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.
 

Islamorada - The Minor Islands

While Islamorada consists primarily of Upper Matecumbe and Lower Matecumbe Keys, several other minor and outlying islands make up the community, and some of the most stunning events in the history of the Keys happened here.

Islamorada's minor islands and channels

Leaving Upper Matecumbe Key, you will cross the Tea Table Relief (MM 79.5, bridge #6 on your way down).  During the days of railroad construction, Henry Flagler's engineers not only built rails and bridges, but they also spent a great deal of time constructing land as well.  In fact, long before the railroad was ultimately destroyed by the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, other hurricanes severely damaged or destroyed other sections of the railroad requiring repair or reconstruction.  Engineers had done so much filling of the gaps between the islands that oftentimes the water had no place to go around the islands and had nowhere to go but OVER the islands.

The section between Upper and Lower Matecumbe Keys was like this.  The land that exists there today was "fill" that was dredged up and dropped down to support the railroad, and, later, the highway.  The first piece of land here is connected to Tea Table Key, where there is a small public beach and a private home.  Next, you'll cross the Tea Table Channel (MM 79, bridge #7) to Indian Key Fill, barely wide enough for the road.  At mile marker 78, you'll cross the Indian Key Channel (bridge #8) to another small fill.

As you cross the Indian Key Channel, glance to your left (Ocean Side) and you will see Indian Key.  To your right, you'll see Lignumvitae Key.  Finally, at MM 77.5, you will cross the Lignumvitae Channel (bridge #9) to Lower Matecumbe Key.

While there is little to see or do on the road here, the history of this area is worth noting.

Indian Key

Despite the fact that neither the railroad nor the road ever touched Indian Key, its early history is some of the most important in the Upper Keys.  The first American settlers on Indian Key arrived in the mid-1820's, and by 1830 the island was home to around 50 people and two general stores.

In the early 1820's, John Jacob Housman of Staten Island, NY, stole his father's boat and set sail for the Caribbean.  He managed to shipwreck off of Key West and he and his boat were salvaged by Key West wreckers.  Wreckers would rescue boats and their cargoes wrecked on the reef for a portion of the goods carried aboard and was an enormous industry in Key West at the time, making Key West one of the richest cities in the country.

Housman became disenchanted with the wrecking operations and admiralty courts in Key West and soon set up shop on Indian Key, where he envisioned setting up his own port, admiralty court and customs house.  He bought several homes, a store and a bowling alley on Indian Key and set about building his empire.  As Indian Key grew and prospered, it became a popular stop-off point for vessels bound for Key West.  Around the same time, in 1836, Monroe County split into two, with the northern and eastern half becoming Dade County.  While Key West remained the seat of Monroe County, Housman petitioned for, and eventually won, the seat of Dade County on Indian Key. 

Also around the same time, the Second Seminole War was in full swing.  The Seminoles had won several major battles in and around Fort Lauderdale and Cape Florida in 1836.  By 1837 they were attacking in Key Largo.  Housman organized a militia of 30 settlers and a handful of slaves to defend Indian Key from attack.

Meanwhile, in 1838, botanist Dr. Henry Perrine moved, with his family, from Mexico to Indian Key.  Dr. Perrine knew of the Indian unrest, but moved here anyway and set up a business growing tropical plants.  Many of the plants here and on nearb Lignumvitae Key, to this day, are a result of Dr. Perrine's operations here.

In March 1840, Housman submitted a proposal to the Florida government to capture or kill all of the Indians in South Florida.  For this, he would charge $200 per head.  The government never acted on the proposal and it's not quite clear whether the proposal had anything to do with what happened next.

On the night of August 7, 1840, Indians from mainland Florida rowed across to Upper Matecumbe Key, then in the middle of the night attacked Indian Key.  Housman and his wife escaped to Key West.  Dr. Perrine successfully hid his family, but was himself killed by Indians.  6 other residents were killed in the attack and the entire island was burned.

Housman would die the following year in Key West.  The Navy moved into Indian Key from nearby Tea Table Key.  For the next sixty years the island would change hands from the Navy to the Army to several landholders and would maintain a population of 50-60.  The Army used it as a base of operations to construct the Alligator Reef lighthouse.  Henry Flagler acquired it in 1909 and used it as a base of operations to construct the Indian Key Fill (see map above), and then located his Central Supply operation on the newly built fill.  By 1913, the island was essentially abandoned and remained that way until 1971 when it was converted to a state park.

Today, the state runs launches out to the island daily, or you can visit the island by renting a boat.  Little remains of the extensive development on the island from the 1830's - a few foundations and some graves.  Thousands of people roar by every day, just 2000 feet away on US-1 with no idea what happened here 170 years ago.

Upper Matecumbe Key

69 days to go until we're back in the Keys!

The area around Islamorada is rich with history, and two of the bloodiest events in the history of the Keys happened right here on or around the Matecumbes.  This is one of my favorite parts of the island chain.

Lower Matecumbe Key had freshwater wells, and because of that, this part of the Keys was always of interest to transient seafarers.  The Spanish were exploring this area as early as the 1500's.  There is evidence of Indian populations even older than that.  By the 1820's, Indian Key, just south and east of Upper Matecumbe, was not only prospering, but was establishing itself as the seat of Dade County.  By the 1840's, it was all gone, however (more on that later).

By 1909, the railroad had reached the area, but there was little development or change. It wasn't until the highway arrived in 1928 that change would come.  Tourists now had easy access by car from Miami and south Florida to the great fishing, but all that was about to change.

The morning of September 1, 1935 started like any other morning in the Upper Keys.  There were no radar or advanced forecasting at the time.  On that day, residents got their first warning that a storm was on its way and might cross their paths.  On the night of Sunday the 1st, the storm crossed the Bahamas as a relatively small category I hurricane.  Over the next 24 hours, though, the storm exploded in strength until it became the strongest storm ever recorded, and approached the Upper Keys on Labor Day, September 2, 1935, with almost no warning of how strong it had become.

Track of the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 (NOAA)

At the time, a "bonus army" of World War I veterans were working in the Matecumbes on the Overseas Highway.  The veterans lived in work camps and fortunately, there were not many other full time residents at the time.  Late in the afternoon on the 2nd, the Florida East Coast Railroad dispatched a rescue train from Miami to evacuate the veterans and local families to higher ground.  However, it was Labor Day and manpower was short.  More time was lost as the train was turned around in Homestead to "back down" the Keys to allow for quicker return.  The train was now racing the hurricane to the Upper Keys.

By 5:30 that night, hurricane force winds were already battering Islamorada and the train was still working it's way down, stopping along the way to pick up anyone and everyone trying to flee the storm.  By 8:30, the train arrived at Upper Matecumbe at the same time the storm's fury started to peak.  Legend has it that the clocks in Islamorada stopped at 8:30 that night.  With winds as high as 200mph, the train was blown right off the tracks, except for the locomotive. Miles and miles of track was destroyed.  The highway was destroyed.  Parts of the Matecumbes were stripped down to bare coral.

More than 400 bodies were recovered after the storm, and countless others were swept to sea.  Those that survived did so by floating in houses or taking shelter in fixed structures like cisterns, and even in the locomotive itself.  With no means of getting into and out of the Keys to transport the bodies, they were burned in four large fires over the next several days, and today their ashes remain in the Hurricane Monument.

The Hurricane Monument stands just Oceanside of the highway right around MM 82.  It is worth the stop to take a look.  The monument sits atop a mass grave containing the ashes of the 400+ bodies burned in 1935.

In the aftermath of the storm, the railroad never rebuilt.  The right-of-way fell into receivership and was purchased by the state for $640,000.  The state used the railroad bed and many of the bridges to complete the missing links in the Overseas Highway.  Most of the bridges still stand to this day and are visible parallel to the newer, more modern bridges that now carry the highway.

Two miles below the monument, you'll cross the Tea Table Relief bridge (#6) and leave Upper Matecumbe Key for Tea Table Key and the "outlying" islands of Islamorada.

Islamorada - Plantation and Windley Keys

70 days til our Keys trip begins!

Plantation and Windley Keys are the first two islands you'll come to after you finally leave Key Largo behind you.  Leaving Key Largo, you will cross the third of your 42 bridges, over Tavernier Creek, at MM 91 and end up on Plantation Key.  Plantation Key also marks the transition from Key Largo to the town of Islamorada.  Islamorada essentially consists of all the islands between and including Plantation Key and Lower Matecumbe Key (MM 91 to MM 70-ish).

If Key Largo's primary attraction is diving, then Islamorada's is surely fishing.  Islamorada bills itself as the "Fishing Capital of the World", and judging by the number of charter boats, outfitters, it's a well-deserved title.  If you're in the Keys for an extended period of time and world-class fishing is what you're after, Islamorada is the place to go.

The Islamorada area is also the setting for some of the most interesting (and certainly the bloodiest) events in the history of the Keys.  Most of this occurred in the Matecumbes, and the outlying islands of Islamorada, which we'll talk more about later.

Plantation Key (MM 90.8 - 85.6)

Plantation Key covers the area from MM 90.8 to MM 85.6.  Today, Plantation Key is a highly residential area with just a few places to stay and eat.  There is not terribly much to do here, or see for that matter if you are passing through on your trip down to Key West.  Plantation Key is named for the pineapple plantations that existed here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  When the railroad came through in 1909, there was a railroad station here, although historical records suggest there was little more than 30 or so homes on the island.

If you happen to be staying in the area, one of the only sandy beaches to be found for miles around is at the Islamorada Founders Park at MM 87 on the Bayside.  This park has a small sandy stretch of beach (man made, of course), picnic areas, and an enormous swimming pool if you prefer fresh water.

Just below Founders Park is another residential area, after which you'll cross Snake Creek (your fourth bridge) to Windley Key.

Windley Key (MM 85.5 - 83.7)

Windley Key has a slightly more rich history than Plantation Key.  Windley Key was the location, at two different times in history, of quarries built to mine coral rock for construction projects.  During the Great Depression, a quarry was established on the north side of the railroad to mine coral for the construction of the Overseas Highway.  Keystone was also mined from this area as well - Keystone being a thin, highly polished cut of coral used in monuments and facades.  The best example of Keystone is in the Hurricane Monument a few miles south of here.

What was left behind when the mining was completed were large, open pits.  In the 1980's there was a plan to flood them and build condos around them, but environmentalists acted to preserve the quarries, and today the site is known as the  Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park (MM 85.2 Bayside).  Here you can walk down into the quarries and marvel at the preserved fossils in the walls and floor of the quarries.  It is probably the only place in the world where one can walk inside an ancient coral reef and is an interesting diversion if you have the time and are at all interested in the geology of the area or the ancient reef.

Just under a mile down the road, on the Ocean Side, another mining project took place closer to the start of the 20th century.  This time, the coral was used in the construction of the railroad.  Today, the quarries are full of water and teeming with sea life at an attraction known as Theatre of the Sea (MM 84.5, Ocean Side).  There are plenty of shows here including dolphin and sea lion shows.  You can also arrange for a dolphin encounter here as well.  Theatre of the Sea is also home to one of my favorite gift shops in all of the Keys.  Naturally, they have the normal assortment of T-shirts, many of which are dolphin- or other sea life-themed, seashells, and various other assorted knick-knacks.  They also have a nice assortment of books dealing with local history that are sometimes difficult to find in other places.  Both the gift shop and the lush gardens outside the gift shop are home to numerous cats that have the run of the facility.  Most of them are well-socialized and will let you play with them and pet them.  If you're missing your cat at home, stop in for your kitty fix here.

As you approach the Whale Harbor bridge take a look out the left hand side (headed south, the Ocean Side).  Two of the Upper Keys biggest party spots are right here.  If you're a landlubber, the Holiday Isle Resort is here, just north of the bridge.  The Holiday Isle has a raucous bunch of bars that have huge crowds on weekend nights.  Just past Holiday Isle, and out to sea a short ways, is the Sandbar.  On weekend afternoons, you'll find dozens of boats parked on the sandbar and a huge party happening on the water.  The only way to get out there is to rent a boat, which you can easily do just down the road in the Matecumbes.  If you've ever been to Destin, ths Sandbar is much like Crab Island in the Destin inlet.

Leaving Windley Key, cross the Whale Harbor bridge (MM 83.7, your fifth bridge) to arrive on Upper Matecumbe Key.

Tavernier

71 days to the Keys!

Tavernier is not an island, but rather another town on the island of Key Largo.  As you leave behind the strip malls and dive shops of Key Largo, the island turns more residential.  Tavernier is almost a "suburb" of Key Largo.

Around MM 92.5, on the left as you head down (Ocean Side), you'll see a turnoff for Harry Harris Park.  If you go down that road, Harry Harris Park is located in the area where the original town of Planter was located in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Planter was a stop on the railroad and was a community noted for growing pineapples and limes.  Two hurricanes pretty much wiped out the pineapple crop in Planter, and key limes were overtaken in popularity and availability by the larger Persian lime, essentially putting and end to farming in Key Largo.

Today, Tavernier is, by Keys standards, a sleepy little community of private homes, Bed & Breakfasts, and a few small shops.  The aforementioned Harry Harris park is a very nice, well-maintained park with a sandy stretch of beach on a small man-made lagoon and is a nice place to spend an afternoon if you're staying in the Key Largo area for a while.

Key Largo

As much as I'm fascinated by the history of the northern (upper) Keys, I've always been of the opinion that there's not a lot in Key Largo for the average tourist.  Key Largo, to me, is a town that people go to just to say they've been to the Keys when they don't quite have the time or the ambition to make it the last two or so hours to Key West.

Unless, of course, you're a diver, that is.  These days, the town of Key Largo, it seems, exists for two reasons.  One is to serve the neverending flow of traffic down into the Keys - cars that are full of kids that haven't eaten OR used a bathroom in at least a half hour since they left Florida City!  The second reason, of course, is the reef, more on that later.

The highway is four lanes here.  If you're curious, the two southbound lanes are where Flagler's railroad was in the early twentieth century.  The northbound lanes are where the original highway (mostly) was.  In some places, there is quite a lot of development BETWEEN the northbound and southbound lanes.  At Mile Marker 105.6, between the highway lanes, is where the original Key Largo railroad depot stood from 1910 until shortly after the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 wiped out the railroad.

Most of the island of Key Largo is densely populated - with people, motels, shops, restaurants, dive shops, and all manner of souvenir shops where one can get everything from T-shirts (3 for $10! the sign says) to seashell-encrusted toilet seats (seriously).  Even with four lanes of traffic, there are a lot of lights, a lot of cross streets, and a LOT of people turning into and out of the aforementioned shops, restaurants and motels.  All this combines to make for what can sometimes be a thoroughly dreadful traffic experience.

One might expect that being closest to the mainland, that Key Largo would have been the earliest settlement in the Keys.  But not so.  Key West had already gone through boom and bust several times over before Key Largo ever saw any serious settlement.  Even the arrival of the railroad did little to grow the area.  In the early days (mid-1800's), pineapple and lime farming was the mainstay of Key Largo, with the community at the time bing called Planter and situated more toward the southern end of present Key Largo.  But even into the 20th century there was no fresh water, no electricity and no way to communicate with the outside world save the daily train that came through.  It wasn't until the Navy brought fresh water through in the mid-40's in the form of a pipeline that the area began to grow.

Undoubtedly, the most popular attraction in Key Largo is John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.  The entrance is on the Ocean Side at MM 102.5.  When the park was originally chartered, it consisted of nearly 100 square miles, every last bit of it completely under water.  This was sort of a problem, you see, because there was no place to build a parking lot, an administration building, a bathroom or anything else for that matter.  It took the generous donation of some private landholders to create the first bit of dry land in the park and yet more donations later to provide actual right-of-way to create a road out TO the park.

Today, there is a very nice visitor center, and inside is a very nice reef aquarium.  There is the obligatory film and gift shop that will do it's best to part you from your money.  Here also is where you can find out about everything from the beaches (manmade and not particularly exciting), boat rentals, snorkeling and dive trips, camping, and glass bottom boat rides.  Pennekamp is definitely worth a day trip if you've got the time to work it into your busy schedule, but you really do need to allot an entire day to it.  Don't try to do it on anything less.  And make sure you get there early, because the park DOES have a maximum capacity, and they DO reach it early sometimes.

I'm not a diver, but they tell me there is a nine-foot tall statue of Jesus out there at Key Largo Dry Rocks if that's your thing.

If diving is not so much your thing, you, like Luca Brasi, can swim with the fishes.  Or at least the dolphins.  There are several places to do this in Key Largo, all in the area right around Pennekamp.

But you're on your way to Key West.  So enough about Key Largo for now.  A couple of last things, though.  In case you're counting, the second bridge you cross (after either Jewfish Creek or Card Sound that got you here in the first place) is right in the middle of Key Largo over the Marvin Adams waterway - a man made channel right through the heart of Key Largo providing a way to get from one side of the island to the other without going the long way around.  Key Largo is over 25 miles long, so points on opposite shores that are mere yards apart as the crow flies would be 20 or more miles apart by water if it weren't for the cut.  And lastly?  Stop for Cuban coffee or a con leche at Denny's Latin Cafe around MM 100 on the bay side.  It's right across the street from the Holiday Inn, so you can go there after you see the African Queen.  Then get on down the road - don't waste too much time in Key Largo, there are so many better things to see and do.

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 was a curious wooden tower behind the Sugarloaf airport, since destroyed by hurricane Irma in 2017. 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.