Craig Key is an island city in the middle

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and e ...

U.S. 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, ...

(or the

Overseas Highway The Overseas Highway is a highway carrying U.S. Route 1 (US 1) through the Florida Keys to Key West. Large parts of it were built on the former right-of-way of the Overseas Railroad, the Key West Extension of the Florida East Coast Railwa ...

) crosses the key at approximately mile marker 72, between

Lower Matecumbe Key Lower Matecumbe Key is an island in the upper Florida Keys, United States, located on U.S. 1 between mile markers 75–78. All of the key is within the Village of Islamorada as of November 4, 1997, when it was incorporated. It is home to the ma ...

and

Fiesta Key Fiesta Key is an island in the Florida Keys, connected via causeway to U.S. 1 (or the Overseas Highway) at mile marker 70, between Long Key and Craig Key. It was first recorded as Jew-fish Kay (later Jewfish Key, Jewfish Bush Key). Louie Turner h ...

History

Craig Key was originally named Camp Panama, and was not a natural island, but a wide spot on the

Overseas Railroad The Overseas Railroad (also known as Florida Overseas Railroad, the Overseas Extension, and Flagler's Folly) was an extension of the Florida East Coast Railway to Key West, Florida, Key West, a city located beyond the end of the Florida peninsula ...

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

. It was originally a vacation spot and

flag stop In public transport, a request stop, flag stop, or whistle stop is a stop or station at which buses or trains, respectively, stop only on request; that is, only if there are passengers or freight to be picked up or dropped off. In this way, st ...

on the railroad. Roland W. Craig leased the island from the railroad in the early 1930s, and by 1935 the island had been named Craig, Florida. Former president

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

sailed his yacht out of Craig at times in the 1930s. The island's greatest claim to fame, however, is being the landfall site of the

1935 Labor Day Hurricane The Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 was the most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall on record by pressure, with winds of up to 185 mph (297 km/h). The fourth tropical cyclone, third tropical storm, second hurricane, and se ...

. Captain Ivar Olsen, who had been taking refuge from the storm in his

dry-dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

ed boat near the island, recorded a barometer measurement of , the lowest sea-level

atmospheric pressure Atmospheric pressure, also known as barometric pressure (after the barometer), is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as , which is equivalent to 1013.25 millibars, 7 ...

ever recorded on land. The town was a total loss, but was rebuilt, and prospered as a vacation spot after the storm. Originally a single island, two more man-made Keys were added, one to the southwest in 1955, and one to the northeast some time later. The name of the town was officially changed to "Craig Key" in 1971.History of Craig Key
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References

Islands of the Florida Keys Islands of Monroe County, Florida Islands of Florida {{monroeCountyFL-geo-stub