Photograph is an aerial view of Pigeon Key, circa early 1990s
If you've ever had the privilege of driving across the 7 Mile Bridge on your way to Key West, you likely noticed the island on bayside just off of Mile Marker 45. If you pass Fred, the random tree growing in the cracked concrete of the old highway, you've gone too far, but that's for another post.
The island you saw is Pigeon Key, named after the endangered white-crowned pigeons which used to roost there in great flocks. The pigeons are increasingly rare today, especially in flocks, but the island is definitely in place and even after a pretty hard hit by Hurricane Irma, the little buildings remain, though they show signs of weathering and impact. The damage was far greater just after Irma but the work of the Pigeon Key Foundation has been nothing short of amazing.
Initially, workers were housed there while constructing Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad linking the Keys to the mainland. Workers again lived there in the era of the WPA while they converted the railroad to a drivable road which you utilized on your drive across the islands. Men who had returned home from the Great War and who found themselves without work were hired by the government to complete many improvements and projects including the highway conversion. Several hundred of these men were on the island on Labor Day, 1935 when the most catastrophic storm to hit the island chain approached. The rescue operation put in place to bring the men to safety, in the form of railroad cars sent to carry the men to the mainland, arrived too late, and the death toll surpassed 400.
You can take a tour of Pigeon Key and check out the grounds and the buildings, including the quarters where many men were housed while they worked on the railroad. You are even able to snorkel around the little island which we highly recommend. After smaller storms, lucky divers can often find relics from the past, tossed there from the island like trash (because at the time, it was trash), waiting for someone to discover them. While you cannot remove items from the nearshore waters of the historic landmark island, it is still very cool to see broken pottery, a wayward bent fork, or a Coke bottle that once quenched the thirst of a man who helped forge history.