Unlocking the History of the Keys

Start with some branching coral and mix in a few heaping helpings of sand. Next add a dash of smaller coral and some sediment producing algae. Let the mixture sit through a Wisconsin Ice Age until the sea level drops, and you have the perfect recipe for an island chain just off the Florida mainland: The Florida Keys.

The Keys are a chain of about 822 islands that rose from the sea about 100,000 years ago, said Jerry Wilkinson, president of the Historical Preservation Society of the Upper Keys. Wilkinson has studied, collected and even become a part of the history of the Keys. He moved to Key West in 1947, but immediately joined the Air Force and did not return to the Keys until 1970. Although he is sure of the date he settled down in the Keys, Wilkinson said to pinpoint the time of the very first settlement in the Keys has proven a difficult task.

He said the first challenge is to decide what exactly defines a settlement. Is it just a group of people who lived there first, or is it those who stayed and established a community? After looking through records to determine when people actually inhabited the island, Wilkinson drew the line at the post office. If someone was ambitious enough to fill out an application for a post office, Wilkinson considers that place settled. But finding any kind of documentation is difficult, he said. The Seminole Wars give the primary documentation because the government was involved. Wilkinson also uses national archives, land titles, homestead records and church and school records to help determine when each key was settled.

According to the records he did find, in 1830 Jacob Houseman settled Indian Key. However, he said the key was probably settled earlier. Houseman was trying to break into the salvage business, and he bought the 10-acre island of Indian Key.

But the islands that are now known as the Upper Keys were not surveyed for land use until 1870s. So determining settlements before then is still a mystery.

However as time passed, and more records were made available, the history of the Keys became clearer. One of the most noted events in the Keys’ history was Flagler’s Folly.

Henry Flagler purchased Indian Key, and in 1908 began to put in a railroad on the Upper Keys. The newspapers deemed the project “Flagler’s Folly” because they thought the railroad was a waste of time and would never work, Wilkinson said. But in 1912, the railroad was completed to Key West, and brought with it a new beginning.

“The Keys were a total maritime society until 1912,” Wilkinson said.

The railroad connected the Keys with the mainland, and with that came fresh water, food and daily mail service. Wilkinson said because of the intense heat in the Keys, one of the most precious commodities the railroad brought was ice.

“It opened up the Keys to modern-day living,” he said.

Wilkinson theorizes that Flagler had even bigger dreams for the railroad. He believes that Flagler intended to take advantage of Key West’s proximity to Cuba for trade. Cuba’s crops of sugar and molasses were lucrative, and Flagler wanted in on it. Wilkinson chides the newspapers for their cynicism.

“It was his money, so if he wanted to gamble with it, so be it,” he said.
At the time, Jacksonville and Tampa were the only two seaports in Florida, but Wilkinson said he believes Flagler planned to make Key West a seaport as well because Key West was easier to access from the Panama Canal than New Orleans.

“I think the catalyst was the Panama Canal,” Wilkinson said.

But Wilkinson said technology outran Flagler, and those dreams were never realized. However, Flagler did not come out empty-handed. Although he never generated much money from the railroad, the land Flagler acquired was rich and prosperous.

Then in 1928 came the highway and the ferryboats. This system let people drive their automobiles to Matecumbe Key and take ferries to Key West. But the ferries were expensive and cumbersome, and it was not long before plans emerged to build a new road.

In 1934, the jobless World War I veterans were sent down to the Upper Keys to build the road alongside the railroad that ran all the way to No Name Key, Wilkinson said. They started building at Lower Matecumbe Key, when disaster struck. The 1935 Hurricane killed about 400 civilians, including veterans, and destroyed most of the veterans’ work on the road. All that remained were some concrete piers. The piers were turned into the Florida Keys Memorial to honor all the civilians who lost their lives.

“But there was nothing that recognized just the veterans,” he said.

He noticed some highway fill sticking out of the water that had been covered in mangroves and had turned into an island. After some research, Wilkinson discovered that the island had no name.

“So I said, ‘Well let’s give it a name,’” he said.

Wilkinson contacted the National Register of Historic Places, and named the island Veterans Key.
Although the 1935 Hurricane was devastating, nothing could stop the growth of the Keys. In 1938, a continuous highway was built that made the Keys a day-trip destination from Miami.

The sea and wind have been not only a creator of the Keys, but an arch nemesis as well. Just as the water levels fell to create those islands years ago, it looks as though they will once again rise to swallow them up. Wilkinson said due to the natural ebb and flow of the sea levels, the Keys began slowly disappearing about 30,000 years ago. But although the Keys are returning from whence they came, their history tells us they may resurface once again.