The name Islamorada came to fruition after Henry Flager's engineer, William Krome, purchased 15 acres of Upper Matecumbe property in 1907. When he registered his parcel as a town site, he called it Isla Morada. A faded newspaper clipping, with May 7, 1907, handwritten in the far right corner, reported: "On the northern end of Upper Matecumbe Key a new town known as Isla Morada has sprung into existence. . . . It is believed that Isla Morada will become an important tourist stopping place in winter as the location is beautiful and the fishing convenient and excellent." Today, Islamorada refers...

Key Largo is a subtropical escape. The island's history has been shaped by coral reefs as well as wreckers, farmers, and fishermen. Key Largo was homesteaded by intrepid families who braved life before the modern conveniences of running water, air-conditioning, and mosquito control were introduced. Inevitably, big changes were coming. Henry Flagler's Key West Extension changed the Florida Keys; hurricanes, too, have altered life here, especially the Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, the strongest storm ever recorded in the United States. Since then, the island has been immortalized in movie...