Pigeon Key

Pigeon Key is a must-do for us in the Keys.  It is a nice ferry ride over and back plus it is so full of history and amazing engineering feats.  Pigeon Key was the staging ground for construction of the famous 7 mile bridge and now houses a museum, day camp as well as an environmental camp for ages 8-16.  Students come from all over the world to learn about the flora and fauna of the Florida Keys.  We take so much for granted now but in the late 1800s, Henry Flagler was considered a truly nutty old man who wanted to build this railroad from Miami to Key West.  Being a true genius, the more he was told how impossible it was, the more determined he was to make it happen.  He found the engineer who had the vision to make it happen, people willing to endure the hardships of south Florida before AC and logistical folks to pull it all together.  There are several good books on the entire road and hopefully some of you will find the time to read one.     In the meantime, welcome to Pigeon Key 2019.

Our group coming off the ferry and passing one of the bridge keeper cottages.
It is now used as living quarters for the instructors.

The original 7 mile bridge runs through the island.  The concrete was imported from
Germany and is so strong that structural engineers predict these pillars to outlast
any in the new bridge.  Another cottage is in the background, now the museum.

Architecture typical of the day.

The sign out side of the house tells it's age.

This is the original cook house for the building camp.  It is now the dorms for
the students.

More views of the museum and to the left is the old mess hall now
primary classrooms.

View between the bridges.

All water for the keys comes from Miami via the aqueduct.  Until the new bridge was
built in the 60s, it all came through this pipe! 

One of the rooms in the museum.  Flagler insisted that all rooms be painted
yellow since it was considered a "happy" color. He knew he was asking a lot
of his workers and did whatever he could to make life better.  

Not sure where this huge fisherman's anchor came from but I thought this was
a cool view of the bridges.

The chow hall now classroom.  The building is bright and cool thanks to
the high pitched roof, openings above the doors and windows and being
situated to take advantage of the breezes.  All the windows are original which
seems an amazing feat considering all the hurricanes this island has seen.  Not bad for an
all wood building!

One of the excursions for the students is beach clean-up.  Each year, the
class saves the old fishing buoys then decorate and autograph them.
They are hung from the rafters in chronological order.

A scale model of one of the train depots along the route.  The hurricane
of 1935 destroyed a large section of the railroad and it was never rebuilt.
However, since people were missing the relatively easy access to the Keys,
the government bought the right of ways and turned it into a highway.  Stretches of
the old road can be seen all throughout the keys.

Hurricane Irma hit in 2017 and caused quite a bit of damage to the island.
Many of the large trees were killed by the salt water inundation and all
of them were stripped of leaves.  These bushes along the shore show
various stages of recovery.

These 2 buildings were knocked off their foundations.  The large trees
saved them from being blown over completely.  The foundation has
received a grant to restore them.

Once the island was no longer needed to build the bridge or collect tolls,
it was purchased and developed into a fishing camp.  They used the existing
buildings but added this saltwater pool.  It is now used for research.

This ramp is under renovation.  It was the way off or onto the island from
the old roadway.  This area used to have a variety of large trees before Irma.

The row of palm trees used to extend all the way to the base of the ramp.

Happy man after a great tour with a knowledgeable tour guide.  You can see all the
bracing required to make the road expand from a narrow gauge 1-way track to a 2 lane highway.