Location:
The Keys are a chain of rock islands, stretching from 180 miles from Biscayne Bay to the lonely Dry Tortugas. On the north and west they touch on the shallow waters of Florida Bay; on the east and south lie the deeper waters of the Straits of Florida and blue Gulf Stream. The city of Key West is 80 miles farther south than the sourthermost point in Texas, and is 193 miles farther north than the city of Honolulu, Hawaii.

Climate:
In the climatic sense, the Keys belong to the tropics, even though the Tropic of Cancer lies 70 miles south of Key West. Summers are warm and are wetter than the rest of the year as the trade winds bring moisture-laden clouds from the Atlantic Ocean. Winters are pleasant but the warm air is usually displaced three or four times in the season in short cold spells as cold waves reach down from Canada.

Geology:
The Upper Keys are the bony skeleton of an ancient coral reef. The lower Keys were formed of egg-shaped limestone particles cemented together in a form of rock call Miami oolite. Both overlies about two miles of limestone fera on top of submerged foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Pieces of the white Key Largo limestone can sometimes be found that have metamorphosed int calcite crystals, yellow and sparkling.

History:
The name of the new land was taken from the Spanish name for Easter "Pascuas Florida". Spanish attempts at colonizing Florida were ineffectual, except for a military post at St. Augustine and the Indian towns across the peninsula to San Marcos (St. Marks). However Florida was valuable to Spain because of the shipping routes, south along the west coast, north along the east. When British and colonial troops captured Havana in 1762, Spain ransomed the city by trading all of Florida for it in 1763. Britiain returned the region to Spain in 1783 rather than see the young United States seize it. Then in 1818, the united States bought all of Florida from Spain for five million dollars.

Key West was the first permanent settlement, founded in 1822. Monroe county was formed in 1828, and included all of Florida south of Lake Okeechobee. Florida became a state in 1845. Monroe county then became the Keys.

The Spanish name for the Keys was "Los Martires", the Martyrs, and is supposed to refer to the twisted shapes of many of them. The spanish name for little islands is "cayos", a word that has been changed in the modern America to keys.

Many of the early settlers came to the Keys from the Bahamas where the queen conch, a large marine snail, is a staple food. For this reason, their descendants are often called "conchs'. Although foreigners (mainlanders) have used the term as an insult, natives consider it a compliment. In either case the "h" is silent, and the work is pronounced as spelled "conk".

For more details, visit www.keyshistory.org presented by the Upper Keys Historical Society and www.kwahs.com presented by the Key West Art and Historical Society.