Key West is enveloped in history and has had many owners. First to see its beauty was Ponce De Leon in 1521, he noticed how great it would serve as a port for business and sent a man to go and set up a fishing and salvage village. The Spanish set up a garrison and took over the area naming it "Cayo Hueso" meaning "bone cay", they named it this because when they arrived the island was littered with bones from prior native inhabitants. In 1763 when Great Britain took control of Florida the Spaniards and local Native Americans were moved to Havana Cuba. Twenty years later ownership returned to the Spanish but they never resettled the island. in 1815 Spanish Governor of Cuba in Havana deeded the island of Key west to Juan Pablo Salas, becoming Cuban, then in 1821 when it was being transferred to the united states he was so eager to sell it, that he sold it twice, once to General John Geddes for $575, then to businessman John W. Simonton during a meeting in a Havana cafe for $2,000, though fought through Washington Geddes could not secure his claim and Simonton became clear owner, thus becoming U.S. territory. Other than a brief stent in 1982 the island has remained U.S. owned, in 1982 though, due to a 17 mile blockade set up by the navy, making it almost impossible to enter or exit the island, disturbing its biggest income, tourism, the Governor and the people of Key West decided to take matters into their own hands, they declared there independence from the united states and became the Conch Republic, then sailed beside the navy ships close to the blockade and started throwing stale cuban bread at then, the navy returned fire with water cannons, the fight lasted 60 seconds, the governor then surrendered and asked the U.S. for 1 million in relief since they were now refugees, they are still waiting for the money....but the blockade went away.
The Hemingway House, this was where Hemingway Wrote 1/4 of his lifes work within a year. The best story with house though comes from his first wife Pauline, in 1928ish Hemingway had a very large boxing wring built, he then went on a trip to Europe taking his mistress with him, his wife Pauline found out about it and decided to turn his
boxing wring into a swimming pool, she spent over $20,000 on it which would be ($330,000) today, he was so upset when he got home and found her having a pool party that he told her she might as well spend his last red cent too and through the penny he had in his pocket in the pool, she then party dress and all dove in after it and had it pressed into the still soft cement beside the pool, its still there.
Enjoying the downtown area, found the worlds smallest bar and then enjoyed the sunset celebration at Mallory square.
Fort East Martello Museum, which is mostly consisted of weird toys, old hearses, strange art and what might be the oldest cardinal scale.
Very strange and skippable. my final take on this place is that it was like going through your grandmas attic, if your grandma was into really weird art and strange collectables.
The island is littered with chickens and roosters, but don't get any ideas, they are protected by the law, harassing one will get you fined $500 and a possible night in jail depending on how harassed the chicken felt.
There are also rather large iguanas here, that I'm told like to poop in swimming pools and are the bane of hotel clean up crews.
Mile 0, we've officially been as fare on the Highway as you can get in the U.S.
Also to the southernmost point in the U.S. though it say 90 miles to Cuba it is actually 98 miles, President Kennedy thought 90 sounded better.
Flagler Station. This is where Henry Flagler had his railway station in Key West, it is now a museum. Mr. Flagler spent 50 million in 1912 to connect it to the overseas railway he built, thats 1.5 billion in today's money, 1935 hurricane destroyed it and it was never rebuilt.you could say he lost part of his shirt on it, it later became the roadways of Highway 1 when Roosevelt was in office.
Stay tuned for more on Key West coming soon...
The Hemingway House, this was where Hemingway Wrote 1/4 of his lifes work within a year. The best story with house though comes from his first wife Pauline, in 1928ish Hemingway had a very large boxing wring built, he then went on a trip to Europe taking his mistress with him, his wife Pauline found out about it and decided to turn his 
boxing wring into a swimming pool, she spent over $20,000 on it which would be ($330,000) today, he was so upset when he got home and found her having a pool party that he told her she might as well spend his last red cent too and through the penny he had in his pocket in the pool, she then party dress and all dove in after it and had it pressed into the still soft cement beside the pool, its still there.
Mile 0, we've officially been as fare on the Highway as you can get in the U.S.
