[StarfishKey]

Time for another trip around the Keys. This time we're looking at Key West, and what is considered to be the 4th highest ghost population in the US after New Orleans, Boston, and Savannah.

I'm not particularly into the whole paranormal craze, but since it is one of the things that is so popular with tourists here, I thought I would give a run-down of Keys Ghost History. Take it as history, take it as entertainment, or take it as something that is real and actually going on in the present - whichever you like.


Why Would Key West Be So Haunted?:
I must say, I find it a little over-done that so much is made of the history of Key West. I realize that makes me a bit of a traitor to my own community, but I find the history of the Keys fascinating enough without the need to overstate less remarkable aspects. When you go to Key West, there are many different tours you can take - each usually costing at least $30 per person! - to see the "very old" houses and all the haunted spaces. I scoff at this a little bit, given that the oldest remaining house was built in 1820, and so many cities around the US have loads of buildings that are from the 1700s that people don't make such a big deal of, not to mention of course FL's own St. Augustine, which dates back to the 1500s and is the oldest European-established city with remaining buildings in the country. Areas of the NE still have individual buildings remaining from the 1600s, and the SW blows those out of the water with pueblos that have been here since 750 C.E. The oldest continuously lived-in structures still occupied to the present day within the US are pueblos in Taos, NM, built in 1000 C.E. So by comparison, the enormous deal Key West makes of its buildings is rather silly. On the other hand, when you've lived for generations in a below-flood city in the middle of the ocean which is so prone to hurricanes (and fires), the fact that ANY 200-year-old wooden structures remain standing is rather remarkable.

The idea of Key West having more ghosts than other places seems improbable, when you consider that places like NYC have had millions of people living there for generations, and Key West is so relatively tiny. Additionally, SFL is likely to have been one of the last inhabited places by indigenous peoples in all of the Americas, gaining a steady population only by about 10,000 B.C.E. by estimates, which is well after most other places. Even then, the Keys were so tiny that only so many Calusa and Tequesta could have lived on them at any one time.

But even with all this skepticism, I do think Key West has some very unique energy, and I've got to admit, it seems logical that since it has attracted many of the most colorful and eccentric characters in our nation for a good two centuries, if anyone is going to be the type to haunt people - why not the people of Key West? Perhaps other people are more apt to just die in peace and leave it at that, but people who come to the Keys, and to Key West in particular since the US became a nation, tend to be rather restless, wandering souls to begin with. So I guess it stands to reason that they would continue to be restless and wander, long after death.

Key West has also always been a small town that allows for the continuation of stories of inhabitants for many generations, since families generally all knew of each other and stayed to pass on stories to younger generations.


A History of Some Pretty Rough Deaths:

Calusa and TequestaSome theories about the ghosts that apparently still inhabit Key West, and for whom so many travel to get a small glimpse of, include the fact that Key West was named Cayo Hueso by Spanish explorers, or "Bone Island." This was because at one time the Calusa were forced South by stronger tribes (supposedly because they liked to head up to the mainland to hunt game for some dietary variety beyond sea creatures, and other FL tribes felt threatened by their forays North), and ultimately they were forced all the way South to Key West, where a terrible battle was fought for their survival. Supposedly the survivors fled overseas to Cuba, with no time to bury their dead, leaving the island scattered with bones that bleached on the beach, and made quite an impression on the Spanish who found them.

Tragic deaths on Key West did not end there, not by any means. Ultimately, all indigenous tribes were wiped out from the Keys, via hurricanes, war, and ultimately a combination of intentional genocide by the Spanish, and the accidental diseases they brought with them.

In the Time of the Spanish
Ponce de Leon and his crew happened upon the Keys in May of 1513, whereon his chronicler wrote: "To all this line of islands and rock islets they gave the name of Los Martires [The Martyrs] because, seen from a distance, the rocks as they rose to view appeared like men who were suffering; and the name remained fitting because of the many that have been lost there since." The Keys were hard to survive on, unlike Miami and the major Caribbean islands to the South, and the reef caused the loss of many lives by shipwreck, so the Spanish left the island archipelago mainly to Bahamians and Cubans and whomever wanted to come from nearby to fish, and to the notorious pirates who trolled the area for ships breaking upon the reefs.

The Spanish had loose control of the area from the 1500s until a brief stint before the Revolutionary War when the Keys were given to the British. After the war it transferred back to the Spanish, and not until 1819 was all of Florida deeded by the Spanish to the US. In 1822, the US established the US Navy pirate fleet, which ultimately dismantled the nagging pirate problem. Prior to their success, many people died in excruciating ways both at the hands of pirates, and at the hands of those who brought apprehended pirates to their justice.

Slavery and Slave Ships
During the days of slavery, many ships carrying human cargo passed Key West, and as was a part of the horrific Middle Passage, many of those humans died. For those who managed to survive the trip in shackled and crushed together below deck, sometimes the reef proved too much - for instance, the Henrietta Marie sank in 1701 on its way from Jamaica. [Its remains were found in 1972 and can be seen at the Mel Fisher Museum.] Even when the slave trade was outlawed in the US and its surrounding waters by 1820 (slavery from birth was still completely legal), smugglers continued to try to profit from the lives of others. In 1860, 3 American-owned ships sailing from West Africa and bound for Cuba were intercepted by the Navy as pirates, and 1400 women, men, and children were rescued and brought ashore to Key West. Although these people were stolen for enslavement, it was long since illegal that they would be enslaved in the US without having been born into slavery as African-Americans (although slavery continued legally in the Keys for another 5 years), so they were considered African refugees. Sadly, the conditions aboard the ship had been utterly inhumane, and nearly 300 of those rescued died in Key West soon after, mostly of disease. They were buried at Higgs Beach, where today there is a memorial.

This rather famous sketch was taken of the survivors rescued on board one of those 3 ships captured in 1860. The smiles depicted on a few seem rather unlikely, given how gravely ill so many were at the time:


I also happened upon the original NY Times article about it in 1860!: The Slave-Trade. - THE NEGROES AT KEY WEST THEIR EMBARKATION A SUSPICIOUS ARRIVAL. - NYTimes.com

Although there was a sizable proportion of Free people of color in Key West, many of whom were brought by wealthy sympathizers from the Bahamas, still many others lived and died in the cruel and unjust conditions of slavery. Today, much of that history has been rather glossed over, but the legacy of this cruelty touched Key West the same as it did the rest of FL, and the US. Survivors of slavery, in addition to such traumas as rape and torture, and the theft of their basic human freedom, certainly had as much reason to haunt the city as long-suffering ghosts as any other wandering souls.

The Gallows
In the early days of Key West as a US city, fair trials were not exactly a priority apparently. Many people were immediately prosecuted and hung after only an accusation, and some of the ghosts are said to be a result of the deaths of wrongly accused, who were hung from a tree that is now located inside Captain Tony's Saloon. The city morgue was also once located at the same site. Unfortunately, some deaths were particularly gruesome [don't read the rest of this paragraph if you don't want to know]: many hung remained at the gallows still alive for hours, unable to die. And in the rather unbelievable case of one woman, apparently she was unable to die, was taken down and rehung, and then lived for 3 weeks before death mercifully came to her. I have not researched this, but it seems particularly cruel and unusual - if true, what had this person done that all who saw it allowed it, and in those days to a WOMAN, without feeling it was bringing shame upon the city and upon the country? A firing squad would have been far more humane after the very first night proved unsuccessful...

More Modern Deaths
After the Civil War of course, many deaths resulted from more modern means. Beyond the boating and fishing accidents which were so common to a seafaring community, there were crimes of passion (one ghost is said to be a woman who was the 1st wife of a wealthy man who abandoned the family and had a 2nd family - the 1st wife returned to shove the 2nd family out, which resulted in the 2nd wife and 8 children dying of disease on the streets, and the 2nd wife is now said to haunt the home she was forced out of). In another - rather horrific - case, a jealous Baptist minister in 1832 caught his wife cheating with the church deacon. He boarded up the church and set it on fire - not knowing that at the time, there were also 14 children inside at choir practice. All perished in the fire. Supposedly from that day, every 7 years any new building placed on the site burns to the ground. Given that Key West has long attracted people who are mentally unstable, there have also been quite a few suicides, which have continued up to the present day. Some hauntings are said to be by recently departed hotel guests. Others are by wealthy men (Key West was once the wealthiest city in the US!) who lost their fortunes. The one regarding Ernest Hemingway seems rather silly, given that he only lived there 8 years in the middle of his life (and not all of that time), and did not die there.

There were various diseases that swept the city, including TB, yellow fever, and diphtheria, among others. Thousands of people actually died at Ft. Zachary Taylor alone from these scourges. Later, Key West was home to a sizable population that died from AIDS in the 1980s and 90s, and one can visit their names today at the Higgs Beach memorial, very close to the African Cemetery Memorial.

Key West had always been host to unsavory sorts, so there were also quite a few murders - to this day a number of which remain unsolved. And then of course in modern times after the highway was built, there were many deaths caused by cars. Quite a few others were caused by drugs and alcohol.


Not all of the ghosts in Key West are unhappy. Some are said to wander gardens they had faithfully tended in life, steal chocolates from hotel guests pillows, and laugh in hallways.

Supposedly there are a great many sighting in Key West, in the form of floating orbs of light, sounds, sudden very cold drafts, and things moving around. I have never been personally witness to any of these things while in Key West. But then again, I didn't go there EXPECTING to witness any of it either, and perhaps among those who go out of their way to see something, it is going to be a bit more common.

If you want to learn more about specific ghosts that supposedly haunt Key West, this article gives a good run-down of many of them: Key West Ghosts Often Seem To Out Number The Living