KEY WEST BACK IN THE DAY: PHIL CLARK WAS ‘THE PIRATE WHO LOOKED AT...
“Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you callWanted to sail upon your waters Since I was three feet tallYou’ve seen it all …. You’ve seen...
KEYS HISTORY: UPPER MATECUMBE KEY WAS ONCE KNOWN AS A RAILROAD TOWN
When Islamorada developed, it was a railroad town. People like to say otherwise.
They tell stories about Spanish conquistadors sailing past and declaring Islamorada the...
KEYS HISTORY: OUTSIDE KEY WEST, TAVERNIER HAS THE MOST HISTORICAL STRUCTURES
Tavernier is a small community found on the southern tip of Key Largo. It was not the first to develop along this neck of...
KEY WEST BACK IN THE DAY: IT’S THE JAZZ, MAN
Sometimes in Key West’s beloved “bad old days,” also known as the late 1970s and early ’80s, you could feel a spine-tingling sense of...
KEYS HISTORY: REMEMBERING THE KEYS OF OLD
To help make ends meet, I work at a shack next to the marina at Robbie’s of Islamorada a couple of days a week....
KEYS HISTORY: SUGARLOAF RESTAURANT A JUNCTION BETWEEN FORMER RAILROAD & HIGHWAY
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word sugarloaf as “refined sugar molded into a cone.” It can also mean something cone-shaped.
Why the name was given...
KEYS HISTORY: FAMOUS WESTERN NOVELIST ENJOYED ANNUAL FISHING TRIPS ON LONG KEY
Rattlesnakes are pit vipers. Pit vipers have two little heat-sensing pits on their heads between their eyes and nostrils. When a rattlesnake strikes with...
KEYS HISTORY: NEW BOOK EXPLORES SOME ‘CONCH TALES’
It’s exciting to write that volume 3 of my “Florida Keys History with Brad Bertelli” book series is now available.
With each book, I’ve worked...
KEY WEST BACK IN THE DAY: REMEMBER WHEN THE MAYOR WATER SKIED TO CUBA?
A lighthearted water-skiing jaunt doesn’t usually involve Cuban gunboats and 6-foot seas. But the late Key West mayor Charles “Sonny” McCoy encountered both in...
KEYS HISTORY: THESE ISLANDS PRESENT SOME NAMING MYSTERIES
Conch is more than a five-letter word in the Florida Keys. It is a marine gastropod, a musical horn, a treasured souvenir, a culture...
