Exhibit Opening of Carlos Guzmán’s “Where the Sea Retreats”
The work of critically acclaimed Cuban artist Carlos Guzmán is coming to the Florida Keys History & Discovery Center! One of Cuba’s most imaginative and creative contemporary painters, Carlos Guzmán, combines fantasy and allegory in 22 other worldly paintings and drawings on display from…
Bonnie Barnes to Lead Florida Keys History & Discovery Center
Islamorada, FL – Following a nationwide search, the Board of Directors of the Florida Keys History & Discovery Foundation selected Bonnie Barnes from Key Largo, Florida as the new Executive Director for the Florida Keys History & Discovery Center. Ms. Barnes has over 25 years…
The Over-Sea Railroad: Havana Bound
The train’s arrival forever altered the history of the Florida Keys and brought conveniences like daily mail, ice, and reliable transportation for visiting family members. Though trains were running daily from Miami to Knights Key as early as 1908, the Key West Extension of Henry…
The Cothrons come to Islamorada
Reynolds Cothron was born in Blackshear, Georgia, on Christmas Day 1866. He married Mary Emma Davis in 1893. By the turn of the century, Cothron was working as a section foreman for the Florida East Coast Railway and living with his growing family in Lemon…
The Story of Craig Key
Camp Panama was not found as far south as the name might infer. While headquarters operated out of a Miami location, the fishing camp was located in the Florida Keys. By January 1931, the fishing camp was being advertised, with rates for the camp ranging…
Antonio Gomez and Indian Key
Etched into an Islamorada roadside marker is the assertion that Antonio Gomez established a Spanish Trading Post on Indian Key circa 1695. While the legendary tale could be accurate, there is no supporting documentation connecting a man of that name to a trading post on…
A Local Connection to the Republic of Liberia
The USS Alligator was a swift, 12-gun schooner built to fight pirates and slave traders. The ship, constructed in the Boston Navy Yard, was commissioned in March of 1821. The Alligator’s first duty was ferrying representatives of the American Colonizing Society. The objective of the society, formed in 1817,…
The Benjamin Strobel Story
By 1828, Key West was beginning to need additional resources, including those addressing the growing demands of political necessity like law and order, as well as men of the cloth, and, as more families began to build houses on the island, a growing need for…
The Housman Tombstone
The weathered inscription reads: “Here lieth the body of Capt. Jacob Housman, formerly of Staten Island, State of New York, Proprietor of the island, who died by accident May 1, 1841, aged 41 years 11 months. To his friends he was sincere, to his enemies…
Pirates in the Florida Keys?
James Biddle, the first commander of the West Indies Squadron, was relieved of his duty in 1822. The deeper-draft ships deployed by him struggled to pursue the pirates who favored shallow-draft vessels capable of better navigating the shoals and reefs of the West Indies. December…