A Key Largo high school student has successfully documented 160 anchors and cannons along a 200-mile stretch of U.S. 1, creating possibly the most comprehensive documentation of topside maritime artifacts in the Florida Keys. The roadside artifacts, salvaged decades ago from the waters of Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, provide an opportunity for visitors to appreciate the Keys’ rich maritime history without getting wet while highlighting the importance of conservation.

Posted - Saturday, September 17, 2011 07:00 AM EDT

SNORKLING INTO HISTORY: Molasses Reef

The local charter trade refers to Molasses Reef as the aquarium. The mix of sponges, corals, and limestone substrate create a massive, brilliantly designed underwater complex. A spur-and-groove reef formation, it is festooned with intricately designed hard corals, sponges shaped like barrels and vases, and supple soft corals — brilliant purple sea fans and delicate sea whips. The nooks and crannies attract tropical fish like wildflowers draw honeybees.

Posted - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 11:00 AM EDT

A sketch shows the mooring buoys and wreck site at Pickles Reef.

Snorkeling into History: Pickles Reef

One thing makes this small spur and groove reef growing approximately two miles off the coast of Tavernier in the Upper Keys different from every other reef in the system — pickle barrels.

Posted - Friday, September 23, 2011 10:58 AM EDT

snorkeling into history

There is a fiesta going on beneath the turquoise surface of the Atlantic 3.5 miles east of Marathon’s Boot Key Harbor. Sandy grooves mark the floor like white lines on an asphalt parking lot. In between, walls of limestone substrate rise from the floor like great spurs. The spurs of limestone substrate rise for 5, 10 and 15 feet, and are carpeted with elegant sea fans, mounds of star corals, brain corals and pillar corals, as well as fire coral and sponges. To top the reefs off, elkhorn corals grow from the edges like great horned crowns.

Posted - Saturday, September 10, 2011 11:00 AM EDT

A rendering of the conference center that will house the Irving R. Eyster Museum of Florida Keys History in Islamorada.

When Irving Eyster was about 5 years old, he opened his first museum, in the attic of his parents’ Indiana home. He took the keepsakes he’d collected on a recent family trip to Florida, carefully organized them and unveiled them for study by his young friends.

Posted - Friday, September 02, 2011 11:00 AM EDT

The five-member Islamorada Village Council next Thursday is expected to approve a plan to build a convention center with space for a museum honoring local historian Irving Eyster.

Posted - Friday, May 20, 2011 11:00 AM EDT

The William J. Krome home and P.L. Wilson home around 1912 in Islamorada, on the bay shore at the end of DeLeon Avenue. They were destroyed in the 1935 hurricane.

PIONEER FAMILY

In the 1990s, my wife Mary Lou and I met Bill and Phoebe Krome through her sister, Meg Mabbs of Plantation Key. Many meetings took place afterwards, one being the making of an interview on Feb. 28, 1997 at their home in Homestead.

Posted - Friday, May 06, 2011 11:00 AM EDT

CHARLES TRAINOR JR

Claudia Pennington raises her arm to show how one would stop the train. The sign would mark stations along the route. (Miami Herald photo)

The Key West Art & Historical Society celebrates the 99th anniversary of the arrival of the Florida East Coast Railway in Key West with "Flagler's Speedway to Sunshine," an exhibit that opens Jan. 23.

Posted - Monday, January 31, 2011 01:11 PM EST

KEYS HISTORY

Historian Irving Eyster said that when he settled in Key West in 1947, it was a much different community.

Posted - Friday, January 28, 2011 11:00 AM EST

A short history of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park is needed to clarify the location the Christ of the Abyss statue for today’s visitors and citizens new to the Upper Keys area in the last 40 or so years.

Posted - Friday, December 10, 2010 11:00 AM EST