MikePadgett.com

Key West and the Conch Republic

— Daring to be different: a true American outpost, the beautiful south of Key West has had its fair share of eccentrics.”

The more observant of my readers will no doubt have noticed that the number of parts in this series has now grown to five articles. We’ve been busy since we returned from the States, so apologies for the tardiness in publishing these images.

There are about 1700 coral reef islands in the Florida Keys archipelago, traversed by US Highway 1 which starts in the southernmost Key West and ends 2,377 miles later in Fort Kent, Maine. The first 127 miles of US-1 constitute the Overseas Highway, a road built to parallel Henry Flagler’s legendary feat of industry, the Overseas Railroad.

The Overseas Railroad

There were of course many doubters, but Flagler was a shrewd individual. His vision of a primarily industrial link between Key West’s regionally unique deep port and the mainland did demand a leap of faith, but the advantages of accessible trade with Cuba (and Latin America via the upcoming Panama Canal) were appreciable.

Already known as the “Father of Miami”, Flagler intended the new railroad to join up with the rest of his rail network. And after overcoming seemingly insurmountable engineering problems, the man himself rode down the line into Key West in 1912, convincingly silencing his critics. He died a year later.

The completed railroad embodied the aspiration of Man to conquer Nature, but as ever Nature would have the last word. In 1935, the Labor Day Hurricane was the strongest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history and it made landfall near what is today Islamorada, in the Upper Keys.

In the devastation, over 400 people were killed and the Overseas Railroad was partially destroyed. It was never rebuilt. The State of Florida bought up what remained of the route and reused many sections for the construction of the Overseas Highway.

All along the modern road today are the reminders of “Flagler’s Folly”, the rusting bridges of the old railroad.

Key West: the extreme south

Before the arrival Flagler’s iron future, Key West had already enjoyed a colourful past.

To the Spanish, it was Cayo Hueso, or Bone Key, named after the huge numbers of human remains found there. Once the United States took Florida, Cayo Hueso was sold to American private owners and developed by a succession of businessmen.

Settlers were attracted by Key West’s maritime growth industries. Salvage was among the biggest of these, given that shipwrecks were famously common in this part of the Atlantic.

The rise of the Conch Republic

European immigrants who washed up in Key West during the 19th century were dubbed ‘conchs’ by the local salty seadogs. Most residents of the Keys still answer to that nickname today.

In 1980, a bleak Cuban economy precipitated the so-called Mariel boatlift, in which over 125,000 Cuban exiles washed up in Florida. As part of the general reaction by authorities to this and surrounding events, the US Border Patrol situated a roadblock at Florida City two years later that effectively cut off the Keys from the rest of the United States.

Whilst vehicles were checked for drugs and illegal immigrants, the only two roads joining the Keys to the mainland were paralysed. Key West’s legal efforts to remove the roadblock failed.

In an audacious attempt to gain publicity and thereby raise awareness of the situation, Key West’s local government surmised that it might as well act as treated. “Independence” from the United States was declared in April 1982. A finer tongue-in-cheek response to the situation there could not have been, and so the ‘Conch Republic’ was born.

The roadblock was subsequently removed and the motto established: “we seceded where others failed”. Whilst the mock Republic continues to be celebrated by an annual parade and continues to live on for tourism’s sake, new protests arise from time to time that draw on the spirit of 1982.

In the shallows

The Key West National Wildlife Refuge consists of 26 small keys and the waters surrounding them. We took a trip with Danger Charters into the protected areas on their sailing boat Danger’s Prize.

Sailing around Key West can be a technical business. Though the port at Key West is deep enough to handle large cruise liners, out in the backcountry it’s easy to run aground in the shallows. Fortunately, the captain was very experienced and steered us through, even though we his passengers could lean over the side of boat and see the seabed at around waist height!

First stop was a nursery for fish and spotted eagle rays. We donned mask, snorkel and fins and plunged in. The water was cold enough to require a shorty wetsuit.

In kayaks we rowed around Man Key, occasionally running aground on sandbanks. Very early on, our guide Brian was dumbfounded by the sight of a very rare bird for the area, the Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja).

Soon after the Spoonbill had finally taken flight, we came across another rarity: a nurse shark almost static in the current. Brian managed carefully and safely to lift the chap clean out of the water for us all to see. It was a first for him, and obviously for the rest of us!