The Westin Key West Resort & Marina is located on the west end of Key West, adjacent to a waterfront promenade, and is approximately four miles from Key West International Airport. Local attractions include Duval Street, located two blocks from the property, nightly Sunset Celebration on The Westin Pier, North America's only living coral reef, approximately six miles away by boat ...more
Not long after Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492, adventurer Ponce de Leon and fellow Spanish chronicler Antonio de Herrera set sail toward Florida in search of the elusive Fountain of Youth. They never found the Fountain but they did find the Florida Keys.
The day was Sunday, May 15, 1513.
Here is precisely what Herrera wrote for posterity: "To all this line of islands and rock islets they gave the name of Los Martires [The Martyrs] because, seen from a distance, the rocks as they rose to view appeared like men who were suffering; and the name remained fitting because of the many that have been lost there since."
There is no record that anyone from their ship came ashore and for hundreds of years, the island chain was left mostly to the pirates. Eventually, the pirates were chased away by a fledgling U.S. Navy pirate fleet established here in 1822.
Settlers followed while the native Indian population, the Calusa and mainland tribes, died out. The early settlers set up groves of Key limes, tamarind and breadfruit. In the Lower Keys, pineapple farms flourished and a large pineapple factory was built which furnished canned pineapple to most of eastern North America.
In later years, a thriving shark processing factory was established on Big Pine Key. Amidst the abandoned farms, it employed workers to catch sharks and skin them. The hides were salted down and sent north to the home factory in New Jersey. Here, they were processed into a tough leather called shagreen.
