Key West
The southernmost city in the contiguous United States, at the end of U.S. 1.
- Population
- 26,444 (2020 census)
- The island
- About 4 miles long, 1 mile wide
- To Havana
- About 106 miles
- To Dry Tortugas
- About 70 miles west
- Tides
- Two highs, two lows, uneven
Then
- Before 1513
Calusa and Tequesta peoples live on and travel among the Keys for thousands of years before Europeans arrive.
- 1513
Ponce de León's expedition records the island. The Spanish call it Cayo Hueso, “bone cay.”
- 1822
John Simonton buys the island from Juan Pablo Salas for $2,000. That March, Lt. Matthew C. Perry plants the U.S. flag.
- 1823
Commodore David Porter's “Mosquito Fleet” hunts pirates from a new naval base where Mallory Square stands today.
- 1828
A federal court opens and salvage cases move here. Wrecking, the business of rescuing cargo from ships run aground on the reef, makes Key West one of the wealthiest towns per person in the country during the 1800s.
- 1831–1888
The first cigar factory opens in 1831. Cuban families fleeing the Ten Years' War swell the trade, and by 1888 the island has 166 factories.
- 1861
Union troops hold Fort Zachary Taylor, begun in 1845, and Key West stays in Union hands through the Civil War while the rest of Florida secedes.
- 1886
The Great Fire burns for about 12 hours and destroys most of the commercial district.
- 1912
On January 22, the first train on Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad rolls into Key West.
- 1927
Pan American Airways is founded here and begins flying mail to Havana.
- 1928–1939
Ernest Hemingway lives on the island. His 1937 novel To Have and Have Not is set largely in Key West.
- 1935–1938
The Labor Day hurricane wrecks the railroad. The Overseas Highway opens along its route in 1938.
- 1945–1953
Harry Truman spends 11 working vacations, 175 days in all, at the house now known as the Little White House.
- 1982
On April 23, protesting a Border Patrol roadblock on U.S. 1, the city declares itself the Conch Republic, mostly in jest.
- 1985
Mel Fisher's crew finds the treasure of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha off Key West.
Now
Key West is the end of the Overseas Highway and still a working port, with a cruise terminal, an international airport and Naval Air Station Key West, which trains Navy aviators.
Most visitors come for Old Town and Duval Street, and for sunset at Mallory Square, a tradition locals defended when a cruise terminal opened there in 1984. The concrete Southernmost Point buoy at Whitehead and South streets draws a steady line for photos, though the island's true southern tip is on Navy land nearby. The southernmost spot the public can reach is the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor.
The island sits inside the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, close to the reef that makes it a center for diving and snorkeling. Dry Tortugas National Park and Fort Jefferson lie about 70 miles west, reachable only by boat or seaplane.
On the water
From NOAA's predictions for Key West, FL over the next 365 days. Heights are in feet above mean lower low water (MLLW).
- Pattern
- Two highs and two lows a day, one noticeably bigger than the other
- Typical daily range
- 1.8 ft
- Biggest swing
- 2.8 ft on Nov 25
- Smallest swing
- 0.7 ft on Mar 2
- Highest high
- 2.5 ft, Oct 28 at 11:49 PM
- Lowest low
- −0.7 ft, Jan 21 at 2:47 AM