Key West is often called, the "last" resort, but to the many Indian tribes who made the homes along the island chain we now call the Keys, it was a last resort. These tribes would battle for "island" territory as far back as the 16th Century. As wars raged, each would try to escape the other by moving from one Key to the next, moving down the chain in pursuit of solitude and safety. Eventually there was nowhere left to go as warring tribes arrived on the last island for the last time. It would be their last resort! Legend has it that a brutal war was fought there...a fight to the finish if you will, and a battle so violent that only a handful would survive to tell the story. A desperate few cheated death by paddling their canoes to Cuba, risking the open ocean over the terrible carnage taking place on that "last resort." Thousands of Indians lost their lives in the struggle and were left to rot in the hot tropical sun.
The island would see no life until years later when Spanish explorers happened upon the island and its beaches still littered with skeletons bleached white from the sun. As they moved about the island, skeletons piled one atop the other would provide the only evidence of the lurid battle fought so many years ago. It is no wonder the Spaniards dubbed the island, Cayo Hueso, or Isle of Bones!
As the white man moved into the Caribbean, Cayo Hueso became a base for fishing and a favorite haunt and rendezvous for pirates and wreckers! The shallow reefs nearby would take their toll on many a ship and crew who attempted to pass anywhere near the now famous island...and anywhere near the infamous pirates and wreckers who would lie in wait, waiting to salvage the cargo from any ship unable to find its way through the challenging maze of coral...continue reading...
