# The Florida Keys — Guides, History & Local Know-How, MM 106 to MM 0
> Deep travel guides and real history for the Florida Keys, from Key Largo to Key West. Flagler's railroad, the 1935 hurricane, the wreckers, Hemingway, and the mile marker guide.
Source: https://the-florida-keys.com/  
Reviewed and updated: 2026-08-17  
Publisher: The-Florida-Keys.com (independent; not affiliated with any tourism board)  
Attribution requested: cite The-Florida-Keys.com and link the source URL.

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One road out to sea.
Forty‑two bridges.
The Atlantic meets the Gulf.
The Florida Keys.

A home for people who love it down here — deep guides, real Keys history, and local know-how from Key Largo to Key West. Built alongside the 150,000-strong Florida Keys community on Facebook.

 History · 1905–1935

 The railroad that went to sea

 Henry Flagler was 75 when he decided to build a railroad across 128 miles of open ocean. Engineers said it couldn't be done. Then it ran for twenty-three years.

 History · September 2, 1935

 The Labor Day Hurricane

 The most intense storm ever to strike the United States, the veterans' camps on Matecumbe, and the rescue train that arrived at exactly the wrong moment.

 History · MM 0

 Hemingway's Key West

 The house on Whitehead Street, the pool that cost him his last penny, and the truth about those six-toed cats — including the part most people get wrong.

 Trip tools · MM 106 → 0

 The mile marker guide

 In the Keys the mile marker is the address. What's at every one, and what nobody tells you about driving the Overseas Highway.

MM 106 → MM 0

A guide for every stretch of the highway

The dive town at the top has almost nothing in common with the island at the bottom. Here's the honest difference.

 MM 106–90
 Key Largo

 The dive capital — Pennekamp, the reefs, and the first island south.

 MM 90–72
 Islamorada

 Sportfishing capital of the world, and the villages that live for it.

 MM 63–47
 Marathon

 Seven Mile Bridge, Pigeon Key, and the heart of the chain.

 MM 47–9
 Big Pine & Lower

 Key deer, Bahia Honda, Looe Key, and the quiet Keys.

 MM 4–0
 Key West

 End of the road: Old Town, the harbor, Hemingway, Mile Marker 0.

The history nobody tells you at the hotel

Most of what makes the Keys strange and specific happened before the resorts arrived.

The wreckers — salvaging ships off the reef was legal, court-regulated, and lucrative enough to make Key West the richest city per capita in America.

The Conch Republic — the day Key West seceded from the United States, declared war, surrendered after a minute, and asked for foreign aid.

The full timeline, from Los Martires in 1513 to the first underwater park in America.

Still building

New guides go up weekly — fishing by season and species, diving reef by reef and wreck by wreck, and a directory of the captains, dive shops, and marinas that make the Keys the Keys.

A free weekly letter is coming. Follow the Facebook page and you'll hear first.