A collection of stories of people and events in the Florida Keys extending from the time the Keys were first occupied by humans, through the Second Seminole War, the coming of the Overseas Railway, and finally the opening of the first Overseas Highway in 1927. The tales tell of American Indians, Cubans, Bahamians, New Englanders, and of fishing, turtling, shipwreck salvaging, warring, and of course dealing with heat and mosquitoes. John Viele's three volumes, The Florida Keys, have been Keys bestsellers for years. Now he presents a fascinating new batch of historical vignettes.

“Nikki Beare came with her family to live on the Keys. Her interest in the Keys and its history made her become a real part of the Conchs, but more in the nature of “grafted on stock”. From the very beginning, she endeared herself to all with whom she came in contact. She enjoyed hearing the Old Timers recount the many tales of the sea, the ships, the islands, and the brave men who spent so much of their lives in the task of island hopping with passengers, freight, and mail.”—C. Marvin Thompson In her book, Pirates Pineapples and People, which was first published in 1961, Nikki Beare tells of the history of the Upper Florida Keys—the history of a very unique area. “It is a part of the United States that has very few written records. The Upper Keys have had a tremendous and fabulous history from earliest times. “Over the centuries, any records that were written (very few) have been lost...washed away in the numerous hurricanes that touched the coral shores. By poking around in old book stores, libraries, reading old newspapers, writing to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., reading letters written by historians, a basis for fact has been established. What cannot be found on paper is in the memories of the old-timers...Some are tales handed down from one generation to another...others are true stories, as close as possible to actual happenstance without actual records to verify.”—Nikki Beare

From the wreck of the USS Alligator to the mystery of the marooned dolphins, It Happened in the Florida Keys looks at intriguing people and episodes from the history of this island chain. Discover why the Key Largo dive community decided to have the largest ship in the world ever to be intentionally sunk deposited six miles offshore the Florida Keys. Read about the incredible discovery of a sunken seventeenth-century Spanish galleon’s treasure worth an estimated $450 million. Learn how some poultry running wild wreaked havoc on the city of Key West, and sparked the emotionally charged “chicken wars”. Relive three fascinating summers when Keys residents rubbed elbows with Hollywood stars as their favorite haunts were transformed into fictional sets for a popular television series.

The Florida Keys have witnessed all kinds of historical events, from the dramatic and the outrageous to the tragic and the comic. Join the authors as they delve into tales of treasure hunters, developers, exotic dancers, determined preservationists and more from the colorful history of the Florida Keys.

The Straits of Florida is a 110-mile sea passage between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean bordered on the northern side by the Florida Keys and the Florida Reef. In its waters, along the reef, and on desolate keys, thousands of men and women have died in shipwrecks, attacks by natives, sea battles, and pirate boardings. Few of their stories have survived, but those that have tell gripping tales of their struggles against the perils of the sea and the onslaughts of men. This book presents a selection of such stories during the age of sail from the time Spanish navigators discovered the Straits to the end of the Second Seminole War in 1842. Excerpted from ships' logs, captains' diaries, court-martial transcripts, and newspaper accounts, the stories in this volume—a companion to The Florida Keys, Volume 1: A History of the Pioneers—will make you glad you live in a modern world. Read harrowing tales of the cruelty and torture inflicted on mariners at the hands of bloodthirsty pirates; of pistol and cannon battles between merchant ships and wayward privateers; and of the hardships endured by some of Florida's earliest settlers. Sprinkled with hand-drawn illustrations, photographs, and maps depicting the lay of the land during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this book presents a scholarly, historically accurate account of life on the Keys and in the perilous Straits of Florida during the age of sail. An index and extensive bibliography are included. Next in series > > See all of the books in this series

Well-researched, fascinating accounts of Florida Keys' life of the past two centuries.