Guide to Key West, Florida

Key West, A Little Island

© Lee Foster - Lonely Planet Images

Key West got its name when it was dubbed Cayo Hueso by early Spanish explorers, who found human bones (hueso) along the shore. That name was eventually corrupted to Key West and the monicker stuck.

In 1820, the island was bought from the Spanish for $2,000, quite a substantial sum in those days, and the purchaser was John Simonton, an Alabama businessman—a canny businessman, it might be added, whose name and descendants live on here and remain a powerful influence in the area.

Pirates were eventually driven out and the island's mixed population of English Bahamians, Southerners and transplanted northerners rose to 2,700, many of them happily engaged in the pursuit of wrecking ships, then salvaging the cargoes.

So profitable was that enterprising career, in fact, that one wrecker, a Bahamian named William Curry, is said to have worked his way to a million dollars, making him Florida's first millionaire and wealthy enough to buy a $100,000 Tiffany table service.

In the 1850s, however, a lighthouse was built, putting a bit of a damper on the wrecking business, and the town's industry began to change. A devastating fire destroyed the town in 1859. About the same time, cigar makers, fleeing war in Cuba, arrived in Key West, where they established a thriving industry. Key West's port was a hot spot, too, and by the 1880s, the city was said to be the wealthiest in the nation.

It was pretty much downhill from there until promoters in these Keys discovered that the real gold in these islands was incessant sunshine, clear seas and iconoclastically bohemian residents, all items of surpassing interest to the winter-weary and the weird watchers. Thus was discovered the gold of tourism.

Author Ernest Hemingway was sufficiently seduced by a visit to Key West to move here permanently. Here the author met Sloppy Joe, the owner of a local Duval Street bar, and the two often retired to the back room to drink copious quantities of whiskey and exchange tales. Joe's stories are said to have inspired several of Hemingway's books, and he wrote a number of his stories while living the very good life in Key West. You can tour his house, now occupied only by the descendants of his unusual six-toed cats. You can visit the bar, too, and join in the local discussions over which is the 'real' Sloppy Joe's, Capt. Tony's Saloon, which is generally believed to be the spot, or the current Sloppy Joe's, which certainly looks as if it could have been. Presentation is everything.

Duval Street is the center of Key West life, with many hotels, guest houses, inns and bed & breakfasts, plus dozens of shops and restaurants, nestled into its tropical ambience.

Hemingway was just one of a host of writers and artists who have been drawn to this end-of the-world spot, where no one much cares how eccentric or outrageous you are. Playwright Tennessee Williams, who authored Streetcar Named Desire among others prize-winners, moved right in and today one of the town's theatres is named for him. Robert Frost spent some time here, and you can still see his cottage at Jessie Porter's Heritage House Museum, which also chronicles many other eras of Key West life. John James Audubon, whose delicate and exacting drawings of plants and birds gained him fame as one of the world's best known botanists, came here, too, and was so enchanted by rainbow-hued flowers and birds that he, too, moved in for a while and completed many drawings in what is now known as Audubon House & Tropical Gardens . If you visit it, you'll see some of his famed work.

All of these spots are about a conch shell's throw from each other and from Duval Street. A leisurely walk is the best way to discover this enchanting island with its secluded courtyards, cascading rainbows of magenta, peach and purple bougainvillea, swaying palms, glowing hibiscus, and intricate Victorian gingerbread woodwork.

What also might be called a "district," although you'll be hard pressed to differentiate it from the rest of the island, is an area near the tiny airport where a number of hotels and a few restaurants can be found. It doesn't get too noisy since there are only a few flights a day.

One more possible "district" can be found just at the entrance to Key West. It's a small island called Stock Island, reportedly where the island's cattle and other stock were kept many years ago. Today the "stock" on Stock Island includes charter boats awaiting fishing fans, boaters and visitors who want to get a look at the crystalline waters that surround the islands. From here, too, you can take a ferry to what might be called another "district" of Key West, the Dry Tortugas islands, where historic Fort Jefferson was built, once a prison housing Dr. Samuel Mudd, who unknowingly treated John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Civil War President Abraham Lincoln. Mudd spent years alone in this fortress prison.

When Key West was the wealthiest city in the nation, many residents constructed handsome homes. Trimmed on the outside in ornate woodwork known as gingerbread, and on the inside in stained glass, acres of elaborate woodwork, and miles of embellished plasterwork, these homes have been restored and are today a pastel wonderland, many of them inns, restaurants or shops.

At the city's port, there's an intriguing outdoor-indoor market where you can buy everything from handmade jewelry to hand-rolled cigars.

Above it all shines a relentless sun, winding up each day with a festival known as Sunset at Mallory Dock. The daily celebration is viewed by many along with juggler/street-performer/animal-trainer/jewelry-sellers. It is an eclectic gathering at which all and sundry join in a celebration of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—which has an amazing array of definitions here in the nation's southernmost city.

Marylyn Springer