Key Largo's Bogart Connections

75 days to the Keys.

If you're a fan of Humphrey Bogart movies, especially Key Largo and The African Queen, there are two places in Key Largo that may be of interest to you.  At MM 104.1 on the Bay side is the Caribbean Club.  The club was built in the late 30's to early 40's.  In the mid-40's, John Huston wrote the screenplay for the movie Key Largo based on a Broadway play.  Apparently for inspiration, he rented the Caribbean Club in Key Largo to write the screenplay, then promptly returned to California to build sets based on the Caribbean Club.  Despite it's claim to be the "Birthplace of the movie Key Largo", the club was little more than Huston's inspiration and there is no reason to believe any of the film was shot there, or anywhere else in the Keys, for that matter.

At the time, the island that Key Largo occupies was called "Key Largo", but there were various communities on the island that went by different names.  The main part of Key Largo went by "Rock Harbor" at the time, with separate communities and mailing addresses for Newport, Ocean Reef Club, and several other communities.  After the movie's release in 1948, the name "Key Largo" had enormous name recognition and the folks (especially business owners) in Rock Harbor wanted to capitalize on the name recognition and this ultimately culminated in the renaming of the post office to "Key Largo" and the unification of all the communities north of Tavernier under the "Key Largo" moniker.

Another, more unlikely, Bogart connection is to be found 4 miles down the road at the Holiday Inn Key Largo (MM 99.8, Oceanside).  Pull into the parking lot at the hotel, and head to the water at the far north of the parking lot and there, sitting under a canopy, is the original African Queen steamboat from the 1951 movie of the same name.

The boat is over 100 years old and has been through many owners in many places all over the world, but for the last 30 years it's been docked here at the Holiday Inn (after its next-most-recent home in an Ocala horse pasture).  Regular cruises were offered on it up until it broke down in 2001 and gradually started falling into disrepair.  Rumor has it that as of April 2012, it's been fully restored cosmetically AND mechanically, and is once again seaworthy and offering daily cruises in the canals around Key Largo.

North Key Largo

76 Days to the Keys!  Today I'll talk a little about North Key Largo.  Though there is little in this area, this is one of my favorite areas to read, research and discover.  It is rich in history, criss-crossed by old roads and abandoned towns and even a Cold War missile launch site.

From the traveler's perspective, there is not a whole lot to see or do in North Key Largo.  The clubs at the far north are exclusive and private and they will probably run you off if you try to poke around.  Nevertheless, you'll travel about 13 miles from the Card Sound bridge into the main part of Key Largo through what looks like a great deal of nothing, and it might be interesting to know what's out there in that nothing and what some of the history of the area is.  You can easily drive through this area in as little as 15 minutes, or you could spend half a day poking through the area.

After crossing the Card Sound bridge, you'll technically be on the island of Key Largo, despite the fact that the built-up area lies some ten miles to the southwest.  The road you are on here was built in the 1920's while the railroad was using the right-of-way over Jewfish Creek and into Key Largo (then called "Rock Harbor").  Much of the roadbed was dredged up fill, which, today, explains the many canals you'll see, mostly on the right hand side, along Card Sound Road.  At the time, the road was maintained by the state (State Road 4-A), but today is maintained by Monroe County (CR 905-A).  There are mile markers along this stretch of road, just like US-1, but there is little to note along this route.

After crossing the bridge, you will be in the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge.  The refuge protects the American crocodile, the Key Largo Wood Rat, Key Largo Cotton Mouse and a Swallowtail Butterfly.  But for these four creatures, North Key Largo would probably look like Miami Beach and have 100,000 hotel rooms today.  Even though you'll see signs for crocodile crossing, you'll probably never see a crocodile, as there are only perhaps 2,000-3,000 of them left in Florida.  Unlike their freshwater cousins, the American Alligator, the crocodiles prefer the warm brackish and saltwater found in this area, and their only habitat in the United States is the extreme southern tip of Florida.  The refuge is closed to the public and has no facilities of any kind, left largely in an unspoiled state.  This is still a good place for birding, though, and you will likely see plenty of herons and egrets, osprey nests (if not the ospreys themselves), and maybe even the pterodactyl-looking Magnificent Frigatebird, although they're more commonly seen over open water like out in the Dry Tortugas.  If you're interested, here is a good link on identifying the various herons and egrets from each other.

About two miles past the Card Sound bridge, there is a small overgrown turnoff to the right that is the old alignment of 4-A.  The current road, curves to the left and crosses a small bridge where you will sometimes see locals fishing.  Another mile and a half or so, and you will come to the present-day intersection with CR-905.  You have to turn left or right now, but in the old days, the road used to go straight (you can still see it) and connect to the OLD north/south part of 4-A about a mile east of the current road.  It's blocked off now.  If you were to go left at this intersection, you'll travel about a mile and a half north and come to the gate house for the Ocean Reef Club.  They will not let in riff-raff like you and I, so you have no choice but to turn around and double back.

The map above (or click here for larger version) shows the current route you travel (in purple) and some of the things going on in this area.  When the first Overseas Highway was built in the 1920's, the road followed the blue path.  With all the construction going on in the Miami area and in the Keys, the state built a dock at the far Eastern end of this road specifically for shipping in dynamite, out of fear of a dynamite-laden ship exploding in Miami's harbors.  This dock was far enough away from civilization at the time to allay that fear.  As late as the early 90's, you could drive all the way out there.  The road is closed off and the dock gone today.

In the late 1950's, the U.S. started building missile sites around the country close to major population areas for air defense during the cold war.  These sites were populated with Nike-Ajax missiles and later Nike-Hercules missiles capable of surface-to-air interception of inbound aircraft and, presumably, missiles.  The location protecting the southern Florida area was located near Homestead in the Everglades.  However, in 1962 the Cuban missile crisis prompted the U.S. to locate a Nike site in North Key Largo.  At the time, there was no bridge over Card Sound - the wooden bridge destroyed in the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, and the "new" road bridge having been built over Jewfish Creek on the old railroad right-of-way, at the bottom of today's 18-mile stretch.  Access to North Key Largo was over the Jewfish Creek bridge, then by turning left onto SR 4-A, heading 8 miles north (to the current MM C-8, on the map above), then following the orange route on the map.  Design of the Nike site required two separate facilities a mile apart, one for radar and one for launching.  The sites had to be far enough apart that falling stages from the missile would not fall on the radar and fire-control sites.  Both of these sites went up sometime between 1962 and 1965 on the west side of the road.  It's not clear whether the site ever housed any nuclear-armed missiles, but there were a great deal of missiles there at any rate by 1965.

In the late 1960's when the new high Card Sound bridge was opened, Monroe County 905 was re-routed to its current route (purple on the map).  The new road was built over top of the underground connection between the two sites, with the radar site now ending up on the east side of the current road.  Today, both sites are heavily overgrown and are located on protected land, you can not visit them.  However, you can still see the radar towers from the radar and fire-control site if you look to the left around MM C-8.5 heading south.  The mile markers on 905 start at C-0 at the southern terminus in Key Largo, and climb northward.  The three-way intersection with Card Sound Road is around MM C-9.2.  The abandoned road to the launch site is on the right (headed south) around MM C-7.5.

Heading south, around MM C-7 is a road to the left, Carysfort Circle.  There are four very expensive homes down there that are among the most secluded homes you can find.  There is nothing for the next several miles (save for a transfer station at MM C-5.5 where Key Largo sends its trash).  A couple of very private homes around MM C3.5 and a larger development at MM C-2.

There is one more interesting site at MM C-1.0.  Here, if you look to the east (Gulf side), you'll see the entrance to Port Bougainvillea.  Port Bougainvillea began life as the North Key Largo Yacht Club in 1974.  Around 1975 the whole of the Keys became an "area of critical state concern (ACSC)" and numerous laws and processes put in place to limit growth and development.  However, in typical Keys fashion, everyone pretty much ignored it and progress marched forward.  According to some reports, but the mid-80's, there were several dozen "illegal" projects actually in the works, including some 3000 units at Port Bougainvillea.  Around that same time, the builder defaulted on construction loans and the project was abandoned.  The area is now part of Key Largo Hammock State Park and you can walk back there to what is essentially a ghost town of abandoned homes, docks and other buildings.

Another mile or so down the road, and you'll intersect the main highway in Key Largo around MM-106.  A left will take you down the road toward Key West, and a right will take you back up toward Jewfish Creek and the 18-mile stretch, but why would you want to do that?

77 Days

77 Days til we head back to the Keys.  I had intended to write a little bit about the mostly-abandoned northern end of Key Largo tonight, but I've been traveling all day and I'm tired.  I'll get on with that tomorrow.  A tale of crocodiles and rats and missiles and explosives.  Who knew?

Card Sound

78 days to the Keys

So what's with Card Sound, anyway?

When I first started traveling to the Keys in the early 90's, Card Sound Road was the great unknown.  Literally.  In the beginning I didn't even know of its existence and I remember being surprised at the signs on US 1 pointing to the "alternate route to Key Largo" as I thought US-1 was the only way in and out.

In the early part of the 20th century, Henry Flagler was continuing his relentless march to the sea with his Florida East Coast Railroad.  Having conquered Miami on behalf of Julia Tuttle (she of causeway fame) at the end of the 19th century, Flagler set his sights on a deepwater port in the Keys to ship to and from Cuba.  He set his engineers to surveying, with the initial plan calling for a route across the Everglades to Cape Sable, then across some 25 miles of open water to the islands north of No Name Key.  The plan that ultimately won out, however, was the present path of US-1 over Jewfish Creek and Cross Key, although the railroad had also considered the more northerly route through Little Card Sound.

This route became the original path of SR-4A sometime in the 20's, complete with a wooden swing-bridge across the water.  Over the years a small fishing and boating community sprung up in the area where Alabama Jack's is now and as many as 100 people lived there at one time.  Through the 20's and 30's, this road and a tiny wooden bridge (rebuilt after the 1935 Labor Day hurricane) served as the only drivable access into and out of the Keys.

Fast forward 20 years to the Second World War and a growing military presence in the Keys.  It was no longer practical to move people and equipment over the old wooden bridges and much of the Overseas Highway was rebuilt, and much of it on the railroad right-of-way and over Flagler's railroad bridges, abandoned after the 1935 hurricane.  Once again, the Card Sound bridge fell into disrepair and was eventually removed altogether.

It was around this time, after the war, that Georgia construction worker Jack Stratham leased a piece of land on the right of way and what started out as a simple cottage and boathouse became Alabama Jack's.

Today, much of this is still there, to some extent or another, although the community of Card Sound is practically nonexistant, and the wooden bridge has been replaced by a high bridge in the late 60's to provide another evacuation route for Keys residents and easier access to the growing area of North Key Largo. 

Today, the road is mostly deserted except for the area around Alabama Jack's and the Card Sound Bridge.  If you read any Carl Hiaasen, you'll recognize this area as the home of Skink, and the high bridge as the one that Skink lashed himself to to ride out the hurricance in the book "Stormy Weather".  Pay careful attention as you go down the road - osprey nests abound on the tops of poles.  Herons and egrets are everywhere - in the water and out of it.  Aside from a couple of turnouts for maintenance buildings for AT&T and Florida Power and Light, there is no other development.  This is pretty much about as far off the beaten path as you can get.

This is also the home of the American Crocodile.  Yes, crocodile, not alligator.  Crocodiles live in the salt water down here, and, with the Key Largo Wood Rat, are largely responsible for the lack of development in much of upper Key Largo.  Crocodiles flourish in the warm waters surrounding the Turkey Point power plant a few miles to the east of here, and their habitat is expanding.

Alabama Jack's opens at 11am daily, so don't get there too early.  They close around sundown when the mosquitoes get bad.  There is usually live entertainment on weekends in the afternoon.  People come from near and far for AJ's conch fritters, but make sure you try the grouper sandwich or grouper fingers, too.  They also make an outstanding Conch Salad which is very much like a ceviche.  Being from Maryland, I avoid the crab cakes, but some people like them.  Also try the sweet-potato fries!  Try to get a table on the water, and you can watch all the little fish congregating at the pilings.  Try not to feed the birds - no one wants birds shitting all over everything!

Until recently, Alabama Jack's was a beer-only bar, but they got a full liquor license about 5 years ago and serve anything now.  Do be careful when you leave there as I've seen Monroe County sheriffs watching people come and go from AJ's.  Get your $1 toll ready, cross the bridge, and head on into North Key Largo.

Getting There

Let's talk about getting there.

Like I said, it really is half the fun.  So how DO you get there, anyway?  Chances are, you've flown into Miami, or maybe Fort Lauderdale and rented yourself a car.  Or maybe you've driven from Orlando, or the Gulf Coast, or if you're like me the first time, you've driven all the way down from Maryland.  No matter how you did it, sooner or later you're going to end up on the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike hurtling south from Miami.  Past subdivisions full of red clay tile rooves, one story stucco houses and cross streets with enticing names like Caribbean Boulevard.

This is Hurricane Andrew country.  The first time I made this trip was in the summer of 1993 - much of this area has been either built or rebuilt since that time as it was mostly devastated by Andrew in 1992.  That Home Depot you see on the right and the strip shopping centers all over the place?  The good ones "only" lost their rooves.  Many were flattened.  Much of the growth here is new too, as a lot of the trees were taken away in the storm, too.

For me, this is where the anticipation starts to build, because you're finally leaving the influence of Miami behind and entering the no-man's-land that is Homestead and Florida City.  Too far south to be Miami, but too far north to be the Keys.  Billboards abound for places in Key Largo - and if it hasn't sunk in yet that you're off to someplace exotic and exciting, it will right about here.  The turnpike hangs on for the last couple of miles before crossing over Dixie Highway and dumping you out rather unceremoniously on US-1.  Almost immediately you'll be greeted with a great big sign over the road for Biscayne, Everglades and Key West.


What the sign really says, though, is more like "This is it, pal.  Last warning.  The end of civilization as you know it."  Should you make a left, and by all means you SHOULD make time to at some point, you'll end up at Biscayne.  A right will eventually take you to Florida 9336, into Everglades National Park, and ultimately to another end-of-the-road town at Flamingo, past about 40 miles of swampy scenery every bit as beautiful as that in the Keys, albeit for different reasons.  Make the time to go there sometime too.  Maybe I'll talk about that some day too.

But for now, that's not why you're here.  Go straight through the intersection and through the last mile or so of businesses clinging to the end of the mainland - Walgreens.  Holiday Inn Express. Starbucks.  Wendy's.  Burger King.  Long John Silver's, although why you'd eat fast-food seafood here is puzzling, at best.  Best Western ("Gateway to the Keys!")  The Shell station ominously warning you that this is your last gas before the Keys.  The even more ominous Last Chance Saloon, but "only for friendly people". (And "Now with indoor toilets!").

You've got a decision to make here.  Actually, there's only one way worth going any more, and that's making the next left down Card Sound Road, and we'll talk more about that another time.  But what if you WERE to go straight?

Straight ahead of you is the infamous "18-mile stretch".  Actually, it used to be a lot more infamous than it is now.  When I first started coming this way, before I discovered the magic that is Card Sound Road, the 18-mile stretch had a well-deserved reputation for being a harrowing experience.  The turquoise divider and walls you see now were not there.  This was 18 miles of two-lane road with lots of trucks, boats on trailers, motorcycles, bikes all jockeying for position and anxiously awaiting the next passing zone.

Every so often there would be a passing zone and a massive repositioning would take place.  These passing zones would be foretold by a series of signs, arranged Burma-Shave style on the side of the road a few seconds apart like this:

Patience Pays

Next

Passing

Zone

Only

2 Miles

But inevitably, there were always those that couldn't wait and over the yellow line they went, sometimes with catastrophic results closing the road for HOURS at a time while people and vehicles were hauled out of roadside canals and mangrove swamps.

Assuming you survived the stretch, you'd emerge at the Jewfish Creek bridge.  A small, low drawbridge connecting the mainland to Key Largo.  The drawbridge is gone today, replaced by a high-level monstrosity over Jewfish Creek (itself part of the intracoastal waterway) which dwarfs the marina and Gilbert's way down below you.  The bridge, itself, is mostly turquoise too, as if making it the color of the water that is all around you will somehow make it less visible.  Right after Jewfish Creek, you'll go over Lake Surprise - allegedly named because it came as a complete surprise to the builders of the Overseas Railroad (of which MUCH more later!) and took most of 1906 to bridge.

Soon after, the road will turn right and dump you smack in the middle of Key Largo.  But you're not going to go this way anyway, and we'll talk about why not tomorrow.

Welcome

Welcome

I've always wanted to write a travel guide - travel is what I love to do, and I love to go to exotic and out-of-the-way places. I've been working on one for the Florida Keys, one of my favorite places to go for the past 20-or-so years, for quite some time now, but I'm still only partly through, and I suspect I will never be done until I find away to fund more research ;)

Anyway, it's about 80 days out from my annual pilgrimage down there for the Parrot Head convention (Meeting of the Minds) and I wanted to start listing some of my favorite things to do there and places to go, not just in Key West, but along the way. For me, when it comes to Key West, getting there really is half the fun, not just a cliche.

I am fascinated by the offbeat history of the islands - from Jacob Housman's failed plan to exterminate the Indians and the ensuing slaughter of Dr. Henry Perrine on Indian Key, to Richter Perky's grandiose (but also failed) plan to develop Sugarloaf - the only relic of which a curious wooden tower behind the Sugarloaf airport. From the engineering marvel that was Henry Flagler's "railroad that went to sea" to the storied history of an unlikely pile of 16 million bricks in the Gulf of Mexico, 70 miles from anywhere. Almost every island has a story.

These days, too many people fly into and out of Key West. They pour off the jets, pile into cabs and rental cars, and head straight for Duval Street, Smathers Beach, or Mallory Square. But I wonder how many of those people know that Key West was the location of the first international flight in the U.S. (a Pan Am flight to Havana)? Or that the building that is now Kelly's Caribbean Bar and Grill on Whitehead Street was, at the time, the headquarters of Pan Am and the passenger terminal? These are the stories I'll talk about here.

Later on, but still in the "old days", you could only take propeller-driven commuter planes - but now with jet service all day long, it's easier than ever to get to the island and miss the 100+ miles that make up the rest of the island chain. In 20+ years and 40 or so trips to Key West, I'm happy to say I've never flown to the island, and I will likely keep it that way unless I have a very short time constraint. There's just too much to see and do!

So anyway, whether this is your first trip to the islands or you're a seasoned Keys-traveler like me, I hope you find something interesting here. And if you've got a tale, or something you'd like to see here, drop me a line and I'll be sure to include it.