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The early inhabitants of South Florida, including the Keys,
were the Calusa Indian tribe. This tribe died out in the
late 1700s as enemy Indian tribes from Georgia and South
Carolina raided the Calusa territory and many Calusa Indians
were captured and sold as slaves.
Diseases such as smallpox and measles were brought into the
area from the Spanish and French explorers. One theory
tells that the remaining Calusa Indians left for Cuba when the
Spanish turned Florida over to the British in 1763.
Antonio de Herrera discovered the Florida Keys on May 15,
1513 while searching for the Fountain of Youth. The are
over 822 islands in the Florida Keys, and the last stop on the
highway, Key West, was given the name "Cayo Hueso," island of
bones, by Christopher Columbus for the piles of human bones left
there by the Indians.
Prior to 1822, the Keys were typically visited by Pirates and
lived on by Wreckers. Wreckers salvaged ships that
happened to run into reefs during bad weather. Rumor has
it that some wreckers even set out false navigation lights to
lure ships to their doom.
The keys remained largely isolated until the
early 1900's with the construction of the "Overseas Railroad"
built by Henry Flagler. The railroad took 8 years to build
and cost a staggering 50 million dollars along with the lives of
nearly one thousand workers. Unfortunately, after a
successful first run through the keys in 1912, the railroad was
destroyed in 1935 by a Hurricane.
Marathon began in historical times as Cayo de
Bacas or Vacas. Vaca is Spanish for "cow" and general knowledge
is that there were no cows (bovines) on Key Vaca in early times.
However, in a 1957 book The Florida Keys, Key Vaca, or
Cow Island, was so named for the Spanish cattle that once roamed
there in the wild. Others say it was named after the Sea
Cow, otherwise known as the Manatee.
The islands of Marathon are steeped with the rich Florida
history of Henry Flagler’s railroad days. The name Marathon came
about by the railroad workers who were working night and day to
complete the railway. Due to the unrelenting pace and struggle
to complete the project, the popular exclamation, “This is
getting to be a real Marathon”, is rumored to be how the name originated.
To
this day, Marathon maintains its claim to some of the best
fishing in the world. Great fishing, along with beautiful
beaches, warm weather and residents proud to call Marathon home
are some of the reasons many visitors from all over the world
choose to spend time in Marathon, the Heart of the Florida
Keys.
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