h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here we are, at 1591, A.D.

Ponce de Leon, on the first fully-funded expedition of the Fountain of Youth, re-discovers what the Calusa Indians of South Florida have probably known for fully fifty-five generations (if not more): Living on a rock in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, with a nice beach, ample rainfall, and infrequent hurricanes, is an Excellent Thing.

To nobody's surprise, his Poetic Portuguese-self first encountered a mountain of sun-dried human bones, left there by the cannabalistic Calusta Indians, to prevent invasion by those not-in the know, and he promptly christened this rock, "Cayo Hueso", literally "Isle of Bones".

Given three really strong rum drinks, anyone in the 1500's could easily say "Key West": the rest is history.

What everybody who has been to Disneyworld knows, is that the Pirates of the Caribbean all lived here, all the time.

Fast forward a bit: Florida changed hands at least six times between 1600 and 1800. Mostly, every body really liked the weather most of the year, and they still do.

Between the Keys, there are wads of mangroves. Some unnatributed person of the biological persuasion insists that a new mangrove hammock happens out here every day. They are probably right, but they are not very interesting.

Early in the 1800's, many excellently rich boat captains decided that this would be an interesting place to employ their foreign crew members to create interesting houses, and they did. Many old, grand houses employ boat-building techniques to way-hurricane proof their residences. Apparently, they were correct: most of these boat-built houses endure.

The combination of salvage operators, plus the only sponge-fishing Greek community in the contiguous United States propelled this region into the wealthest city in 1894. And Key West held that title for fourteen years.

This is great, but you should post it as a Guide Entry, not a Journal Entry...copy & paste then submit....get back to me if you need more help, OK?

Hi Dave! and GB too--

I'm from Fort Lauderdale have been thinking of creating a cybervacation in south Florida here in h2g2. Read your page and was wondering if you would like to collaborate on that with me. The "research" alone is a lot of fun! And I discovered that being a researcher for h2g2 prompts excellent service and complimentary cocktails when I interview the management of the local establishments I want to include.

It's good to find another Floridian here. I don't think there are too many of us.

Regards,

Britta

Hi Britta,

Sounds great to me. We've been plunged into season since Fantasy Fest, and I have been remiss about posting. I have a finished piece on Key West, but haven't forwarded it to the editors yet, since I seem to find one more thing to correct each time I read it.

I'll be checking out your posts as soon as I can find a spare five minutes.

Thanks for writing!

David

I haven't made any posts yet--just created a workspace here that I can use to organize whatever I eventually come up with. I have a bunch of different projects going on right now, so everything is kind of sporadic.

I've been running around taking pics and making notes, and will just put them in my cybervacation journal entry until I find I have enough stuff there to make something cohesive out of. Then I'll have to figure out the best way to lump it in one place. All in good time