Where is Key West?
It's in hiding, in the Gulf of Mexico: only just peeping out above the sea (18ft above sea level at it's highest peak!). It's precariously placed at the southernmost tip of a wafer thin, 200 mile-long, string of 823 islands making up an ancient coral archipelago. Essentially, it's island #823. That's the geographical answer.
It's where the history of an island has outgrown its small footprint. Ponce de Leon set foot in the swamps in 1521. Then not much happened for 300 years... until Greene, Whitehead and Fleeming laid out the island in 1829. Life in KW was then dominated by - in turn - shipwrecking, sponging and cigar making - all of which left their particular mark on the city. Key West was in glorious isolation until 1912 when the rail road arrived, then it was blown away in a disastrous hurricane in 1935. Then there was an arty phase with Hemingway and Williams. Once America's richest city per head, it was for many years after the 1930s a poor and run down place until someone came up with a bright idea of tourism. The first cruise ship arrived in 1969 and started an unstoppable trend. That's the historical answer.
It's where, if you keep going west from Key West, you'll hit Hawaii (ok, you need to climb over Mexico first). If you keep going east from Key West you'll hit the western Sahara in Africa. That's the surprising answer.
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| The view from island number 823. From Fort Zach Taylor, looking west towards the reef |
It's where the history of an island has outgrown its small footprint. Ponce de Leon set foot in the swamps in 1521. Then not much happened for 300 years... until Greene, Whitehead and Fleeming laid out the island in 1829. Life in KW was then dominated by - in turn - shipwrecking, sponging and cigar making - all of which left their particular mark on the city. Key West was in glorious isolation until 1912 when the rail road arrived, then it was blown away in a disastrous hurricane in 1935. Then there was an arty phase with Hemingway and Williams. Once America's richest city per head, it was for many years after the 1930s a poor and run down place until someone came up with a bright idea of tourism. The first cruise ship arrived in 1969 and started an unstoppable trend. That's the historical answer.
It's where, if you keep going west from Key West, you'll hit Hawaii (ok, you need to climb over Mexico first). If you keep going east from Key West you'll hit the western Sahara in Africa. That's the surprising answer.
It's in the hearts, and the cameras, of over a million folks who every year spend a fleeting time in KW in acts of debauchery, or purification, or both. It's where vacationers get off a their cruise ship and party at 10am. That's the lively answer.
It's where spongers, wreckers, crooners, sailors, captains, drag queens, butterflies and chickens roam together, and free. And where even wilder animals come on annual migration to put on a show - which is called fantasy fest and happens every October. Key West residents are famously friendly, especially the mosquitoes. That's the silly answer.
It's where 25,478 lucky people call Key West home. For most it's a pleasure, for few its a chore. Conchs are lucky because - however much they like to moan about island life - they have the satisfaction of knowing that they don't have to pack up and go home back to the cold after a 5 day vacation. That's the human answer.
Find your own answer: 129 miles from Miami and 106 miles from Cuba.
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| MM0, end of Highway 1, in downtown Key West (junction of Fleming and Whitehead St) |
