Time to party, Florida Keys celebrates bicentennial
MIAMI - The Florida Keys, Key West, The Conch Republic, up and down US 1 folks are never far from a party, an event, or just laid-back fun.
Now there is a great reason to celebrate big time as 2023 is special.
"This is the 200th anniversary of the creation of Monroe County," said county historian Corey Malcom.
The Florida Territorial Legislature established Monroe County, which encompasses the entire Keys island chain, on July 3, 1823.
Two hundred years of unique history and a landscape that has both charmed and challenged those who have come to live or enjoy what tourism promoters proudly claim is: "So close to perfect and so far from normal."
"People who want to investigate the Jimmy Buffet lifestyle find out it is not so bad. Once you get down here, you have found your place on the island, you are doing what you want to do," said John Bartus, a musician, a politician, and former mayor of Marathon in the Middle Keys.
That's exactly what Keys officials and civic leaders did in April of 1982 when the federal government set up roadblocks looking for drugs and immigrants. The Keys leadership, with tongue in cheek, declared the independent Conch Republic, declared war on the United States, and immediately surrendered. In the midst of the uproar, the feds backed off on their roadblocks, and the mythical Conch Republic was born.
"This sort of Conch, Cuban-American culture all mixed together into this unique community really makes the Florida Keys a diverse and interesting, absolutely unique place in Florida," said Malcom.
From the early days, New Englanders, Cubans, freed Slaves, and Bahamians, both black and white, in the early 1800s came for opportunity.
The Keys were independent and diverse from the beginning.
Bartus said, "It had a lot to do with the salvers, a lot to do, you know, cigars and tobacco, had to do with plain old piracy."
Key West, early on, was built by wreckers who made their living plucking cargo from sailing ships who had crashed on the reefs up and down the Keys. Later, Cubans escaping oppressive Spanish rule in Cuba set up major cigar-rolling operations.
At one time Key West was the richest and largest city in the Florida Territory and the most diverse. Along the way, there was a serious need for government up and down the island chain so the Florida Territorial Legislature established one.
A lot has happened since that July 3rd, 1823 date. Today Monroe County is the site of a world-renowned tourist industry, fishing - both commercial and recreational. After the turn of the 20th century, Henry Flagler built his railroad that connected Key West and Monroe County with the mainland and tourists flowed into the sub-tropical paradise.
The island chain also had a front seat for some of the country's history-making events.
There was the Cuban Missile Crisis, troops and nuclear missiles at the ready in 1962. Then there was the Mariel boatlift in 1980 and the 1994 Cuban rafter crisis. And let's not forget a long string of hurricanes. Through it all Monroe County held a unique lure that never seems to fade away.
In the late 1940s, President Harry Truman visited and established Key West's "The Little White House."
The Keys have also been popular with writers and artists.
"People have come down here decades finding inspiration, classic writers like Ernest Hemingway, spent time down here," said Bartus.
So did Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, Robert Frost, later Judy Blume, Shel Silverstein, and Jimmy Buffet who popularized the Keys lifestyle in song.
"It is just an inspiration to hang out, look at our water, wonderful islands, our beaches, out on the water and that does inspire a lot of songs," said Bartus.
There is plenty to sing about and celebrate, two hundred years of amazing history that has gone down in one of the Sunshine State's most unique counties.