACK to Sugarloaf around MM 17.

Crossing Bow Channel, the old road was to the right (headed south) of the railroad.  On Sugarloaf Key, the old road crossed the railroad and headed south.  You can make a left on this road today, but it will take you only to the KOA Kampground and shortly after that the road is gated off and you can not go any further.  The old road followed the east side of the island, curved to the west, then followed the southern shore of Sugarloaf all the way to its western edge.

Directly across the street from the turnoff to the old road is Mangrove Mama's.  Mangrove Mama's is another watering hole worth stopping at on your way down the road.  At night they have live music.

The map above shows the path of the current road and the old road (in red).  There was little population and no development on Sugarloaf until 1910 when the Chase family founded the Florida Keys Sponge Factory in the area of the present day Sugarloaf Lodge at MM 17.  A small town of around 50 people spring up and was named Chase.  A post office was built, and when the railroad opened in 1912, it included a stop at the town of Chase.  But the sponging business did not work out so well, and by 1920 the factory was bankrupt and the Chase family had sold their property to Richter Clyde Perky.

Perky was a tourism visionary, and his vision of Sugarloaf Key was not one of industry, but one of tourism.  Perky envisioned a luxurious hotel, casino and resort here.  In 1928, the road arrived and Perky had a road constructed from what remained of the town of Chase down to the road along the southern shore.  This road still exists as Sugarloaf Boulevard and passes through the highly-developed community of Sugarloaf Shores.  The town of Chase, the post office, and the railroad depot were all renamed "Perky".

The major obstacle to Perky's success were the ever-present hoardes of hungry mosquitoes.  As one resident of the time supposedly said "you could swing a pint cup and come up with a quart of mosquitoes."  Meanwhile, Perky had read of a Dr. Charles Campbell of Texas who had allegedly had success controlling mosquitoes by building towers to house bats, which, in turn, were supposed to devour the mosquitoes.  Perky baited the tower with a secret formula of bat-bait from Dr. Campbell, which was almost certainly nothing more than bat shit.  Nevertheless, the bats are not there, and there is no evidence that they ever were.  Perky ended up building a lodge anyway, but it burned along with most of the town of Perky in 1943.

The bat tower is one of the most peculiar sights in an already pretty peculiar area.  It is located very close to the main road and is only a short detour off the path.  To get there, make a right just past MM 17, past the modern-day Sugarloaf Lodge.  There is (as of 2011 at least) a sign at the turn-off for the Sugarloaf Airport advertising flight-seeing tours.  After turning off Route 1, stay to the left at the first fork, then stay to the right at the second fork.  You can not miss the bat tower dead ahead of you.

The Torches, Ramrod, Summerland and Cudjoe Keys

The Torches

Leaving Big Pine Key, you'll cross bridge #22 over North Pine Channel, a small railroad fill, then bridge #23 over South Pine Channel, and on to Little Torch Key.  The modern road at this point is on the railroad right of way - the original road a few miles north of here along No Name Key, Watson Road, over Bogey Channel, and across Big Pine Key on Watson Blvd.  The road would cross Pine Channel about a mile and a half north of here and onto Little Torch Key.  From there it turned south and joined back up with the railroad on Little Torch.

The Torch Keys are named for the torchwood tree that grows here.  The torchwood tree is named for its unusual property of burning even while wet and green.  There is little documented history of the Torch Keys.

Once on Little Torch Key, at the first intersection, just to the left, is the entrance to the Little Palm Island resort.  Nothing is here but the welcome center, the actual resort is on a palm-coverd island called Munson Island about two and a half miles south of here.  LIttle Palm Island is an ultra-exclusive secluded resort with rooms from many hundred to several thousand dollars per night.  Past the Little Palm Island welcome center is where most of the residential development of Little Torch Key is found.

Another quarter of a mile down the road is where the new road meets the old road at around MM 28.2.  If you turn right here on SR-4A, you can follow it up about a mile and a half and see the other side of where the old road came in from Big Pine Key.  The bridge is long gone, however.

Cross the Torch Key Viaduct at MM 28 to Middle Torch Key.  The portion of Middle Torch Key that the railroad and road crossed, and still crosses, is mostly fill attached to the southern end of Middle Torch Key.  There is one intersection on Middle Torch Key, and if you want to explore, turn right here onto Middle Torch Road.

The Keys are full of "roads to nowhere".  Some of these are remnants of the old road, with the best example being the southern edge of Sugarloaf Key.  Some were built to service particular facilities, like the road to Boot Key.  Some were built in anticipation of future development that ever quite got off the ground.  The best examples of these are on the northern ends of the Torch Keys, Cudjoe Key and Sugarloaf Key.  If you make the turn onto Middle Torch Road, the road winds nearly four miles north with about a dozen scattered homes on Middle Torch Key.  A little over two miles up, you can make a left turn onto Dorn Road to Big Torch Key.  This road has some small developments in the first two miles or so, then another five or six houses another mile down the road.  But it's not done.  The road winds another two and a half miles before petering out on Big Torch Key, with another one or two houses up there.  All told, nearly eight miles of road exist on Middle and Big Torch Keys with nearly nothing there.  An old map of Big Torch Key I have has the far north end platted out - 1st Ave, 2nd Ave, etc, but these plans never became reality and Big Torch Key remains a great big, mostly empty, island with a very long road to nowhere.

Ramrod Key

At MM 27.5, cross bridge #25 (Torch-Ramrod) to Ramrod Key.  Ramrod Key is named for a shipwreck that occurred on the reef a few miles offshore here.  The first intersection here on the left is West Indies Drive, where all the residential development on Ramrod Key is.  On the left hand side just past here, is where the Looe Key dive center is.  Looe Key is a few miles south of Ramrod Key and is one of the most popular spots to dive in the lower Keys.  There is a convenience store here and a gas station.  Just ahead on the right is one of the most popular bars and restaurants to stop on the way through the Keys.  Boondock's Grille has decent food and cold beer.  For some reason they have a miniature golf course here too.  You can't miss it, it's a wooden building on the right with a thatch roof.

Summerland Key

Head out of Ramrod Key at MM 26 over bridge #26 (Niles Channel) to Summerland Key.  Summerland Key is a highly residential island with little early history.  The island was unspoiled and undeveloped through the end of World War II, when Henry Hudgins bout the island from the Niles family and began development.  There is not much here for the traveler - some commercial development on the Ocean Side between MM 25 and MM 24 which consists of a few professional buildings, a couple of banks, some gas stations and a post office.  Closer to MM 24 are a few restaurants and the Mote Marine Laboratory.  The far western end is slightly less built up.

There is a private airstrip on Summerland Key and there are homes that butt right up to it that you can literally fly in and out of.  Summerland Key is also home to the Mile Marker 24 Band and was also the home of singer/songwriter Fred Neil, probably best known for his song "Everybody's Talkin'", most famously recorded by Harry Nilsson in 1968.

Leave Summerland Key at MM 23.6 and cross Kemp's Channel (bridge #27) to Cudjoe Key.

Cudjoe Key

Cudjoe Key is split north-south by the Overseas Highway.  To the south of the highway is almost exclsively residential, with a huge concentration of people and homes south of the highway between Kemp's Channel and MM 22.  There are many places in the Keys where street names are named after fish, and many more where they have pirate-themed names.  Here there are both.  Wahoo, Snapper, Bonito.  Jolly Roger, Doubloon, Galleon, and the "main" street, Spanish Main Drive.  Somewhere farther up the Keys, one of the pirate neighborhoods has a "Pieces of Eight Road", my favorite of the pirate roads.

At MM 22.6 on the south (Ocean) side, is the Square Grouper Bar and Grill.  I don't know much about the food (they keep strange hours here), but the Square Grouper has some great T-shirts.  "Square grouper" is a nickname for the bales of marijuana that Keys fishermen would occasionally fish out of the sea.  At one time there was so much marijuana coming into and out of the Keys that drug boats would simply toss their cargo overboard if in danger of being caught. 


Twin Fat Albert blimps on Cudjoe Key

At MM 21.5 on the north (Gulf) side is Blimp Road.  Blimp Road leads up to an Air Force facility that is a satellite of Joint Base Homestead.  This is the home of two blimps casually referred to as "Fat Albert".  One or the other Fat Albert is usually up in good weather keeping eyes and ears over the Florida Strait, watching and listening for illegal drugs and immigrants crossing the Strait from Cuba and the Caribbean into the Keys.  In addition, the blimps broadcast TV Marti to Havana, similar to the radio Marti broadcast from Boot Key.  The government of Cuba jams the transmission though, so it isn't received in Havana.  In 1991, one of the Fat Albert blimps broke off it's tether, drifted across Florida Bay and crashed in the Everglades, where it sat for months before they salvaged it.

At MM 21 is another residential development on the south (ocean) side.  At MM 20.3 you'll cross Bow Channel to Sugarloaf Key.

Big Pine and No Name Keys

After crossing the Spanish Harbor Bridge at MM 33.5 you'll arrive at Big Pine Key.  You'll see lots of signs here telling you you're approaching Key Deer habitat and you do need to take these signs seriously.  Daytime speed limits on the highway are 45 and at night it drops to 35.

Big Pine is the second largest island in the chain, behind only Key Largo.  North to south, it stretches about eight miles, and east to west about two.  About three and a half miles of US-1 cross Big Pine today along the path of the railroad from 1912 to 1935.

Little is known for certain about the early history of Big Pine Key.  There were not many residents between 1870 and the arrival of the railroad.  What few residents WERE there were mostly engaged in farming and charcoal-making, as the large island lent itself well to growing hardwood trees.  Even Flagler himself didn't set down here long, stopping only briefly with a small construction camp that was later torn down and rebuilt on Sugarloaf Key.

Northeast of Big Pine Key is the ominous and mysterious No Name Key.  Until this year (2012), there was no commercial electrical power on the island, despite several dozen homes.  There is still no running water, the residents dependent on wells and pumps.

Map of Big Pine and No Name Keys - Click to Enlarge

In 1928, when the first Overseas Highway opened, the stretch from Lower Matecumbe Key to No Name Key was a ferry crossing.  By 1930, a road had been constructed from Grassy Key to Hog Key, and separate ferries plied the water between Lower Matecumbe and Grassy Key, and from Hog Key to No Name Key.  The original highway is now State Road 4A on No Name and Big Pine Keys.  No Name Key briefly enjoyed some popularity from 1928 to 1938 as cars headed to or from Key West would use the ferry dock on No Name Key.  A small village sprung up at the ferry landing.  The road crossed No Name Key on what is now Watson Road, crossed over Bogey Channel to Big Pine Key, followed Watson Blvd on Big Pine Key, then crossed to Little Torch Key on a wooden bridge, turned south, then rejoined the railroad route before crossing to Middle Torch Key.

Today, people come to Big Pine Key for a several reasons, but overwhelmingly the most popular attraction here are the tiny Key Deer.  Highly endangered and numbering only in the several hundreds, these miniature deer exist nowhere else in the world other than Big Pine Key, No Name Key, and a few neighboring islands that they occasionally swim to.

Immediately upon arriving on Big Pine Key, if you'd like you can make the first left on Long Beach Drive.  There is a small chance you may see some deer down this road, but otherwise this road is a bit disappointing.  Most inappropriately named, there is no beach down here, much less a long one.  The road winds down about a mile and a half and peters out in a small community.  Head back to the highway and make a left to continue south on US-1.

The next mile or so, from MM 33 to MM 32 is deserted.  There are high fences on both sides of the road in an attempt to keep the deer OFF of the road.  Another half mile later, the highway will bear to the left and deposit you in downtown Big Pine Key.  After a few blocks you'll arrive at a traffic light at the intersection with Key Deer Blvd.  Turn right at the light, and then immediately take the left fork onto Key Deer Blvd.

Here's where you REALLY need to slow down.  The speed limit here is as low as 25 and they are not kidding.  Have your camera ready, too, as some of the best Key Deer viewing is along this road.  Travel up Key Deer Blvd about a mile and a half to the stop sign at Watson Blvd (old SR 4-A, the old highway).  Continue straight, watching for Key Deer on both sides of the road, and even IN the road. 

Can you spot the Key Deer?

After 1.2 miles there will be a small parking area on the left side of the road.  You can park here and explore the Blue Hole if you like.  The Blue Hole is the remains of a quarry dug during the railroad construction that is filled with fresh water.  As the water is fresh, there are alligators there and you can get very close to them on a boardwalk over the hole.  There is also a nature trail.  Bring PLENTY of mosquito repellent - especially in the summer months.  Also, there is poisonwood in the area which will leave you a nasty rash/burn if you touch it, so don't touch any unfamiliar plants!

How many Key Deer do you see here?

Continue north on Key Deer Blvd from Blue Hole for another 1.0 miles.  There is no development in this mile and it is prime Key Deer viewing territory.  Watch carefully!  After this mile, the road will bear slightly right and end in another 2/3 of a mile.  In that 2/3 of a mile there is a community on the left hand side.  Turn down each of the two roads in the community - they are called Gulf Blvd and Kyle Blvd.  There are many homes down here and you are very likely to see Key Deer in the yards and/or the side streets.  Continuing to the very end, there is a small building on the left hand side that is the Big Pine Key Lions Club.  There are almost always Key Deer in the Lions Club parking lot!

Tips For Spotting Key Deer

• DRIVE VERY SLOWLY
• Be aware of what's behind you - if you are going TOO slowly, pull over and let traffic pass
• Watch the tree line on both sides of the road.  Deer are often either just AT or just BEHIND the tree line
• DO NOT feed the deer and DO NOT entice them to your car or into the road - a deer that eats from a car will eventually be killed by one!
• Use a telephoto lens to get close to them
• When you see one deer, there will almost ALWAYS be another one or more close by
• The PINK lines on the map above are the MOST LIKELY places to see Key Deer!

When you reach the end of Key Deer Blvd. turn around and head back south.  When you get back to the stop sign at Watson Blvd, turn left, go 3/4 of a mile, the road will bear left (north), then right again after a little bit.  Cross the bridge to No Name Key.  Be careful of the fishermen and women on both sides.  Once you get to No Name Key, stay on Watson Road and watch both sides of the road.  No Name Key probably has better deer spotting than even Big Pine Key.  Follow Watson Road to the
end, but don't go down the side streets, the neighbors are much less friendly here!

You'll know you've reached the end when you encounter the very large white rocks blocking your path and keeping you from driving into the sea.  If you'd like, you can park the car here and get out.  Walk down to the water and you can see the remains of the old ferry landing, and a short ways away some of the coral foundations are still here from the small village that existed here from 1928 to 1938.

Head back out the way you came.  Cross over the bridge back to Big Pine Key, and on your right, tucked into the trees a bit, you'll find the No Name Pub.  Readers of Tim Dorsey will recognize the No Name Pub from the book Torpedo Juice.  The No Name Pub is famous for the thousands of dollar bills stapled and taped all over the inside walls.  They have very good pizza, cold beer, a pretty good smoked fish dip, and really cool T-shirts.  Leave a dollar on the wall when you go.

When you're done exploring, head back the way you came.  Just before you get back to US-1 is a small shopping center with a Bell's, a Winn Dixie, and a Pet Store.  There's also a Key Lime Pie store where you can get frozen Key Lime Pie on a stick.  And the Key Deer Visitor Center is in here as well.

The Bahia Honda Area

Only 35 days left until we're back in the Keys!

Today I'll talk about the area around Bahia Honda.  As you cross the Seven Mile Bridge, you will leave the Middle Keys area and enter the Lower Keys.  The Lower Keys are not just lower down the island chain, they're also lower to the water, farther apart, and the whole area is much more natural, less populated, and a whole lot waterier.  In fact, from Homestead to here you will have crossed 16 bridges in 86 miles - but you will cross 26 more in just the next 36 miles to Key West.

The south end of the Seven Mile Bridge will land you on Little Duck Key.  On the bay side is a parking lot where you can park and walk out onto the old Seven Mile Bridge.  The first half mile or so is accessible to foot and bicycle traffic and you can usually find fishermen on there.  There is a gap preventing you from going farther than a half mile, and the bridge north of that gap is in serious disrepair.

Just past, on the ocean side, is Little Duck Beach.  This is a small, free, public beach with changing rooms and picnic tables.

There is little else to see on Little Duck Key.  The island is uninhabited.  The original overseas highway bypassed this area on the ferry from Lower Metecumbe to No Name Key, and then later from Knight's Key to No Name Key.  The railroad was just a few feet north (bay side) of where the highway is today.

Leaving Little Duck Key, you'll cross bridge #17 to Missouri Key.  Missouri Key was named by railroad workers homesick for their home state.  Missouri Key is also completely uninhabited, and like Little Duck Key, the railroad ran just north of where the road is today.

Bridge #18 will take you past Mile Marker 39 and across to Ohio Key.  Ohio Key, like Missouri, was also named by homesick railroad workers.  The old bridges parallel the new bridges here and can be walked on, biked on, and fished from.  Nearly all of Ohio Key is covered by a 400+ site RV campground.  The complex includes a swimming pool, a marina, tennis courts, many pavilions, and a small beach.  Ohio Key is sometimes called Sunshine Key, which is also the name of the campground here.

The south end of Bahia Honda Key

Leaving Ohio Key, you'll cross bridge #19 to Bahia Honda Key.  The first mile and a half of Bahia Honda Key is uninhabited and empty.  Just past Mile Marker 37, on the ocean side, is the turnoff to Bahia Honda State Park, after which the highway veers to the right and heads for the new Bahia Honda Bridge (#20).  If, on the other hand, you go to the left, you'll follow a short road which will dead-end at the ocean just a few yards away at the original railroad path. If you take a left here at the ocean and head back north, you'll wind along the shore to the cabins of the State Park.  The park has cabins, camp sites, a dive shop, a marina, and arguably one of the best beaches in all of Florida, let alone the Keys.  This is one of the few natural, sandy beaches in the Keys.

The old Bahia Honda bridge

If, instead, you head to the right at the ocean, you'll go down to the tip of the island along the path of the railroad, past more cabins, campsites, and a few private residences, and eventually you will end up at the old Bahia Honda Bridge.  The old Bahia Honda bridge, constructed in 1912, is unlike any other of the old railroad bridges.  This is because the Bahia Honda channel was the deepest natural channel along the railroad and the typical construction methods using trestled roadway or concrete arches would not work here.  Rather, the bridge was constructed of steel trusses with tall sides.  This caused a great deal of problems when the railroad was converted to a roadway in 1938, as the space between the vertical sides was wide enough only for a single track, and could not accomodate two lanes of traffic.

To solve this unique challenge, the roadbed was instead built up on top of the trusses instead, leading to one of the most unique bridges in the Keys.  This bridge was in regular use for over 60 years, as a train bridge from 1912 to 1935, then as a highway bridge from 1938 until the construction of the new bridge in the late 1970's.  Today, the old Bahia Honda bridge is one of the most photographed spots in the Keys.

Crossing over bridge #20 will land you on Spanish Harbor Key.  Spanish Harbor Key used to be three separate islands but were joined by fill during the railroad construction.  The westernmost key is still sometimes called by it's original name, West Summerland Key - despite being 10 miles EAST of Summerland Key.  There are several homes here on this island, but it's most notable feature are the construction warehouses that still remain standing to this day from the railroad construction.  Some of the car chase scenes at the end of True Lies were filmed here too.

Leaving the Spanish Harbor Keys, SLOW DOWN as you cross bridge #21 to Big Pine Key!  More about this in my next article, but slow down to 35 here.  There's a good reason!

Knight's Key Dock, Pigeon Key and the Seven Mile Bridge

Just 40 days left until we head back to the Keys again!

One of the things that constantly amazes me about the Keys is how much has happened there over the last hundred years.  Thousands of people drive through the Keys every day blissfully unaware of the history surrounding them.  Towns that existed and vanished without a trace.  Roads and highways, railroads, hotels, all gone.  Yet at the same time much still exists if you know where to look.  Besides the obvious, like the old railroad bridges, there are still plenty of old roads, docks and remnants of towns and buildings. 

Knight's Key Dock is a perfect example of a huge development that has competely vanished without a trace and very few people even know it even existed.

When construction began on the Key West Extension of the FEC in 1905, it did not start in the north and simply continue until it reached Key West.  In fact, there were, at times, over 50 different construction sites going on at one time, with supplies and material being delivered to construction camps and depots all throughout the Keys.  Most of the construction through 1908 was focused on the northern half of the railroad due to the difficulty of moving equipment and supplies to the distant southern end of the island chain.  By 1908, the entire northern half of the railroad had been completed through Key Vaca to its southern terminus at Knight's Key.

In the meantime, knowing construction of the bridge between Knight's Key and Little Duck Key, a span of seven miles, would take some time to complete, Flagler began construction in 1906 of a deepwater dock in the channel southwest of Knight's Key.  This dock, about 4,000 feet offshore from Knight's Key, became known as Knight's Key Dock.  Upon its completion in 1908, along with the construction of the railroad trestle from Knight's Key out to the dock, it served as the southern terminus of the railroad from 1908 until the completion of the Seven Mile Bridge in 1912. 

The Knight's Key Dock was a formidable structure.  It consisted of a huge platform in nearly 30 feet of water with deepwater dockage on both sides.  Two tracks served the dock allowing the loading or unloading of two ships simultaneously.  From February 1908 to January 1912, the dock served the Florida East Coast Railway and the Peninsular and Occidental Steamship company, which provided steamship service to Key West and Havana.  Two departures and two arrivals daily to and from Miami served the dock.

Map of Knight's Key Dock showing the
approximate railroad location ca. 1908-1912

In addition, though, the dock also served as a base of construction for the initial portion of the Seven Mile Bridge from Knight's Key to Pigeon Key.  The Knight's Key Dock complex consisted not only of the docks and loading facilities, but there was also a construction hotel and at least two large warehouses, all built on wooden pilings 4000 feet out to sea.  Knight's Key Dock, alone, was an engineering marvel of its time.

Beginning in 1909, construction crews began building a series of concrete pilings, one after another in a seeming "marathon"of construction.  It took three years to build 335 concrete piers and the steel trusses between them five miles, across Moser Channel to within two miles of Little Duck Key.  The last two miles, over shallower water, were built with concrete arches like the Long Key viaduct to complete the Seven Mile Bridge.  During its construction, the bridge actually crossed over the trestle to Knight's Key Dock.  The section of the Seven Mile Bridge over the Knight's Key trestle was the last to be completed, just one day before the opening of the railroad to Key West, as train service to and from the dock would have been disrupted by the track crossover (see map).  However, on January 21, 1912, the final section of the Seven Mile Bridge was bolted over the Knight's Key Trestle, and train service began the very next day with Flagler's arrival in Key West.

No one is certain whatever became of Knight's Key Dock.  Once the Seven Mile Bridge was completed over the trestle, the dock became unusable, and rumor is it was burned to the waterline.  Remnants of the dock and trestle still exist at the bottom of the channel, but no visible trace remains of this busy little transportation hub of 1908-1912.

Pigeon Key

As you travel the Seven Mile Bridge, you'll see an island off to your right about two miles into the bridge (heading toward Key West).  The old Seven Mile Bridge travels right over it.  This is Pigeon Key, and following the arrival of the railroad during bridge construction, it served as yet another construction camp.  At one time over 200 workers were housed on the island in four dormitory-style houses.

Following the completion of the railroad, the construction camp on Pigeon Key was converted to a maintenance camp for bridge maintenance and for the tender of the swing span of the bridge over Moser channel.  This span could spin 90 degrees to allow boat traffic through Moser Channel.  At this time there were several homes and a General Store on the island.  There was even a school and a post office here in the mid-1920's.

Pigeon Key's next role was the base of operations for search and rescue missions following the Labor Day hurricane of 1935.  Following this, the island was part of the FEC holdings that the state acquired when the railroad went under.  The state promptly set about converting the railroad to a highway, and Pigeon Key also served as the headquarters of this operation.

Following the completion of the highway, Pigeon Key was the center of operation for the toll commission that collected tolls for the Overseas Highway.  This operation abruptly ended in scandal in 1954 when the toll takers were found spending tens of thousands of dollars on luxurious parties, food and a swimming pool on Pigeon Key.

The island sustained significant damage in 1960 from Hurricane Donna, and two buildings were completely destroyed.  The rest sat vacant for a while until the University of Miami leased the island from the state for a Marine Lab during the 70's and 80's.

In 1979, construction began on the new Seven Mile Bridge parallel and just to the south of the old bridge.  As the new bridge neared completion in 1981, the swing span of the old bridge was damaged in a traffic accident and the new bridge was accelerated to completion, opening in 1982.

Today, the buildings on Pigeon Key have been restored and it is now on the National Register of Historic Places.  The old bridge is open from Knight's Key to Pigeon Key, but you can not drive.  You can walk or ride a bicycle out to Pigeon Key.  You can also walk down below both the old and new bridges where you can see how the old bridge was built and converted.  The old bridge was only wide enough for one track.  When it was converted to a highway bridge, the rails were pulled up, cross bars laid across the trusses to widen them, then the road constructed on top of the trusses.  The original railroad rails were reused as guardrails.


Conversion of the Seven Mile Bridge from railroad to automotive traffic

Seven Mile Bridge Today

As you cross the Seven Mile Bridge today, be careful as it's still a relatively narrow (by today's standards) bridge.  The bridge runs from MM 47 to MM 40, and is the 16th of the 42 bridges on the Overseas Highway.  Around MM 45, you'll see Pigeon Key off to your right.  At MM 44, you'll see the opening in the old bridge where the swing span used to be.  If you've ever seen the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "True Lies", the climactic bridge scene was shot on the Seven Mile Bridge here, and a portion of the old Seven Mile Bridge was blown up in the movie.

Around Mile Marker 42, you'll see the old bridge change over from concrete piers to concrete arches.  This part of the bridge, between here and MM 40.5 is in serious disrepair.  Around MM 41.5, you'll notice a very large tree growing directly out of the old bridge - no clue how it grows in the concrete.  But perhaps an even bigger mystery is how this tree manages to get decorated every year at Christmas time, despite this section of the bridge being completely inaccessible due to sections of the old bridge being cut out.  The last half mile of the old bridge, from MM 40.5 to MM 40 is restored and is a fishing pier today. 



Henry Flagler and the Railroad

There are just 44 days until our next trip to Key West.  I've been working my way down through the Keys the past couple of weeks in my writing and I'm getting back into another part of the Keys that is among my favorites.  I am very much interested in the history of the Keys and the Florida East Coast Railroad.  By comparison to the Upper Keys and the Lower Keys, the Middle Keys are somewhat boring to me.  The history is not as rich, and from a traveler's perspective there is not as much to do or see as in the Upper Keys or Lower Keys.  To me, although I've vacationed in Marathon before, the Middle Keys have mostly been a place to either pass through or to set up camp as a matter of convenience.  Sort of like Henry Flagler did from 1908-1912.

Before we get into talking about this area though, let's talk a little bit about Henry Flagler.  Outside of Florida, Henry Flagler is not nearly as well-known as many of his contemporary industrialists and captains of industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Most people know the names - John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan.  Even Cornelius Vanderbilt and George Pullman probably enjoy more fame outside of Florida than Henry Flagler.

Flagler was born in upstate New York in 1830.  Despite never receiving higher than an 8th grade education, he worked a series of retail jobs and eventually used family assets to found a salt company in Michigan.  Flagler was the son of Elizabeth Morrison, who was the widow of a wealthy businessman named David Harkness from Ohio.  David Harkness had a son, Stephen, from his first marriage, which made Henry Flagler and Stephen Harkness stepbrothers.

After the failure of his salt venture in Michigan, Flagler moved to Bellevue, Ohio where he became a grain salesman.  Also selling grain in Bellevue was John D. Rockefeller, who befriended Flagler.  After the civil war, Rockefeller left the grain business, moved to Cleveland and started an oil refinery.  Needing some investment, he approached Flagler, who secured $100,000 from the Harkness family.  In return, the Harkness family appointed Flagler their representative in the new venture.  The new venture proved lucrative and soon became the Standard Oil company.  Standard Oil quickly became a monopoly and made Rockefeller, Flagler, Harkness and their partners among the richest men in history.

By 1876, Flagler's first wife. Mary, had become very ill and Flagler's doctor advised they move from New York and Ohio to a warmer climate.  Henry and Mary Flagler spent much of the next five years traveling back and forth to Jacksonville, Florida until Mary died in 1881.  Flagler wasted no time marrying Ida Alice Shourds, who had been his Mary's nurse toward the end of her life.  For a honeymoon, Flagler and Ida traveled to St. Augustine, where Flagler tried to buy the Zorayda Castle (then the Villa Zorayda hotel) for his new wife.  He was unsuccessful, but the Florida bug had bitten him and bitten him hard.

Three years later, in 1884, Flagler stepped down from operation of Standard Oil and returned to St. Augustine.  He made Franklin Smith, owner and builder of the Zorayda Castle, an offer to become his partner in a new hotel venture.  Smith couldn't raise the money, so Flagler ended up building it himself - the enormous (for its time) Ponce De Leon Hotel.  Despite the time period (1884-1888), the Ponce De Leon was wired for electricity - due, in no small part, to Flagler's personal friendship with Thomas Edison.  The hotel still stands today and is part of Flagler College.

Now entrenched in Florida, Flagler envisioned an American Riviera stretching down the Florida Coast, but was unhappy with the transportation system in the state.  With his enormous amount of money, he purchased a number of small railroads and consolidated them into the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC).  Thus began his march down the coast, building rails, bridges and hotels along the way.  By 1890, his railroad had arrived in Daytona Beach and he had begun construction of a personal residence in St. Augustine.  By 1894, he arrived in West Palm Beach, building the Royal Poinciana Hotel, and essentially founded Palm Beach by building the Breakers Hotel on the coast.

Flagler intended to stop in West Palm Beach in 1894, but that same year extreme cold in the area killed off the citrus crop and caused Flagler to rethink this decision.  Legend has it that Miss Julia Tuttle (she of causeway fame) sent Flagler some fresh citrus from an outpost on the Miami River in 1894, as proof that the cold did not extend that far.  She offered him land on which to build a hotel in exchange for bringing the railroad south to serve her fruit-trading business.

By 1896, Flagler had reached the shores of Biscayne Bay, and true to form, began construction of the Royal Palm hotel.  When the city incorporated in 1896, the original proposal was to name the city "Flagler", but Flagler would not hear anything of it, and it was he that suggested the city be named after the Indian word for the river that flowed through it.  Thus was born the city of Miami.

Around the same time, his wife Ida was institutionalized for mental illness.  Flagler had long been suspected of having an affair with Mary Kenan, and in 1901, Florida made mental illness grounds for divorce largely based on lobbying efforts from non other than Flagler himself and his connections with the Florida judicial circuit.  Flagler promptly divorced Ida, married Mary Kenan, and moved to Palm Beach in a mansion called "Whitehall" that he built as a wedding present to his new wife.

Flagler mostly stayed put for the next 4 years, but he had his eye even further southward.  The Spanish-American war saw much shipment of troops, material and supplies from Florida to Cuba, and the United States was also heavily involved in a plan to build a canal through Panama to open up trade from the east coast to the Pacific.  Seeing an opportunity to establish a deep water port close to Cuba and Panama, Flagler began planning for the extension of his railroad to Key West.  Many thought that Flagler had totally lost his marbles at this point, as the idea was thought impossible and downright crazy by most.  But when asked how he intended to build a railroad across 100 miles of open water, Flagler simply replied "Easy - first you build one concrete arch, then another, and another, and pretty soon you'll be in Key West."

Location of the FEC Railroad in Key West

Flagler did just that.  By 1905 he had engineers scouting routes through extreme south Florida -  considering routes through Jewfish Creek, Card Sound, and even an ambitious route to Cape Sable and across 25 miles of open water.  Eventually, the Jewfish Creek route was selected and construction began.  By 1908, the railroad had terminated in Knight's Key.  The plan was to complete construction by 1913, but construction was accelerated when Flagler's health started failing and was finally completed on January 21, 1912, and the first train rolled into Key West the very next day.  Frail and nearly blind, Flagler arrived in Key West on that first train in his luzurious personal car, the "Rambler".  There was much celebration in Key West with dignitaries and schoolchildren greeting the train's arrival.  Flagler is reported to have said "I can hear the children, but I cannot see them," and later, "Now I can die in peace."

Key West is largely what it is today thanks to Flagler.  Even the landscape of Key West was forever changed by the railroad.  As the railroad approached Key West, Flagler had grandiose plans for a very large rail terminal in the city.  When Flagler was advised that there simply was not enough land in Key West on which to build his expansive terminal, he replied, in typical Flagler fashion, "Well then BUILD some."  Today the Trumbo Point area exists because of the many tons of fill that Flagler's engineer's dumped there to build the land upon which his terminal was constructed. 

Marathon

46 days to Key West.

Compared to many of the other islands in the upper and middle Keys, the early history of Marathon is relatively boring.  The main business district of Marathon sits on Key Vaca, where you will arrive after crossing the Vaca Cut.  No one is entirely sure, but the most popular theory on the name Key Vaca comes from the Spanish vaca or vacas, meaning cow or cows.  There is no evidence of there ever having been cows here, so the general consensus is that this refers to manatees or "sea cows" common in the area.

There were several early attempts at settlement in the early 19th century, around the time Key West and Indian Key were settled, but by the mid-19th century all indications are that the settlers, from New England and the Bahamas, had abandoned the area.  It's quite possible that fear of Indian raids like those on Indian Key drove the settlers away.

Regardless, the island sat mostly empty until the railroad arrived in 1905.  The south end of Key Vaca, which was joined by fill to Knight's Key, was the start of seven miles of open water, so the railroad actually terminated at Knight's Key when it was completed here in 1908 and remained that way until the completion of the Seven Mile Bridge in 1912.  I'll write a whole separate article about the Seven Mile Bridge, the Knight's Key Dock, and Pigeon Key later, but the growth of Marathon really started when Knight's Key was the terminus of the railroad.

One of the reasons Flagler undertook the Overseas Railroad project was to provide deepwater rail access for shipping to and from Cuba and the Caribbean.  During the Spanish-American war, shipments of equipment, troops and supplies to Cuba came from Tampa, some 250 miles to the north.  Flagler envisioned Key West as the logical alternative to shipping from Tampa, and the intermediate goal was Knight's Key.  For four years, from 1908 to 1912, regular train service from New York, via Miami and Homestead, served Knight's Key.  At Knight's Key, passengers and freight could connect to the Peninsular & Occidental Steamship line (also owned and operated by Flagler) for connection to Key West and on to Havana.

As with everywhere else Flagler went, it was only a matter of time until hotels, resorts, a post office and other development sprung up.  It was during the railroad construction that the settlement obtained the name "Marathon" - most likely a reference to the backbreaking pace at which construction went.

The biggest era of change for Marathon was the World War II period.  It was during the war that the military brought fresh water (via pipeline) and electricity to the Keys.  Marathon also got a Coast Guard Yard and an Army Air Corps strip that is now the Marathon Airport.  With power and water, Marathon thrived in the 1950's and the satellite communities of Key Colony Beach and Marathon Shores also sprung up in this period.  Much of the 50's era construction was destroyed by Hurricane Donna in 1960, triggering another round of development.

Marathon Today

Today all of Key Vaca is the main business district of Marathon, with the key word being "business".  It's six miles of four-lane divided highway from the Vaca Cut to the Seven Mile bridge.  And nearly all of it is lined with motels, gas stations, fast food and other businesses.  If you're spending some time in the Keys, Marathon is centrally located.  But make no mistake, Marathon is no a tourist town.  It *is* where you will find McDonald's, IHOP, K-mart, Burger King, Publix and a LOT of red lights and slow-moving traffic.

There are a few things here to see if you've got a little time.  Just past MM 50 is the turnoff on the Ocean Side for Sombrero Beach.  Sombrero is the only sandy beach in Marathon.  There is a well-maintained park there with picnic tables and pavilions too.

While you can't go out there, there is a causeway at MM 48 to Boot Key.  Boot Key is a very large undeveloped island just south of Key Vaca.  It is mostly privately owned, but there is also a government transmission facility there from which the U.S. government broadcasts Radio Marti to Cuba.

On the Oceanside at Boot Key Harbor is Burdine's restaurant - cheap food and beer and arguably some of the best burgers and fries to be had anywhere in the Keys.  The Seven Mile Grill at MM 47.5 on the Bay Side has good food too.

As you approach the Seven Mile Bridge, there are two interesting things to see here.  On the left (Bay Side) at MM 47 is the visitor's center for Pigeon Key.  If you're staying in Marathon, you should venture out to Pigeon Key.  If you're just passing through though, you can still check out the visitor's center, located in a restored Florida East Coast Railroad car.

Old Seven Mile Bridge.  The new bridge is visible on the left

Just before you get to the bridge, on the right hand side, is a parking lot where you can pull off to walk or bike the old Seven Mile Bridge.  Even if you don't plan to spend any time on the old bridge, it's worth at least checking out.  There is also a pathway that goes down underneath the bridges that you can walk along, close to the water.  If you do walk out on the old Seven Mile Bridge, pay close attention to the metal guardrails on the old bridge.  The guardrails on the old bridge are the original rails from Flagler's railroad.  When the highway replaced the railroad, the tracks were torn up, the road constructed on top of the railroad bed, and the actual rails reused as guardrails on the automobile bridge.

Approaching Marathon

50 days to Key West!

Duck Key

Crossing bridge #13 (Tom's Harbor #3), you will end up on a piece of fill that was constructed during the railroad days.  Barely as wide as the road and about a half mile long, there is little on this fill.  About halfway down, you will see a small sign pointing down a side road on the Ocean Side for Duck Key.

The railroad bypassed Duck Key altogether.  It passed by on the fill just north of the island, but was not connected.  There is little history here - Duck Key had a salt pond operation in the 19th century, but was otherwise essentially ignored until the 1950's.

In the early 1950's, the island was purchased with the intention of making it a resort.  A causeway was built connecting it to the highway (where the sign is today).  Canals were dredged and fill was used to expand the island.  Construction began on Hawk's Cay Resort.  Between then and now, several hundred homes were constructed out there as well, known as Hawk's Cay Village.  You can drive out there if you'd like, but there's not much to do there.  It is a very beautiful community though, with well maintained roads, bridges and canals.

Continue straight on the fill, past Duck Key, and cross Tom's Harbor Bridge #4 (your 14th), to Grassy Key and the greater Marathon area.

The Marathon Area

Marathon is everything Key West is not.  Quiet. Unassuming.  A city of residents, not tourists.  To me, Marathon seems to suffer from an identity crisis, it doesn't know what it is or what it does.  Key Largo is all about diving.  Islamorada is all about fishing.  Key West is all about partying and night life.  But Marathon has no identity.

The Marathon area consists of a number of islands, once separate, but joined by fill during the railroad construction.  This part of the railroad was constructed between 1906 and 1908.  Grassy Key, Crawl Key, Long Point Key, Fat Deer Key and Crawl Key #2 eventually became one big island.  Likewise, Vaca Key, Hog Key and Knight's Key also became one.

Today, the City of Marathon stretches 13 miles from MM 60 at the northern end of Grassy Key to MM 47 on Knight's Key at the foot of the Seven Mile Bridge.  There are close to 10,000 year-round people there, an airport and a VERY long strip of hotels, motels, fast food restaurants, service stations and souvenir and T-shirt shops.

The story is that Marathon got it's name in 1908 when the railroad workers compared the long hours and toil of building the railroad to a marathon.  Before then, it was known only as Key Vaca and there was little early history in this area.  There were some early settlers and evidence of some shipbuilding operations in the early 19th century, but by the 1860's, the area was mostly abandoned until Flagler and his railroad-builders arrived in 1905 and 1906.

Grassy Key

Construction began here in 1905 and the railroad landed on Grassy Key in 1906.  There was a siding and a depot located here.  The large natural width of Grassy Key made it a good location for a construction camp and there were quarters built here along with a supply depot.  After regular train service started here in 1908, there was a small town on Grassy Key known as Crainlyn.  There was a hotel, a post office, and a few homes - but much of it burned around 1913 and Crainlyn essentially vanished.  The post office moved to Long Key.

For the next 15 years or so there was little development of interest in Grassy Key.  There was a flag stop on the railroad, which was completed all the way to Key West by 1912.  In 1928, the first Overseas Highway was built, but this area was bypassed by the 40-mile long ferry from Lower Matecumbe Key to No Name Key.  However, at the same time, construction began on a 11-mile long road from Grassy Key, through the city of Marathon, to Hog Key on the far end of Marathon.  Ferry landings were constructed on Grassy and Hog Keys.  By 1930, the 40 mile water gap was reduced to a 14 mile gap from Lower Matecumbe to Grassy Key and another 14 mile gap from Hog Key to No Name.  The Grassy Key ferry landing was at the end of what is now Dorsett Drive at the north end of Grassy Key. 

If you're a fan of dolphins, Grassy Key is the home of the Dolphin Research Center.  On the right hand side, right around MM 59 is a giant statue of a dolphin at the entrance.  Here is one of the places you can swim with dolphins.  The original dolphin ("Mitzi") that became Flipper on the TV show was caught at Grassy Key.  There USED to be a restaurant at MM 58 that was THE place to stop for a burger if you were passing through at lunch time, but the Grassy Key Dairy Bar is sadly no more.  There are a lot of RV parks, motels and other "resorts" in this area, but otherwise little else to see or do here if you're passing through.  The width of Grassy Key means you don't often see the sea, either.  Do pay attention to the mailboxes on the road around here, there are a lot of whimsical fish, dolphin and manatee mailboxes here.  Around MM 57, you will cross a railroad fill to the island of Crawl Key.

Crawl Key, Little Crawl Key and Long Point Key

Crawl Key is around MM 56.5.  There is a small motel with a private beach on the ocean side.  On the bay side are the remains of a turtle processing operation.  In fact, the name "Crawl" comes from the Dutch word Kraal, which was the word used for the "corrals" used to hold sea turtles prior to their being butchered and canned.  Around MM 56.1, there is a turnoff to the left for Little Crawl Key and a piece of fill leads you onward to Long Point.  Both of these islands are part of Curry Hammock State Park.  If you make the left onto Little Crawl Key, this is where the park headquarters are, including a campground and a beach.  The rest of the park, spread out on Crawl, Little Crawl, Long Point and Fat Deer Keys, is a very large stand of hardwood trees and thatch palms.  There is little development of any kind in this area.  This is all two lane road here with nothing but trees on both sides.  At MM 55.5 you'll cross another fill to Fat Deer Key with more of the same.

Fat Deer Key and Crawl Key #2

The first mile and a half of Fat Deer Key, from MM 55.5 to MM 54, is more of the same.  Hardwood hammock on both sides of the road.  A hammock is an area of hardwood growth in the middle of the mangrove swamps.  This area is the last undeveloped stretch between Key Largo and the Torch Keys and a good opportunity to see what the islands would have looked like before the days of the railroad.  At MM 54 is a turn off on the Ocean Side to Coco Plum.  This is a development of homes, most of which are extraordinarily big and expensive.  About a mile down from here is a stretch of unspoiled beach called Cocoplum beach.  If you want to see what a natural sandy beach looks like in the Keys, go to Cocoplum beach and check it out.  You never know what you might find washed ashore here!

Just past Coco Plum drive, you'll cross a fill to Crawl Key #2.  At the time of the railroad building, there were as many as ten keys all named Crawl Key number something-or-another.  Today, Crawl Key #2 is where the turnoff is for the Sadowski Causeway to the city of Key Colony Beach.  Sadowski was a real estate developer who purchased most of what was then called Shelter Key sometime in the 1950's.  He set about building roads and canals and dredging up fill to mae the island bigger.  Homes started going up.  Close to 1960, fearing absorption into the city of Marathon, which was not yet incorporated, the residents of Shelter Key petitioned and incorporated their own city of Key Colony Beach.  Key Colony Beach is completely bounded by Shelter Key, has its own post office, its own police force, a motel, a couple of parks and a few restaurants despite only having a population of a few hundred.

Continuing past Key Colony Beach, you'll finally cross water again at Vaca Cut (bridge #15, MM 53) and enter the main business area of Marathon, and Vaca Key.  Slow down here as the speed limit slows down, traffic gets congested, and there's lots of stop and go for the next six miles or so.

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.

Lower Matecumbe Key

64 days to Key West!

Once you cross Lignumvitae Channel, you will land on Lower Matecumbe Key.  Lower Matecumbe Key is one of my favorite islands en route to Key West.  The history of the island is very long - the northern end had one of the only sources of fresh water for miles in every direction.  As such, it was a popular stop off for everyone from Indians to pirates to wreckers.

The railroad arrived here in late 1909 and really marked the last of the "easily" accessible islands from the mainland.  It was here that the serious bridge-building began.  By 1928, the first Overseas Highway had reached Lower Matecumbe Key and was to go no farther.  While Henry Flagler was busily bridging Channels #2 and #5, filling in the gaps between the Craig Keys and pushing on to Long Key, the road came to an abrupt end at the south end of Lower Matecumbe Key.  There, vehicles were loaded onto ferries that departed twice a day for No Name Key, 37 miles to the west.  The trip took several hours and was unreliable, oftentimes getting stuck in the shallow flats until the tides brought in enough water to free them.

The current alignment of Route 1 is on top of the original railroad right-of-way, but Lower Matecumbe is one of the best places to see the original roadway.  The old road parallels the new road here, just a few feet to the north (on the right headed toward Key West) where it ends at Matecumbe Harbor.  Here is where the ferry landing was from 1928-1935.  The ferry landing is no longer there, but remnants of the other landing still exist on No Name Key at the end of the road (more on that later).

Old Road construction c. 1935

In 1932, 45,000 World War I veterans marched on Washington, DC to demand payment of the "bonus" promised them for their service in World War I.  The bonus was to be payable, with interest, in 1945, but many demanded early payment, living in squalor during the Great Depression.  At the time, President Hoover turned them away, using force where necessary.  Not to be deterred, the veterans tried again in 1933.  This time, President Roosevelt once again denied early payout, but DID offer many of them employment in New Deal projects, including the construction of the Overseas Highway in the Keys.

Tarpon at Robbie's Marina

One of the first projects was to be the elimination of the ferry route from Lower Matecumbe by constructing bridges from Matecumbe Harbor to Long Key, then on to Key Vaca.  This was one of the projects the "bonus army" was working on when the Labor Day Hurricane destroyed the railroad and took several hundred of their lives with it.  Today, there is little evidence of their work.  However, if you look to the right just as you leave Lower Matecumbe Key to cross Channel #2, you can see the remains of the bridge they had just begun to construct to carry the highway to Jewfish Bush Key (now Fiesta Key).  All that remains of the bonus army are their remains at the Hurricane Monument and eight concrete pilings sticking out of the water at MM 73.



Birds at Robbie's

Today, Lower Matecumbe Key is the site of one of the Keys quirkiest roadside attractions.  Immediately after you arrive on Lower Matecumbe, make the first right turn, double back on the old road, and pull into Robbie's Marina at around MM 77.5.  Robbie's has a community of artists outside selling everything from shirts to artwork to the obligatory painted coconuts.  There is a restaurant there called the Hungry Tarpon that serves up a really good breakfast.  But the real fun is to be had at the marina itself.  Head into the marina where you can buy a soda or a beer, and pay a dollar to "see the tarpon".  Buy yourself a bucket of fish to feed the tarpon!  18 years ago, Robbie and his wife began feeding a tarpon they called Scarface at the dock.  Soon more and more showed up and today, dozens of them congregate at the dock for handouts.  Be careful of the pelicans, who can get very aggressive when there is feeding going on!  If you're staying in the area, Robbie's is also where you can rent boats for fishing or for excursions to Indian or Lignumvitae Keys.

On the far opposite end of the island, a small beach is on the ocean side at MM 73.4.  Anne's Beach is relatively uncrowded, has bathrooms for changing, and water so shallow you can walk out a hundred yards in knee-deep water.  If you can get there when no one else is there, it's a nice place to spend some time wading, shelling and watching shore birds.

When you're done on Lower Matecumbe Key, get back in the car and head south over the short Channel #2 bridge (MM 72.7, the 10th bridge on the way down) to the tiny islands of Craig Key.