It Happened in the Florida Keys

Stories of Events and People that Shaped History, Second Edition

Victoria Shearer

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.

Globe Pequot

Pages: 200 • Trim: 5½ x 8¾

978-1-4930-4024-7 • Paperback • November 2020 • $16.95 • (£12.99)

978-1-4930-4025-4 • eBook • November 2020 • $16.00 • (£11.99)

Series: It Happened In Series

Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV), History / United States / General

It Happened in the Florida Keys

Stories of Events and People that Shaped History, Second Edition

Paperback

eBook

Summary

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.

Details

Globe Pequot

Pages: 200 • Trim: 5½ x 8¾

978-1-4930-4024-7 • Paperback • November 2020 • $16.95 • (£12.99)

978-1-4930-4025-4 • eBook • November 2020 • $16.00 • (£11.99)

Series: It Happened In Series

Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV), History / United States / General

Author

Victoria Shearer is a freelance writer who has combined her passion for food and travel, producing feature articles for newspapers and magazines across the United States. She is the author of the Insiders’ Guide to the Florida Keys and Key West and The Florida Keys Cookbook, and lives in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Table of Contents

Introduction (1) Hard Aground on the Reef: The Demise of the U.S.S. Alligator - 1822 (2) Double Cross: Salvaging the Slaver Guerrero - 1827 (3) Massacre on Indian Key - 1840 (4) Muddy Waters: Truth and Consequences - 1865 (5) Key West Cigars: Up in Smoke - 1886 (6) First Train to Paradise - 1912 (7) Catching the Big One: Zane Grey and the Long Key Fishing Camp - 1919 (8) Against all Protocol: Battle in the Florida Straits - 1943 (9) Mother Nature's Fury: The Labor Day Hurricane - 1935 (10) Sabotage in the Mangroves: Litnumvitae key and the Bay of Pigs - 1961 (11) Island at War: Key West and the Cuban Missile Crisis - 1962 (12) Flotilla to Freedom: The Flooding of Key West - 1980 (13) If at First You Don't Secede . . . - 1982 (14) Fat Albert's Great Escape - 1984 (15) Drowning the African Queen - 1992 (16) True Lies on the Seven Mile Bridge - 1993 (17) Chained to the Mother Lode - 2000 (18) The Serendipitous Sinking of the Spiegel Grove - 2002 (19) Marooned in Marathon - 2005

Features

[Setting] -
The Florida Keys

From the sinking of the U.S.S. Alligator to the Cuban missile crisis, twenty-two events that shaped the history of the Florida Keys.