Today in Keys History – April 17, 2024
1864 – General D.P. Woodbury sent three companies from the 2nd Regiment of the US Colored Troops from Key West to Fort Myers to reinforce the small garrison there against Confederate attack.
1930 – A team from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago was gathering fish and other marine creatures from Keys waters, with 80 species to be collected within the week and shipped via a special rail car. Some 1.1 million gallons of seawater – “enough to last 25 years” – would also be sent via tanker cars.
1939 – Keys spongers were preparing to make one last attempt to find healthy sponges. A fungal blight had spread throughout the Keys, but there was a glimmer of hope that Florida Bay had been spared.
1949 – The new Monroe County Beach in Key West was dedicated. Judge Thomas S. Caro was the speaker, and Frank Bentley, Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners, made the formal dedication. The County issued a $350,000 construction bond for the new beach.
1951 – Navy officials extended an April 15 deadline for the City of Key West to stop dumping garbage on Dredgers’ Key, as the road to the new Stock Island dumping ground was not yet completed. Dredgers’ Key was slated to soon be the site of a 1,000-unit Navy housing project – Sigsbee Park.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: Monroe County Beach ca. 1950. Jeff Broadhed Collection. Monroe County Library Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.