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.