Living La Vida Local - Part 3

And then we were off to the Aquarium. Whenever we pass this statue I'm always intrigued at how big it is. It's in front of the Custom's House - you can't miss it. The statues were created by Seward Johnson, but oddly the Art & History website doesn't mention it. Well, they were.

The Aquarium has been around for a loong time, although not always as an aquarium. A quick Key West history lesson here: During the 1800's Key West was a very rich island. First because of ship salvaging (lots of wrecks on the surrounding reef were very profitable) and then because of all the Cuban cigar factories. Sponging was going well until all the baby sponges were crushed under the feet of the folks picking up the adult harvest...Sheesh. When the depression hit in the early 1930's, the island's isolation didn't help its cause. The federal government gave Key West some money for projects that would get it back on its feet, with the Aquarium being a part of that effort. Unfortunately, not long after the railroad was completed (a great story, btw), just as a road was being built, and just as everyone was ready for business, the worst hurricane in history walloped the Keys and that was the end of that. The Aquarium became a military firing range for a few years in the 1940s (WWII), was converted back, and it's been successful ever since.