Industry in the Florida Keys

Industry in the Florida Keys. Heritage Monument Trail, Matacumbe Historical Trust. , The first manufacturing industry in the Keys in Islamorada existed between 200 BC and 1250 AD. This dates to an Indian village that produced salt by trapping salt water. As the water evaporated it left salt., Key West had a salt industry in the 1830s. Richard Fitzpatrick had ten acres of ponds. This today would include the area known as the salt ponds. In 1934 heavy rains came and the salt was lost, as were the jobs of the sixty employees. The project was abandoned, until Mr. Charles Howe of Indian Key purchased the property after the 1846 hurricane. In 1850 it produced 35,000 bushels of salt, and 5 years later, its output was 75,000 bushels. Salt was very important for preserving and shipping meat and seafood before refrigeration. Meat and seafood could be salted and shipped to northern markets. The 1876 hurricane destroyed the works., The Indians were the first salvagers of shipwrecks. They were used by the Spanish to salvage the ships of the Spanish Flotillas or Treasure Fleets wrecked along the treacherous reef of the Florida Keys., From the time Key West was settled in 1822 salvage and salvage related businesses made up almost the entire economy of Key West. Hundreds of men were employed as ships crews, painters, carpenters, blacksmiths, and many businesses to supply this industry. Key West was the center for wrecking. In the early years of the wrecking hey-day, Key West and Indian Key received the largest share of the wrecks. There were one or two wreckers on Key Vaca and Tavernier harbor. From 1848 through 1858 wreckers salvaged 618 ships along the Florida Keys., Between 1852 and 1880 six lighthouses were constructed making the reef a safer passage. Most of the wreckers went into other businesses. Wrecking brought other industries; ship building was one of these. Many ships were built in Key West, Indian Key and Key Vaca., The peak of the cigar industry was between 1880 and the 1930s making Key West the cigar capital of the world. There were one or two shops as early as 1860. In 1869 over 2000 Cubans came to Key West fleeing the Cuban Revolution. Most were employed in the cigar industry in Cuba and now worked in Key West. In 1883 there were eighty companies in Key West making forty-two million cigars. In 1886 over half the city was destroyed by fire. The city was rebuilt and came back even stronger. In 1923 machines were rolling out cigars and cigarettes in greater numbers. The great depression all but wiped out the cigar industry and what was left moved to Tampa. In 1911 Mr. Norberg Thompson opened a cigar box factory. It was successful until the cigar industry closed in Key West., The Matecumbe sheep wool sponges were considered the best in the world. Hooks were used to harvest the sponges and the men were known as "hookers." Mr. Charles Chase was cultivating sponges by using sponge stones. These were concrete disks the size and shape of the sponge they wanted. The disk had a hole in the center. A small piece of sponge was fastened and placed in the water., Charcoal was a big business in the Keys although it took a toll on the buttonwood trees as they made the best charcoal. Buttonwood limbs were cut and stacked in a teepee form, then covered with earth to make an igloo. It was lit and a controlled burn took about 6 days. A large part went to Cuban coffee mills. The coffee mills ceased during the depression and ended the business., Pink Shrimp were discovered off Key West. The Shrimpers used cone shaped nets sixty feet long. Four hundred shrimp boats were fishing the Keys. Many shrimpers abandoned their nets in 1980 and joined the Freedom Flotilla in the Mariel boatlift from Cuba. They could make more money bringing in Cubans than they could shrimping. President Carter ordered a stop order which was ignored, and eighty percent of all boats were impounded. This was later declared unconstitutional. The boats were freed, and the shrimpers went back to work. Shrimp remained a highly profitable business until the 1980's when the catch rates began to decline from overfishing. By 1989 the remaining shrimp dealers left the Historic Seaport, ending the shrimping era in Key West., During prohibition the Keys were a major point to bring illegal liquor into the US and in the 1970's and 1980s tons of illegal drugs were smuggled into the Keys. As a result, South Florida had a booming economy and prospered immensely., Sport fishing became a major industry throughout the Keys and remains popular today., Captions , (Photo #1) Cigar Factory in Key West , (Photo #2) Florida Sponges , (Photo #3) Charcoal Factory , (Photo #4) Shrimp Boats