May 2

Aerial view of Big Pine Key ca. 1950. Wright Langley collection.

1898 – Writer Stephen Crane arrived in Key West as a reporter for the New York World.

1926 – Hundreds of Key Westers took to their automobiles to get a look at the new highway bridge spanning the expanse between Geiger Key and the Saddlebunches. A few faulty planks needed to be replaced, but many visitors walked the length of the bridge, and some used it as a fishing platform.

1946 – Gulf Oil Company began construction of a distribution center on the water at the north end of Duval Street.

1950 – Bernie C. Papy was re-elected state representative for Monroe County by a majority of 624 votes.

1951 – Monroe County commissioners, supported by the Lower Keys Property Owners Association, unanimously opposed Congressman Bill Lantalf’s bill to create a Key deer protection area on Big Pine Key. “I do not see why hundreds of miles of land is needed for 15-20 deer,” said Commissioner Frank Bentley.

1955 – Key West resident Tennessee Williams was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

2013 – Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission officers removed an American crocodile nest laid in a Lower Matecumbe Key homeowner’s flower bed and transferred it to a remote, undeveloped location four miles away, reflecting a change in policy toward the creatures. Previously, such a nest would not have been disturbed, but the increasing numbers of Keys crocodiles had instigated a more liberal relocation policy.

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Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Image: Aerial view of Big Pine Key ca. 1950. Wright Langley collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.