Brad Bertelli

5 days ago | keysweekly.com | Brad Bertelli

The modern Overseas Highway travels over the right-of-way that delivered Henry Flagler’s train to Key West – for the most part. It wasn’t always that way. When the first version, State Road 4A, opened in 1927, it paralleled the tracks in places but also traveled a much different route – especially through the Lower Keys. After crossing Cudjoe Key and Bow Channel Bridge, the old road arrived at Sugarloaf Key and went through what is today the parking lot of Mangrove Mama’s restaurant.

1 week ago | keysweekly.com | Brad Bertelli

Torchwood is a tree that grows in South Florida, the Keys, Mexico and the Caribbean. It reaches about 15 feet, though it can grow a little taller. A member of the citrus family, torchwood blooms with small clusters of fragrant white flowers that give off a strong perfume. The fruit is a drupe, a fleshy fruit like a cherry or an apricot that turns purplish black when it ripens. Birds love torchwood fruit. People can eat it, too.

2 weeks ago | keysweekly.com | Brad Bertelli

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, kraal is defined as “1) an African and especially a southern African village in which a group of dwellings surrounds a livestock enclosure; 2) an enclosure for animals, especially in southern Africa.”Kraals were used in the Florida Keys to pen turtles. Some can still be seen at the Key West Bight, on the docks at the end of Margaret Street.

3 weeks ago | keysweekly.com | Brad Bertelli

The island was called Ellis Island by the cartographer DeBramn in 1772. It was not the name that stuck. In Gerdes’1849 pamphlet, Reconnaissance of the Florida Reef and all the Keys, he wrote: “The string of islands from Tom’s Island to the West, except the last, larger one, is called Grassy Islands.”Assuming the last, larger one was Key Vaca, Grassy Islands was not quite the name that stuck, either. When Charles Smith conducted the official government survey in 1872, he labeled it Grassy Key.

1 month ago | keysweekly.com | Brad Bertelli

When Islamorada developed, it was a railroad town. People like to say otherwise. They tell stories about Spanish conquistadors sailing past and declaring Islamorada the Purple Isles. How the color purple was chosen depends on who is telling the story. Sometimes, the inspirational hue comes from the water, bougainvillea bracts, or Janthina janthina, commonly called the violet sea snail. There are other variations of the colorful story. According to the man who created the name, none is true.