With its funky charm, quirky characters, end-of-the-road mindset and reputation as a bastion of the bizarre, Key West might seem more like a fictional setting than a real locale.

Free-range "poultry in motion" add to Key West's offbeat atmosphere -- and are even the inspiration for quirky costumes during annual festivals. (Florida Keys News Bureau, Andy Newman)

As those lucky enough to be residents can attest, America’s southernmost island is real enough … but it definitely proves the old adage that fact can be stranger than fiction (one of the reasons, by the way, that residents and visitors find it so engaging).

Want some examples? No problem. 

1. Key West (and the rest of the Keys) make up an independent island nation called the Conch Republic. In 1982, the Keys staged a secession from the United States to protest a U.S. Border Patrol blockade that virtually stopped traffic on the only road in and out. After proclaiming the Conch Republic, they declared war on the mother country, pelted federal agents with stale Cuban bread, surrendered 60 seconds later and demanded $1 billion in foreign aid. (FYI, it still hasn’t arrived.)

2. Key West is closer to Havana (90 miles) than Miami (159 miles). In 1978, after a challenge from a local reporter, then-mayor Sonny McCoy traveled that 90-mile distance to Havana on a single slalom ski. The grueling feat took six hours and 10 minutes, with challenges including six-foot seas and an escort from Cuban gunboats.

In 1982, hundreds gathered to watch the historic secession ceremony and birth of the independent Conch Republic.

3. The Key West Cemetery, a small, sunny and oddly comforting spot in the center of picturesque Old Town, includes gravestones reading “I Told You I Was Sick” and “Devoted Fan of Singer Julio Iglesias.” They’re not far from the Otto family plot, where a tiny Key deer lies buried with its devoted owners — and three of the family’s pet dogs.

4. For the best Cuban sandwich in Key West, head for the laundromat. Really. One of the top purveyors of the traditional sandwich, a luscious concoction of ham, cheese and spiced pork pressed between slices of Cuban bread, is Sandy’s Cafe at the M & M Laundry on White Street.

To celebrate Ernest Hemingway's Key West legacy, Sloppy Joe's Bar presents an annual "Papa" Hemingway Look-Alike Contest.

5. Each July, some 125 stocky, white-bearded middle-aged men arrive in Key West to take part in a unique ritual. No, it’s not a convention of vacationing Santas — it’s the “Papa” Hemingway Look-Alike Contest at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, the literary legend’s favorite local watering hole. Hemingway lived and wrote in Key West throughout the 1930s, and set “To Have and Have Not,” his only novel with a U.S. setting, on the island he loved.   

6. In 2004, the City of Key West had an official chicken catcher on its payroll. Third-generation island resident Armando Parra, a barber and amateur bird buff, was hired to trap some of the island’s free-range poultry population for relocation. However, the position was short-lived because, apparently, too many chickens crossed the road to avoid him. Today, the renegade roosters and hens are flourishing … and providing abundant photo ops for fascinated visitors.

Of course, these are just a few of Key West’s “stranger-than-fiction” realities. To discover others … well, there’s no better way than coming down on a personal fact-finding mission. One warning, however: many of today’s residents evolved from yesterday’s visitors who simply refused to leave.

Topics: Florida Keys, Key West, Keys History, Keys Quirks, Local Color

For some 30 years, legendary divemaster Captain Spencer Slate has befriended, nurtured and fed slithery sea creatures at coral reefs off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

There’s Oscar, Psycho, Rusty and Flash from the barracuda family. Then, there are Melba, Sundance and Slime from the moray family. And the captain would never want to forget about Shreader, who has left his mark on Slate.

Captain Spencer Slate has become a legend in the Florida Keys and a celebrity in both diving and non-diving circles. (Photo by Frazier Nevins)

It’s because of his regular “visits” with these and other marine creatures that Captain Slate has become a legend in the Florida Keys and a well-known celebrity in both diving and non-diving circles.

Slate developed his passion for his extraordinary “friends” under the tutelage of Steve Klem, who was a pioneer dive operator in Key Largo in the mid-1950s.

“He was a wonderful guy who loved the creatures and just wanted to introduce them to the people,” said Slate. “I used to go watch him do the feeding and we became best friends.”

Slate took over feeding Klem’s creatures in 1978 — and today offers Creature Feature dive excursions from his Atlantis Dive Center in Key Largo. Every Friday and Sunday at 8 a.m., Slate gives dive visitors an up-close and personal introduction to many of his underwater pals.

Divers can even “hug” a moray eel and tickle its tummy. Snorkelers also can enjoy the show and interact with fish brought closer to the surface by staff from the sandy bottom 25 to 30 feet below.

Sundance, an affectionate moray eel, is one of Captain Spencer Slate’s special underwater buddies — as their obvious affection demonstrates. (Photo by Stephen Frink)

One Creature Feature “regular” is a gentle giant nicknamed Bruiser — a goliath grouper with spotted skin and a rounded body that weighs about 350 pounds. From November to May, Bruiser meanders around the reef hiding under rocks. But for Slate and his excursion participants, Bruiser emerges with a fishy smile to be hand-fed by new friends.

Divers also can watch Slate feed Sundance, the moray eel named for the way she moves.

“She’s real gentle — very sweet,” Slate said.

One of the excursion’s highlights demonstrates the trust between Slate and his undersea friends. Slate holds bait clenched in his teeth, and a silver bullet-like barracuda named Lightning strikes just centimeters from his dive mask to take it.

“The thrill is introducing new divers to these animals,” said Slate. “We want divers to be educated so they don’t get hurt and they don’t hurt these amazing creatures.” 

Want to know more about the captain and his unusual underwater buddies? Visit www.captainslate.com.

Topics: Animal Ambassadors, Florida Keys, Key Largo, Keys Quirks, Local Color, On the Water

In the unforgettable “Pirates of the Caribbean” films, the buccaneers were guided by a code of conduct that was originally created by the Brethren Court of pirate lords. Theoretically, its rules were strict and unbending — but before the end of the first film, heroine Elizabeth Swann convinced the crew of the pirate vessel Black Pearl that “they’re more like guidelines, anyway.” 

Pirates still roam the Keys ... though only during the annual Pirates in Paradise festival.

For many years, the Florida Keys have been known as the American Caribbean. These days indigenous buccaneers are few and far between (except during a pair of rowdy and terrific annual pirate fests), but Keys compadres are definitely guided by a code of conduct.

The Keys code was designed to protect a treasure richer than any pirate gold — the region’s amazing natural environment.

The Florida Keys are paralleled by the continental United States’ only living coral barrier reef. The reef ecosystem, much like a tropical rainforest, supports an incredibly diverse population of plants and animals.

In fact, the entire land mass of the Keys is surrounded by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, which was established in 1990 by the United States government.

Tiny Key deer are among the species protected by the Keys code.

Visitors will also find land-based refuges where birds, wildlife and their habitat are protected — including the Lower Keys’ National Key Deer Refuge that’s home to shy, soft-eyed miniature deer the size of large dogs.

While the code of conduct in the “Pirates” films proved to be somewhat elastic, the Keys code should be followed at all times by everyone who cares about the area’s environment. Its core is the Ten Keymandments listed here.

1. Don’t anchor on a reef. (Reefs are alive. Alive. A-L-I-V-E.)

2. Don’t trash our place. (Or we’ll send Bubba to trash yours.)

3. Don’t speed. (Especially on Big Pine Key where Key deer reside, and tar-and-feathering is still practiced.)

4. Don’t collect conch. (This species is protected. By Bubba.)

When diving or snorkeling, it's especially important to respect the Keys' environmental resources.

5. Don’t damage the sea grass. (And don’t even think about making a skirt out of it.)

6. Don’t feed the animals. (They’ll want to follow you home, and you can’t keep them.)

7. Don’t touch the coral. (After all, you don’t even know them.)

8. Don’t catch more fish than you can eat. (Better yet, let them go. Some of them support schools.)

9. Don’t disturb the bird nests. (They find it very annoying.)

10. Don’t drink and drive. On land or sea. (There’s absolutely nothing funny about it.)

Throughout the Florida Keys, knowledgeable eco-tour guides are eagerly waiting to share the island chain’s natural world with visitors — whether on a kayaking paddle through tranquil waters and surreal mangrove tangles, an excursion to view playful dolphins in the wild, or a dive or snorkeling trip in America’s first underwater park.

To whet your appetite for eco-adventures in the Keys, visit www.fla-keys.com/ecotourism. And don’t forget … to protect and preserve the Keys’ environmental treasures, matey, always follow the code.

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Florida Keys, Highlights, Islamorada, Key Largo, Key West, Keys Environment, Marathon, On the Water

Tia Sillers takes the microphone at the Key West Songwriters Festival, brushing back her dark curls. She speaks a few words in a throaty voice, her smile flashing.

Tia Sillers is one of hundreds of chart-topping songwriters who have lit up the stage at the annual Key West Songwriters Festival.

When she starts singing one of her songs, she exudes a joy so deep it’s almost tangible. Her initial verse resounds with passionate conviction — a conviction that only a song’s writer can give it. She begins the chorus: “I hope you dance …”

A reverent hush falls over the audience. Lee Ann Womack’s hit recording of “I Hope You Dance” has become a classic, but Tia’s own version is so compelling that it’s like hearing the song for the first time.

Such moments of magic aren’t unusual at the annual Key West Songwriters Festival, set this year for April 29 through May 3 with more than 100 writer-participants. Now in its 14th year, the festival gives some of America’s foremost writers a chance to perform their hits and showcase their new songs in a laid-back tropical setting.

Longtime festival participant Chuck Cannon has a storyteller's sense of humor and a talent that has propelled his songs to the top of the charts.

In past years, it has offered intimate performances by such luminaries as Mavericks founder Raul Malo; Chuck Cannon, who co-wrote the blistering “How Do You Like Me Now?” with Toby Keith; Gary Nicholson, writer for Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King and Stevie Nicks; Scotty Emerick, who co-wrote “Beer For My Horses” for Keith and Willie Nelson; and Pat Alger, whose “The Thunder Rolls” helped propel Garth Brooks to superstardom.

“The very successful songwriters, by and large, are good performers too,” says Charlie Bauer, the festival’s longtime director and guiding spirit. “Not only do they come up with new songs all the time, but they can explain where the songs came from.”

In the early- and mid-1900s, it was writers of prose, plays and poems that embraced Key West: Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost, Tennessee Williams, Elizabeth Bishop and their contemporaries.

In more recent years, the island has become a haven for songwriters. Former musical residents include the late Shel Silverstein, “pirate laureate” Jimmy Buffett and even Jerry Jeff Walker of “Mr. Bojangles” fame.

Today, some of America’s most notable tune-spinners regard Key West as an ideal place to relax and recharge their batteries away from everyday career pressures.

“I step off the plane and this just feels like home,” says Grammy winner and veteran Songwriters Festival participant Brett James.

Scores of other writers also discovered the island as guests of Charlie Bauer. For Charlie, the annual festival provides an opportunity to share his love of Key West with leading songwriters, while sharing their world-class music with local and visiting audiences.

As attendees of past performances can attest, festival concerts often contain moments of pure enchantment — spontaneous harmonizing between musical cohorts, or a jam session where each participant’s creativity outdoes the previous efforts.

Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson (left) proclaimed James Slater's "Key West Address" the official song of the island city.

According to many songwriters, Key West itself is responsible for much of the creative magic.

“Some switch gets flipped here as far as creativity,” says Chris Lindsey, who co-wrote Lonestar’s smash hit “Amazed.” “It’s not that we don’t write in Nashville, because we do — but it’s different here.”

Troy Verges, who co-wrote “Who I Am” for Jessica Andrews, agrees completely.

“I definitely feel more creative here,” he says of Key West. “You write songs, get on your bike, go down to Duval Street and absorb a bunch of craziness, go back and write another song, and just keep doing it. It doesn’t get old.”

One of those songs, written by festival favorite James Slater and titled “Key West Address,” was named the island city’s official song by Key West Mayor Morgan McPherson during the 2008 Songwriters Festival kickoff reception.

That’s hardly surprising. With its infectious melody and upbeat lyrics, the song is a musical love letter to the place:

“GIVE ME A KEY WEST ADDRESS, A TATTOOED WAITRESS

AND A FISH THAT’S BIGGER THAN THE HOLE IN MY NET

A GOOD BOTTLE OF RUM, A FINE CUBAN CIGAR

LIFE WILL TAKE CARE OF THE REST

GIVE ME A KEY WEST ADDRESS …”

Topics: Arts, Events, Festivals, Florida Keys, Highlights, Key West

The angling feat seemed a bit incredible.

But when veteran Key West light tackle skipper Mike Weinhofer calls, you pay close attention.

A sailfish leaps while hooked up to an angler's line off the Florida Keys. (Photo by Andy Newman / Florida Keys News Bureau)

“Andy, we had a boat catch and release 50 sailfish today off Key West,” Mike told me.

“Mike, did I hear you right?” I said. “That’s 50, not 15. Right?”

Mike responded affirmatively.

To release 15 in a single day is amazing enough, but 50?

So I spoke to Tim Maddock of Pompano Beach, Fla., who was in Key West with his angling crew tuning up for the World Sailfish Championship that begins April 14. The contest is definitively not for the amateur. There’s a $1.6 million cash prize purse at stake.

Tim, who owns the Vitamin Sea Too, a 33-foot Contender, will fish the tournament with Mike Reisert, Chris Zidar, Jon Kreig, Chris Meek and Mike Dinnen.

It’s the same group that scored the 50 releases Thursday, April 9.

“The fish were just pouring through,” Tim told me. “We had 60 bites and caught 50 of them.”

Tim said he ran out of bait three times, borrowing each time from a nearby boat.

For certain, the 50 releases in a single day of fishing is a Florida Keys record. The previous Keys record was 37 sailfish releases in one day, achieved in May 2005 by Captain Marty Lewis on the Main Attraction while fishing off Marathon.

I tried to check if it was a state record, but the International Game Fish Association does not keep records for number of fish releases and no one was home at The Billfish Foundation, perhaps because of the Good Friday holiday.

I asked Tim if he had wished he could have waited to catch the 50 during next week’s tournament.

“Of course,” he said. “The World Sailfish tournament is in its seventh year and it’s never been won with more than 15 fish.

“Timing is everything,” Tim said.

Topics: Florida Keys, Highlights, Key West, On the Water

Driving down the Keys from mainland Florida, if you should happen to turn right at the Sugarloaf Lodge at mile marker 17 and travel a short distance, you’ll find yourself facing a shingled tower rising out of the surrounding foliage. Somewhat weather-beaten, it is nevertheless a monument to all the great ideas hatched in the Keys in days gone by … and in days yet to come.

Shown here soon after its construction, the Bat Tower still stands tall. Photo courtesy of Jerry Wilkinson

The year was 1929. While much of America was dealing with bank failures and the Great Depression, Richter Perky faced a problem less earth-shattering but more immediately irritating: mosquitoes.

Perky was the largest landowner in the Keys in the late 1920s, and his pet project lay right about on what is now the 17-mile marker — the town of Perky.

It was designed as a fishing retreat for wealthy tourists. It had a lodge. It had a marina and a restaurant and guest cottages. And it had so many enormous mosquitoes that if an unwary tourist put his hand against a screen, the other side of the screen would almost immediately display a black handprint made of the hungry insects.

Not an ideal setup for tourism, no matter how good the fishing. But Richter Clyde Perky was not a man to let something like that get him down. Somewhere he ran across a book called “Bats, Mosquitoes, and Dollars” — and Dr. Charles A.R. Campbell entered his life.

The upshot? Perky sent to Campbell for the plans for the bat roost, which Campbell reportedly forwarded free of charge, and construction on the Keys’ tower began in March of 1929.

The Lower Florida Keys offer unparalleled natural beauty ... and, in Perky's day, industrial-sized mosquitoes. Photo by Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau

According to the doctor’s specifications, the 30-foot-high structure was located in a quiet area and left unpainted (why did Campbell think bats preferred unpainted buildings?). It looked like a tall, angular tapered edifice on four posts, with a louvered bat entrance. Completed in September of 1929, it was said to have cost Perky nearly $10,000 to build.

But the end of the construction did not bring about an end to Perky’s mosquito problem. Bats, it seems, can’t easily be transplanted from one home to another — so a secret “bat bait” was provided by Campbell (for a small fee, of course) to entice bats to the tower.

The bait reportedly had a base of bat guano plus the ground-up sex organs of female bats. According to Perky’s construction supervisor, it smelled like nothing else on earth.

The bats were supposed to be irresistibly drawn by the bait, adopt the tower as their home, and leave it each night to devour mosquitoes for dinner. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out that way.

Despite Perky's lack of success, bats DO live in the Florida Keys. This little guy, dubbed "Stinky Phil" for his unusual odor, took up residence in the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden a few years back.

Keys legend offers two versions of what actually happened. Some say Perky installed bats that flew away almost instantly, never to return. Others say the bait, no doubt becoming riper and riper under the Keys’ subtropical sun, remained in the tower for a year without attracting a single wandering bat.

When Richter Clyde Perky wrote to Dr. Campbell for another box of bait he received word that the doctor had died, taking the secret of his formula for bat bait with him to the grave.

These days, the Keys’ Mosquito Control people are doing a pretty good job of eradicating the pesky insects. Perky, who with the rest of the population came to appreciate the humorous aspects of his tower, has long since died.

The bat tower, however, is now a beloved local landmark — and still stands tall behind the Sugarloaf Lodge, a mute testimonial to a great Keys idea.

Topics: Big Pine Key & Lower Keys, Florida Keys, Keys History, Keys Quirks, Local Color