KEY WEST IS THE GREATEST ISLAND ADVENTURE IN THE WORLD

Key West is a small island at the end of US 1. It has some of the best beaches in the world.The water is crystal clear and it is always warm.Key West's 'live and let live' attitude is rooted in a twisted, varied and often puzzling history. Originally called;Cayo Huesoquot; - Island of Bones - one can only conclude that Key West was once perhaps a burial ground for the Caloosa Indians, but no one has found any bones to-date. Ponce de Leon claimed Key West for Spain in 1513, but it came under British rule in 1763. Key West officially became a city and a part of Florida in 1826.It was once the richest per-capita city in the US with fortunes being made in the shipbuilding, sponging and salvage industries. In fact,quot;wrecking quot;actually became a regulated industry in Key West until the 1840's when the firstlighthouses were erected in the Keys to guide ships around the treacherous reefs.Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad reached Key West in 1912 and operated until 1935 and is the foundation of today's spectacular Overseas Highway. In the 1930's, Key West was no longer a rich city. The main industries had moved elsewhere and even the US Navy had pulled out. But a renaissance began with the realization that Key West's climate, history, architecture, reefs, and waters could make it a mecca for artists, writers, and overlystressed mainlanders. Restoration, renovation and preservation have become a way of life in Key West. Homes built by the shipbuilders of the past with wooden peg construction and "carpenter gothic" gingerbread are lived in by the spritual, if not linear descendants of those artisans.

KEY WEST ALSO HAS SOME GREAT NIGHTLIFE.