Plantation Key is an island in Monroe County,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. It is located in the upper

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral island, 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 ...

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), between Key Largo and

Windley Key Windley Key is an island in the upper Florida Keys in Monroe County, Florida, United States. U.S. 1 (the Overseas Highway) crosses it at approximately mile markers 84–85.5, between Plantation Key and Upper Matecumbe Key. All of the key is within ...

. All of the key is within the Village of Islamorada as of November 4, 1997, when it was incorporated.

Geography

Plantation Key is located at . It is separated from Key Largo by

Tavernier Creek Tavernier may refer to: * Tavernier (surname) * Tavernier, Florida, United States of America * Tavernier Blue, the precursor diamond to the Blue Diamond of the French Crown * Tavernier River, a tributary of the Mégiscane River in Senneterre, Qu ...

( Mile Marker 91.0) at its Northeast end, and from

by Snake Creek (Mile Marker 85.5) at its Southwest end.

History

Plantation Key was inhabited by Native Americans at least 1,000 years before

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

an contact with the Americas. A large

mound A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher ...

was formerly located towards the northeastern end of the key. Artifacts removed from the mound were dated to A.D. 500 to 700. The mound was leveled in 1958 to allow development of a real estate subdivision. Immigrants from the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archi ...

began settling on Plantation Key in the middle of the 19th century. Two families were recorded on the key in the 1870 census. Several more families had moved to the key by 1880. the settlers raised

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or ...

s and

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centurie ...

s. The pineapples were shipped by

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...

to northern U. S. ports such as

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. The completion of the Overseas Railroad, which ran the length of Plantation Key, destroyed the agricultural economy of the island. The Florida East Coast Railway began shipping pineapples from

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

at such low prices that the growers in the Keys could not compete.

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

brought new industry to Plantation Key, however, as the close proximity of the Florida Keys to the Bahamas made the keys, including Plantation Key, convenient landing places for bootleggers. Before the Flagler railway crews filled Little Snake Creek, which crossed at a point around today's Treasure Harbor, the southwest end of Plantation Key was a separate island known as Snake Creek Key. Plantation Key is the site of a number of prehistoric Indian sites and mounds, most of which have been destroyed by development. An early settlement on the oceanside was known as Pearl City for a large conch pearl found by John Lowe.

Schools

It is within the Monroe County School District. Plantation Key Elementary/Middle School (serving the Islamorada area) and Coral Shores High School (serving the upper Florida Keys from Islamorada to Key Largo) are located on Plantation Key.Monroe County Educational Facilities
- retrieved August 7, 2006

References

External links

{{authority control Islands of the Florida Keys Islands of Monroe County, Florida Islands of Florida

Geography

History

Schools

See also

References

External links