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Key West
KNOWLEDGE OF Key West
The Conch Republic
Eclectic and eccentric, wild and warm, blessed with some of Florida's most colorful characters and equally blessed with some of its most spectacular sea scenery, the Keys are Florida's wonderland paradise.
Anything goes here—and usually does. Some years back, in fact, Keys residents, annoyed with the federal government, announced their intention to secede from the United part of the United States of America and re-unite as the Conch Republic. As usual, no one, including many of their own number, paid much attention.
A failure to care about what the rest of the world is doing or thinking is very characteristic of the Keys. In the old days, folks deliberately lured ships onto the rocks and made a very profitable career out of it. Residents plan parties when terrifying hurricanes are blowing up a storm a few miles off the coast. Just try and move them. They go fishing when the spirit moves them and get spirited when the spirits move.
They even die with style: in Key West's cemetery, one of the epitaphs declares: "I told you I was sick."
It has long been thus in this silvery ribbon of islands that trail off the southern shore of Florida. Thanks to the ever present warm temperatures and glistening seas, the islands have long been an escapist's nirvana.
Calusa Indians and other tribes found their way to these islands, recognizing them as hunting grounds, both on land and in the warm seas where shellfish, turtles and marine life of all kinds thrive. Generations later, the Spaniards, who discovered and settled most of the Sunshine State, arrived. Most notable was adventurer Ponce de Leon, who first set eyes on the keys on May 15, 1513. He and his sailors dubbed the islands Los Martires, the martyrs, in salute to the rocks that, from a distance, looked like suffering men.
With a long history of looting and pillaging pirates, chased by the U.S. Navy Pirate Fleet of the 1820s, Key West was a haven for outlaws and unsavory, but enterprising characters. Hurricanes hit and mosquitoes bit, as did the Depression which, for a time, dampened hopes of tourism and bankrupted Key West.
Eclectic and eccentric, wild and warm, blessed with some of Florida's most colorful characters and equally blessed with some of its most spectacular sea scenery, the Keys are Florida's wonderland paradise.
Anything goes here—and usually does. Some years back, in fact, Keys residents, annoyed with the federal government, announced their intention to secede from the United part of the United States of America and re-unite as the Conch Republic. As usual, no one, including many of their own number, paid much attention.
A failure to care about what the rest of the world is doing or thinking is very characteristic of the Keys. In the old days, folks deliberately lured ships onto the rocks and made a very profitable career out of it. Residents plan parties when terrifying hurricanes are blowing up a storm a few miles off the coast. Just try and move them. They go fishing when the spirit moves them and get spirited when the spirits move.
They even die with style: in Key West's cemetery, one of the epitaphs declares: "I told you I was sick."
It has long been thus in this silvery ribbon of islands that trail off the southern shore of Florida. Thanks to the ever present warm temperatures and glistening seas, the islands have long been an escapist's nirvana.
Calusa Indians and other tribes found their way to these islands, recognizing them as hunting grounds, both on land and in the warm seas where shellfish, turtles and marine life of all kinds thrive. Generations later, the Spaniards, who discovered and settled most of the Sunshine State, arrived. Most notable was adventurer Ponce de Leon, who first set eyes on the keys on May 15, 1513. He and his sailors dubbed the islands Los Martires, the martyrs, in salute to the rocks that, from a distance, looked like suffering men.
With a long history of looting and pillaging pirates, chased by the U.S. Navy Pirate Fleet of the 1820s, Key West was a haven for outlaws and unsavory, but enterprising characters. Hurricanes hit and mosquitoes bit, as did the Depression which, for a time, dampened hopes of tourism and bankrupted Key West.
Chapi