Islamorada

This pictorial history of Islamorada illustrates the people, places, and events that have shaped the area's cultural and natural history.
The name Islamorada came to fruition after Henry Flager's engineer, William Krome, purchased 15 acres of Upper Matecumbe property in 1907. When he registered his parcel as a town site, he called it Islamorada. A faded newspaper clipping, with May 7, 1907, handwritten in the far right corner, reported: On the northern end of Upper Matecumbe Key a new town known as Islamorada has sprung into existence. . . . It is believed that Islamorada will become an important tourist stopping place in winter as the location is beautiful and the fishing convenient and excellent. Today, Islamorada refers to a collection--a community--of islands that includes Plantation, Windley, Upper Matecumbe and Lower Matecumbe Keys, as well as two islands designated as state parks, Indian Key and Lignumvitae Key. While Islamorada has always been known for its fishing, these islands boast some serious history, too.

Jerry Wilkinson moved to the Florida Keys in 1947. The president of the Historical Preservation Society of the Upper Keys, Wilkinson is a mentor to Brad Bertelli, a member of the Florida Outdoors Writers Association and vice president of the Historical Preservation Society of the Upper Keys. In addition to the collaborative efforts of Wilkinson and Bertelli on Islamorada and Key Largo, Bertelli has published two books with the University Press of Florida.