Visitors to the Key West Museum of Art & History at the Custom House examine the exhibit commemorating the 100th anniversary of the debut of Henry Flagler's Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)

For example, check out “Flagler’s Speedway to Sunshine,” a permanent exhibit at the Key West Museum of Art & History at the Custom House. Fascinating for railroad buffs, history aficionados, kids and anyone who loves the Keys, the exhibit showcases the construction, heyday and demise of the railroad once called “the eighth wonder of the world.”

At the impressive red-brick museum, you’ll find a re-created railway car, a replica section of the Old Seven Mile Bridge that was the Over-Sea Railroad’s centerpiece, vintage footage of the train trip from the Middle Keys to Key West, a film spotlighting railroad creator Henry Flagler and the first train’s arrival in Key West, and MUCH more.

In a new exhibit section, you’ll discover Key West’s Prohibition era, the Great Depression, and even the 1935 hurricane that severely damaged parts of the railroad and helped end its reign. Also featured are the history of Key West’s Casa Marina, the jewel of Flagler’s resort hotels, and even family albums and memorabilia from Ernest Hemingway’s life in Key West during the 1930s.

Railroad and history buffs can visit the former Over-Sea Railroad work camp at Pigeon Key, lying beneath the historic Old Seven Mile Bridge. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)

The museum is far from the only place you can experience the history of the fabled Over-Sea Railroad — whose track, by the way, stretched more than 100 miles out over open water. Near Marathon in the Middle Keys, a railroad heritage site called Pigeon Key lies beneath the Old Seven Mile Bridge, providing an eye-opening window on Keys life a century ago.

Just over two miles west of Marathon, five-acre Pigeon Key was home to more than 400 workers who built the railroad in the early 1900s. The island was a base camp with a commissary and one-room school during the Seven Mile Bridge’s construction from 1908 to 1912.

Today many of Pigeon Key’s original railroad buildings and houses still stand — and it’s no surprise to find that the tiny, pristine speck of land is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It also has a museum that chronicles the construction of the amazing railroad, and daily historic tours are offered.

Costumed artists and re-enactors celebrate the debut of Key Largo's mural inspired by the Over-Sea Railroad centennial. (Photo courtesy of Cris Sandifer)

Combine your Pigeon Key expedition with a boat ride by taking the ferry from a visitor center at Knight’s Key, located at mile marker 47 on the west end of Marathon.

Even if you can’t explore Pigeon Key or the Key West exhibit, you’ll glimpse plenty of reminders of the Over-Sea Railroad simply by driving through the Keys on the Overseas Highway — which evolved from the railroad itself. For example, near mile marker 95 bayside in Key Largo stands an intriguing outdoor mural, recently painted by artists from the Upper Keys’ Art Guild of the Purple Isles and Keys high school art club students.

The hand-painted mural measures 60 feet long and 11.5 feet high, and depicts an Over-Sea Railroad passenger train steaming across an arched bridge that looks a lot like the Long Key Viaduct. In the sky is a full moon adorned with the face of railroad visionary Henry Flagler.

And speaking of bridges, it’s easy to spot many of the original railroad bridges alongside the spans supporting the modern Florida Keys Overseas Highway — the contemporary connection from mainland Florida through the Keys — that follows the trail blazed by Flagler a century ago.

Just about 100 years ago, a five-year-old Key West girl was chosen to present a special bouquet of flowers to Henry Flagler’s wife Mary Lily on the day that marked the completion of Flagler’s Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad.

Henry Flagler re-enactor Paul Jellinek reacts to remarks by 105-year-old Lamar Louise Curry after presenting flowers to her. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)

Those plans fell through — but a century later, at 105 years old, Lamar Louise Curry finally met “Flagler” and he presented a similar bouquet to her.

The Over-Sea Railroad, a miracle of engineering whose track stretched more than 100 miles out into open water, connected the previously isolated Keys with each other and the Florida mainland for the first time. Its completion has been called the most important single event in Florida Keys history.

On Jan. 22, 1912, when the first Over-Sea Railroad train arrived in Key West from the mainland, thousands of Key Westers greeted Flagler, his wife and other dignitaries. Despite carefully laid plans, however, the young Miss Curry was not among them.

The little girl had eaten peanuts the day before and come down with a terrible stomachache. Her stomach illness (later determined to be a sensitivity to peanuts) caused her to miss the train’s arrival, and the honor of presenting the flowers was given to another young lady.

When the organizers of the Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad Centennial Celebration found out about Miss Curry — who now lives in Coral Gables, Fla. — they desperately wanted her to come to Key West on Jan. 22, 2012, to present flowers to a Mary Lily Flagler re-enactor.

Miss Curry displays a photograph of herself as a five-year-old girl -- the age she was when Henry Flagler's Over-Sea Railroad first steamed into Key West. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)

Unfortunately, her health simply wasn’t good enough to allow her to make the trip. So they did the next best thing.

Just before the centennial anniversary, Henry Flagler re-enactor Paul Jellinek went to see Miss Curry at her Coral Gables home.

“About 100 years ago, I understand that you were going to bring flowers to my lovely wife,” said Paul, who visited Miss Curry on his way to the Florida Keys for the centennial anniversary celebration. “You weren’t feeling well (that day), so this day I thought I would bring you some flowers.”

Miss Curry can’t quite remember how she felt about missing the honor, but she does remember the anticipation of Jan. 22, 1912, and what it was like to ride the “railroad that went to sea.”

“It was a great occasion and I remember planning it for a long time,” Miss Curry recalled. “We heard about it and watched it since 1909 being built.”

Mary Lily Flagler holds the flowers presented to her after the first Over-Sea Railroad train arrived in Key West Jan. 22, 1912. (Photo courtesy of the Monroe County LIbrary Collection)

She also recalled the experience of riding an Over-Sea Railroad train, especially when it traversed the Bahia Honda bridge.

“It was very exciting, because I looked out the window the whole time while we were on the trestle,” she said. “So it was a wonderful occasion to ride over it.”

Though the meeting between “Henry Flagler” and Miss Curry came 100 years later than originally planned, it was a momentous occasion for both of them.

Paul Jellinek, who is obsessed with the visionary Flagler he portrays, was the most enthusiastic of all.

Over and over, he kept repeating, “I can’t believe I’m seeing someone alive today who was alive when Henry Flagler arrived in Key West.”

Seth Bramson displays a signal lantern from the original Over-Sea Railroad. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)

Seth Bramson is a company historian for the Florida East Coast Railway and author of “The Greatest Railroad Story Ever Told: Henry Flagler and the Florida East Coast Railway’s Key West Extension,” the recently released history of the engineering and construction of the railroad that stretched more than 100 miles over open water.

A celebration commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Over-Sea Railroad’s completion culminates Jan. 14-23 in the Keys. Its final event is a Jan. 23 evening presentation and book signing by Seth Bramson at The Studios of Key West, 600 White St.

Here, he shares insights into the railroad that connected the Florida Keys with mainland Florida, and each other, for the first time.

Q: How complex was the construction of the Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad? What other large-scale construction projects does it compare to?

Seth Bramson: The building of the Key West Extension was the greatest single railroad engineering and construction feat in U.S. — and possibly world — history. During the era of the extension’s construction, the only engineering feat that could be even remotely compared to the Key West Extension’s construction was the building of the Panama Canal.

Constructing the Long Key Viaduct, shown here, was one of the greatest engineering challenges faced by Flagler and his team. (Photo courtesy of the Monroe County Library Collection)

Q: What were the most daunting engineering challenges in the construction process?

SB: Unquestionably the most daunting engineering challenges were the building of the three major bridges: Long Key Viaduct, Bahia Honda Bridge and what is today known as {the} Seven Mile Bridge — as well as the filling of open water to create the Key West Terminal property, today known as Trumbo Island. Nothing like the building of the bridges had ever before been attempted.

Q: What did construction of the Over-Sea Railroad mean for Flagler and his team?

SB: The successful completion of the Key West Extension added to Flagler’s legacy to the point that, today, the name Henry M. Flagler is the single greatest name in the history of Florida.

Q: What were the Florida Keys like before the railroad was built?

SB: Prior to the completion of the Key West Extension of the FEC, the Keys were completely rural and mostly uninhabited. The FEC brought life to the islands as well as hospitality venues. Whole communities came into being because of the railroad, including those at Marathon, Matecumbe, Long Key and others.

The arrival of the Over-Sea Railroad changed the face of the Keys forever. (Image courtesy of the Key West Art & Historical Society)

Q: How did the Over-Sea Railroad change the Florida Keys?

SB: The completion of the railroad to Key West meant the fulfillment, to the people of the Keys and the island city, of one word: accessibility. With the coming of the railroad, the isolation ended and, although it would take time and patience, development could and did begin. The Keys were, with the completion of the railroad, a completely different world.

Q: The railroad operated for less than 25 years, but it left an indelible legacy. How does its existence continue to affect the Keys?

SB: The building and operation of the Key West Extension of the Florida East Coast Railway was, and is, the greatest railroad story ever told. The incredible task of building a railroad over the sea in the early years of the 20th century has come, in no small measure, to define the residents of the Keys — the Conchs — who have come to be known for their hardiness, their pluckiness, their adaptability and their resilience.

Q: Why should people care about the centennial of the Over-Sea Railroad’s completion?

SB: It is extremely important that, especially given the issues and problems that America faces today, the celebration of what America was — and still is — capable of doing should and must be celebrated and memorialized.

Even NBC "Today" weatherman Al Roker (left) and anchor Matt Lauer are fans of the Conch Republic. Here they display the republic's flag during a special broadcast from Key West. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)

So, like any intelligent population blessed with a creative mindset and lively sense of humor, some good citizens and friends of the Keys came up with an offbeat, attention-getting response: they staged the island chain’s secession from the mother country.

It was a stunningly effective solution to the problem. Following the international media hoopla generated by the gutsy action, the blockade was quietly dismantled, never to return.

The concept of the Conch Republic, however, has far outlived the incident that spawned it. While Keys citizens are technically still Americans, today Conch Republic flags and passports are common — and the secession’s anniversary is celebrated each year with a fun-filled festival.

The concept of the Conch Republic appeals to the independent, nonconformist spirit of Keys residents (and those who dream of becoming residents). And recently, one of the republic’s founding fathers discovered that it also appealed to a citizenry on the other side of the world.

Intrepid traveler Stuart Newman discovered a Conch Republic-like country in faraway New Zealand.

While he was in New Zealand representing the Florida Keys & Key West at the annual Society of American Travel Writers convention, honorary Conch Republican Stuart Newman took time off to explore the countryside. Driving along the Lost World Highway, he encountered the “Republic of Whangamomona.”

Here, in Stuart’s own words, is the tale of his remarkable discovery.

Whangamomona, NZ — Halfway around the world from the Florida Keys, residents of tiny town on New Zealand’s North Island, arguably inspired by Key West’s 1982 Conch Republic rebellion, seven years later seceded and formed the “Republic of Whangamomona.”

In 1989, dissatisfied with a series of governmental redistricting changes, the elder gurus of the community of less than 180 gathered at the pub of the local six-room hotel/restaurant — and declared Whangamomona to be an independent republic.

The republic of Whamgamomona is governed from this unassuming hotel. (Photo by Stuart Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)

Located in New Zealand’s Manawatu-Wanganui region, Whangamomona is accessible via the Lost World Highway (NZ 43) — not exactly the caliber of the Keys’ U.S. 1, since it boasts a 90-mile stretch without a service station.

Whangamomona’s first president, Ian Kjestrup, was elected after his name was placed on the ballot without his knowledge.

Kjestrup served from 1989 through 1999 and was succeeded by Billy Gumboot, a goat (!), who won by eating the ballots of the other candidates. Gumboot served 18 months before being succeeded by a poodle named Tai, who served from 2003 to 2004 and retired following a reported assassination attempt.

The present chief of state, garage owner Murt “Murtle the Turtle” Kennard, won out over founding father Kjestrup and a cross-dresser named Miriam (sound familiar?) by a single vote. He was overwhelmingly re-elected this year.

Like the Conch Republic, Whangamomona has a population of indigenous poultry.

Today, the tiny “country” of Whangamomona is replete with Conch Republic-type passports and official T-shirts. Every other year in January (summer in New Zealand), the town celebrates Republic Day, which attracts thousands of visitors from throughout the North Island.

As Stuart discovered, clearly the citizens of Whangamomona share an irreverent mindset and good-spirited sense of fun with the denizens of the Conch Republic. Those attributes will take center stage in the Keys April 20-29, 2012, during the 30th annual Conch Republic Independence Celebration.

Why not come down for the festivities and declare your own independence?

in Key West, even the divas do double duty as Santa's helpers. (Photo by Larry Blackburn)

Sushi is at work sewing her gown for the 16th annual New Year’s Eve “red high heel” drop. On Dec. 31, we lower Sushi, 801 Bourbon Cabaret’s drag mother, in a six-foot red stiletto at the stroke of midnight from the balcony of the Bourbon Street Pub. As the shoe “drops” to ring in the New Year, thousands of spectators cheer from the street below while the air swirls with fairy dust and confetti. If you can’t be here, you can watch this live on Anderson Cooper’s CNN New Year’s Eve program.

Last evening the Equator Resort hosted the Key West Business Guild’s monthly membership mixer. Dressed in festive attire, we sported fun holiday antlers, flashing lights and mistletoe.

These days there are so many things to see and do in Key West — and an easy way to begin is to take a stroll along Front Street.

Sushi, a.k.a. Key West resident Gary Marion, stars in the "drag queen drop" that welcomes the New Year in Key West. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)

A holiday party hosted by the Innkeepers Association kicked off the season at the Key West Art Center and Gallery on the popular street. Established more than 50 years ago, this institution provides a central spot for local artists to show and sell their works.

The center has sponsored the Key West Craft Show each January for the last 27 years. This two-day juried outdoor craft festival brings to the island more than 100 artisans who display and sell their creations along shaded Whitehead Street — and curving through the Presidential Gates into historic Truman Annex.

In addition, for 47 years, the center has sponsored the Old Island Days Art Festival each February. This is also a juried show that sets up on Whitehead Street, drawing stellar artists to display their beautiful creations.

And if you happen to be in town on the second Wednesday of any month, you can attend the center’s membership meetings, which feature a demonstration of art or sculpture, or lectures on art history or printing techniques.

Key West Craft Show attendees examine a lovely bowl by local artist Janis Childs. (Photo courtesy of the Key West Art Center)

Behind the Art Center is the Key West Aquarium. Built during the Great Depression in the 1930s, this was the first aquarium to use the open-air concept, allowing natural sunlight to illuminate the displays.

Admission in those early days was 15 cents for adults and 5 cents for children. The aquarium is still a bargain to visit and pass a couple of hours petting sharks and viewing stingrays and conchs. You’re permitted to hold some of the sea life for photos, and then watch the resident sharks being fed.

Next to the aquarium is the historic Custom House Museum. Built in 1891, this multi-storied building housed customs officials during the era when wrecking made Key West the richest city per capita in America. It also housed the post office and courthouse.

More recently, after the building was boarded up for years, the Key West Art & Historical Society undertook a nine-year, $9-million restoration project to bring it back to its original glory.

Seward Johnson's gigantic "American Gothic" figures stood outside the Custom House Museum until they were replaced by another pair of Johnson giants. (Photo by Rob O'Neal, Florida Keys News Bureau)

There are rotating exhibitions in the museum, as well as one that showcases the woodcarvings of the late Key Wester Mario Sanchez. Intriguing life-sized (and much larger!) pieces by noted sculptor Seward Johnson can be found both inside and around the museum.

The museum’s most recent exhibit commemorates the upcoming 100th anniversary of the completion of the Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad, which carried passengers from mainland Florida throughout the Keys to Key West for the very first time.

If reading this makes you eager to visit Key West to see it for yourself, enter the Florida Keys Cyber-Train to Sunshine Contest to win a six-night vacation in the island chain. The competition is being held in conjunction with the Over-Sea Railroad anniversary celebration — just click here for all the information you need to enter.

Till next time … happy holidays to all of you!

Two Keys women recall childhood journeys on Henry Flagler's Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad. Here, a train steams across the Long Key Viaduct. (Photo courtesy of the Monroe County Library Collection)

Completed in 1912, it was called the Over-Sea Railroad because its track stretched more than 100 miles out into open water. For 23 years it carried passengers from mainland Florida to (and through) the Keys, giving them a breathtaking sense of steaming across the ocean.

Minnie Dameron, who spent much of her childhood on Plantation Key in the Upper Keys, remembers trips to visit family in Key West — and taking the train’s final journey just before portions of its track were severely damaged in a 1935 hurricane.

Marie Gasser, who spent childhood summers in Ohio and winters in Miami, recalled her family’s one-way train trip from Miami to Key West before her death in January 2012.

Dameron remembered her father flagging down the train at the Plantation Key freight station with a white handkerchief, and a lantern signaling the family had boarded.

Minnie Dameron took several Keys train trips with her parents and sister. (Photo by Steve Panariello, Florida Keys News Bureau)

“We’d get so excited when we knew we were coming to get the train and go all the way to Key West — we put on our best clothes,” said Dameron, 87, who now lives in Key West.

“My sister and I used to love to ride the train and look out the window,” she recalled. “But when we’d come to the Seven Mile Bridge, it looked like you were riding on the water, so we’d get scared and hold one another’s hand.”

For Dameron, arriving at Key West was the trip’s highlight. On special occasions, she remembered, Cuban bands and dancers greeted arriving passengers.

Gasser recalled her family boarding the train in Miami when she was about 5 and walking back to the last seat — a seat that resembled a church pew. Her mother sat by the window and her father on the aisle, while she rode between them.

Marie Gasser, who was 5 years old when she rode the train with her parents, remembered her mother being quite unhappy about riding over water. (Photo by Steve Panariello, Florida Keys News Bureau)

“Everybody was excited — take a train down to Key West,” said Gasser, who was an Islamorada resident when she died at age 95.

During the journey, they walked to the dining car.

“It seemed like a long ways to get to something to eat,” said Gasser, who remembered a waiter in a white shirt and black pants helping her. “He brought a highchair for me, lifted me up and put me in the highchair.”

The journey was pleasant, she said, until her mother looked out the open window as the train crossed a bridge so narrow it seemed she was sitting over water. After arriving in Key West, her mother refused to take the train back to Miami and insisted they return by boat.

“She said boats were made to go on water and trains were not!” Gasser chuckled.

Dameron and her family’s last ride was the train’s final journey to Key West — just before the Labor Day 1935 hurricane slammed into the Upper Keys, damaging that area’s railroad line. The trip wasn’t inspired by foreknowledge of the storm, but instead to get treatment for her sick sister.

A group awaits the Over-Sea Railroad train at the Islamorada station. (Photo courtesy of the Monroe County Library Collection)

“She had a temperature and my mother tried everything to get it down and couldn’t, so we got the train to Key West,” Dameron said. “We would have been in it (the hurricane), but I was on the last train in here (Key West) because of my sister being ill.”

Three years after the hurricane, the Overseas Highway debuted, built on a foundation that incorporated most of the original railway spans. Today, it contains 127 miles of roadway and 42 bridges over water connecting the Keys. The original train bridges were retired in 1982, but many became fishing piers.

A celebration commemorating the 100th anniversary of the railway’s completion is to culminate Jan. 14-23, with Keyswide events marking the centennial of the first train’s journey.

“It changed the Keys forever, and what a blessing it was,” said Dameron. “I just wish it was still there — that’s how much we loved it.”

Upon my arrival in Key West, I was stunned to see palm trees seemingly everywhere. (Photo by Andy Newman, Florida Keys News Bureau)

Take me, for example.

When I first came to Key West, I was a naïve 20-year-old Minnesota girl in a Salvation Army fur jacket (which I discarded as quickly as possible). I flew down to this exotic and then-unknown place to meet my Minnesota boyfriend John, who had friends living on the island, to spend a couple of months thawing out after a miserable Minnesota January.

John had to take a side trip to New York, so we didn’t fly together. I emerged from a tiny plane operated by Air Sunshine (also called Air Sometimes for its erratic on-time record) into a third-world airport and a light-drenched landscape.

The taxis outside the airport were startlingly pink, and there were palm trees EVERYWHERE. I gawked out the cab window during the entire drive to John’s friend Wally’s house, where we were supposed to stay.

When the pink taxi pulled up to an old wood-frame house, I jumped out eagerly, ran up the porch steps and knocked on the screen door. “Hello?” I called.

A glorious old frame house was my first temporary "home" on the island.

The door was opened by Willie Nelson. (Okay, it wasn’t really Willie. But it could have been his dark-haired twin.)

“Hey there,” he said, his eyes slightly glazed.

“You must be Wally,” I responded brightly, trying not to stare. “I’m Carol, John’s friend from Minnesota. Is he here yet?”

Willie/Wally looked at me. “John?” he repeated. “Hey, how’s he doing? I haven’t heard from him in six months!”

Apparently John had neglected to tell Wally we were coming — OR staying with him. But since this was Key West in the late 1970s, five minutes later Wally had offered me his spare bedroom to stay in until John showed up or I figured out what I wanted to do next.

Actually, John DIDN’T show up. But that didn’t matter because, 48 hours after my arrival, I knew perfectly well what I wanted to do next: live in Key West for the rest of my life.

This classic Jimmy Buffett album cover captures the Key West waterfront in the 1970s.

The decision wasn’t reasoned, or even particularly rational. It came from my bones.

Admittedly, my new home was a fascinating place. In the late 70s and early 80s, shrimpers in white rubber boots ruled the island’s waterfront, and lobster and fish were free for the catching.

In those days, there wasn’t much money in Key West. But nobody noticed unless they went to the mainland, and people didn’t go to the mainland very often. Living was an impromptu affair and the pace was slow; Duval Street was so empty on hot summer afternoons that dogs drowsed undisturbed on the blacktop.

The Victorian houses in Old Town, the ones that stand lovingly restored today, were ramshackle and rundown, their paint peeling or absent altogether. But their clean, proud lines made them gorgeous anyway, and the hibiscus and bougainvillea blooming around them were all the adornment they needed.

Now, as in the late 70s, exuberant blossoms add a lush beauty to Key West homes.

Back then, Key West was a haven for adventurers — from treasure hunters seeking shipwrecked Spanish galleons to the spiritual descendents of Prohibition rumrunners. Everyone seemed to know they were living at the edge of a continent, in a renegade but strangely innocent world.

It was pretty heady stuff for a naïve Minnesota girl.

Fairly quickly, I was “adopted” by a group of longtime Key Westers — writers and shrimpers and pirate bartenders. Their passion for the island was enduring and true, and for some serendipitous reason they decided to share their stories and their lives with me.

Today, Key West and I have both changed a good bit, but my love for the place is stronger than ever. In essence, those old friends who opened their world to me earned an unspoken promise in return — that I would cherish that world like they did.

And you know what? It’s never been a hard promise to keep.

Among the notable writers who live in Key West or visit regularly are (from left) Tom Corcoran, Michael Haskins, Lorian Hemingway and Mark Childress. (Photo courtesy of Michael Haskins)

Hemingway, who lived in a Spanish Colonial villa on Key West’s Whitehead Street throughout the 1930s, is arguably the island’s most famous writer-resident — but he’s far from the only one. In fact, for decades America’s subtropical southernmost city has exerted an almost mystical attraction for writers of all types.

For example, Tennessee Williams owned a home on a quiet side street from the late 1940s until his death. Robert Frost was a frequent guest of hostess Jessie Porter Newton, and Thornton Wilder wrote “The Matchmaker” in Key West.

More recent literary residents have included Shel Silverstein, Annie Dillard, Tom Corcoran, Richard Wilbur, Alison Lurie, Thomas McGuane, Judy Blume, Mark Childress, Jimmy Buffett, Meg Cabot, Michael Haskins and Philip Caputo.

What is it that draws writers to Key West, captures their imaginations, and keeps them returning as visitors or inspires them to become residents?

Author Lorian Hemingway (right) is joined at a Key West book signing by her daughter Cristen, also a writer and editor. (Photo courtesy of Katharine Roach)

Lorian Hemingway, author of the novel “Walking into the River,” the critically acclaimed memoir “Walk on Water” and the riveting “A World Turned Over,” has been coming to the island since the late 1960s. She’s currently chronicling its flavor, personalities and past in a book-in-progress titled “Key West: The Pirate Heart.”

Lorian is Ernest Hemingway’s granddaughter, but her reasons for referring to Key West as her second home have little to do with her grandfather’s legacy.

“Writers are drawn to places of fecundity and abundance, particularly when water is involved,” she says. “It’s a natural thing, being close to your roots — and the ocean is, in the very truest sense, our genesis. Perhaps writers, because of what they have to tap into in order to create, pick up on this subconsciously a little more than others.”

Phil Caputo’s best-known book is “A Rumor of War,” widely regarded as a definitive work on the brutal Viet Nam conflict. Several of his subsequent offerings took shape during his 11-year residence in Key West — a perfect setting, he believes, for those artists and writers who crave freedom from the mainstream world and its values.

Pulitzer Prize winner Phil Caputo, author of "Crossers" among other acclaimed volumes, lived in Key West for 11 years.

“Artists and writers are a bit outlaw. They march to a different drummer — and it’s a lot more congenial when you’re surrounded by a lot of other people who also march to a different drummer,” says Phil. “That’s what’s great about Key West. You’ve got people who are treasure divers and fortune seekers and renegades and runaways, and that makes life interesting.”

Perhaps acclaimed playwright Tennessee Williams provided the simplest yet most important reason for the island city’s popularity with those who write. “I work best here,” he stated in a long-ago interview.

As an authors’ haven and favorite retreat, Key West has earned an indelible place in the literary world. The island’s undemanding atmosphere leaves plenty of room for creativity to flower — and many writers seem to feel the pull of an elemental magic that defies definition.

“I’ve always been drawn by the ocean and the great ships and the moon and the water, and there’s something magical in Key West that goes somewhere very deep in me,” says Lorian Hemingway, whose island hideaway overlooks the Atlantic. “There’s a mystical quality that has at times just taken me over. I feel like I’m home every time I come back.”

Sally Bauer stands beside a diving bell after a dive in Norway in 2005. (Photos courtesy of the Florida Keys History of Diving Museum)

There they found an old diving helmet selling for $500, and bought it because they thought it was attractive. That simple act set them on a path that, years later, led to their founding the Florida Keys History of Diving Museum in Islamorada.

“When we purchased that helmet, we caught the collecting bug,” Sally admitted. “Like any incurable disease, it can’t be treated. You can suppress the strength of it a little bit — in this case by adding to the collection — but you never quite get over it.”

Under the influence of the “disease,” the Bauers eventually assembled the world’s largest collection of diving artifacts, antiques, books and prints related to the history of diving.

Sally wasn’t always interested in the underwater world. She grew up in a rural area near Youngstown, Ohio, and later studied medicine. She first met her husband of 42 years, the late Joe Bauer, when she showed up at his office seeking a summer job while in college.

“I started working for him, and then I worked for and with him all of the rest of his life,” she said. “We did everything together — that was my joy through life and my great tragedy when he died.”

Sally displays a wooden Griswood helmet underwater.

Sally and Joe began diving as a hobby that helped them disconnect from the world and escape the stresses of the medical profession. They kept diving because of their fascination with the marine biology of aquarium fish.

The Bauers took dive trips to the Keys to study the spawning behaviors of fish and bring them back to their Cleveland home for further research. As well as making important scientific discoveries, they also were the first to raise clownfish and peppermint shrimp successfully in captivity.

By the 1980s, their collection of artifacts was so vast that they helped found the Historical Diving Society of the United States and the United Kingdom. Concerned that the collection, and the history it represented, would be scattered and lost after their deaths, they approached the Smithsonian Institute, Disney’s Epcot Center and others — but got little response.

“When we moved to the Keys full-time in 1997, we realized that the Keys are the only place that you can drive and dive on a coral reef,” Sally said. “It just seemed natural that this is where we should have the museum.”

That realization sparked their creation of the world-class Florida Keys History of Diving Museum, located at mile marker 83 — which contains artifacts and other items covering an incredible 4,000 years of diving history.

The museum's highlights include an exhibit dedicated to Upper Keys treasure hunter Art "Silver Bar" McKee.

Highlights include an exhibit of dive helmets from around the world, and one dedicated to legendary Upper Keys treasure hunter Art “Silver Bar” McKee.

“The museum is not just for divers — it’s for anyone who wants to know more about man’s quest to explore under the sea,” explained Sally, who was inducted into the prestigious Women Divers Hall of Fame in March 2011. “Joe used to say, ‘It’s a little jewel that has not quite been discovered,’ and when people come in they’re astonished.”

Joe Bauer died suddenly in April 2007, but his legacy and knowledge of diving history live on through Sally.

“My challenge for the rest of my life is to put this history down so it’s not lost,” Sally said. “There are many more stories we want to tell about diving history.”

A train crosses the Long Key Viaduct, a vital stretch of the legendary Over-Sea Railroad. (Photo courtesy of the Monroe County Library Collection)

Eighty-eight years later, when she was an energetic 96-year-old, “Miss Ruby” reminisced about the arrival that changed the Florida Keys forever.

These days, when it’s possible to drive from Key West to Miami in four hours on the Overseas Highway, it’s hard to imagine the Keys not being comfortably linked to each other — and to the mainland.

But they weren’t until Henry Flagler, called a visionary by some contemporaries and a madman by others, conceived and built the miraculous “railroad that went to sea.”

Construction began in 1905. The railroad’s track ultimately stretched more than 100 miles out into open water, requiring trailblazing techniques and unbelievable effort by a crew that sometimes numbered more than 4,000 men.

The Over-Sea Railroad was conceived by visionary millionaire Henry Flagler. (Photo courtesy of the Monroe County Library Collection)

Flagler had made his fortune as John D. Rockefeller’s partner in Standard Oil, and he gambled most of it on the venture — a venture so extraordinary that many outsiders thought it was impossible.

It was officially named the Florida East Coast Railway’s Key West Extension, but it quickly became known as the Over-Sea Railroad. Its bridges and viaducts linking the Keys, including the astonishing Seven Mile Bridge at Marathon, earned it another title: “the eighth wonder of the world.”

“That was a great day when that train came in here,” recalled Miss Ruby, who was believed to be the last remaining Key Wester to witness the historic arrival.

“I was going to Harris School, and the Harris School kids went down to meet the train,” she said. “Everybody was hollering and whooping, throwing bouquets, hoisting up flags and singing, saying, ‘There’s the train! There’s the train!’ All of Key West was happy that day.”

Key West had every right to be happy. The debut of the railroad transformed it from an isolated outpost, reachable only by boat, to a destination easily reached by both passengers and freight.

Henry Flagler and Key West's Mayor Fogarty greet crowds after the arrival of the first train on January 22, 1912. (Photo courtesy the Monroe County Library Collection)

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” said Miss Ruby. “Dr. Fogarty was the mayor, and he made a speech when the train came in. I can see him now, and I can see old Flagler with his straw hat on.”

Flagler himself, however, never saw the joyful crowds.

When the first train from the mainland pulled into the Key West terminal, its elderly creator stepped out his private car. He was greeted by dignitaries, citizens and hordes of schoolchildren — all cheering his fantastic accomplishment.

By then almost blind, he stood with tears streaming down his face.

“I can hear the children,” he said, “but I cannot see them.”

Less than 16 months later, at age 83, he died.

Over the next two decades, Henry Flagler’s Over-Sea Railroad carried half a million visitors across the miles separating mainland Florida and Key West. Unfortunately, it only lasted for 23 years before being severely damaged in a 1935 hurricane.

Sand sculptor Marianne Vandenbroek's creation, located at the Casa Marina Resort, celebrates the historic Over-Sea Railroad. (Photo by Rob O'Neal, Florida Keys News Bureau)

Today the Overseas Highway is the link between the mainland and the Keys. But many of the original railroad bridges can still be seen, massive and stark, stretching beside the highway’s bridges.

Other reminders can be found on Pigeon Key, a five-acre island that housed workers building the original Seven Mile Bridge. Pigeon Key’s buildings have been carefully restored, and one features an intriguing museum dedicated to the railway and its builders.

Currently, events are being planned throughout the Keys to honor Flagler’s historic railroad — with the festivities culminating on Jan. 22, 2012, the 100th anniversary of the first train’s arrival.

Henry Flagler and Ruby Whitlock are both gone now. But, chances are, those attending the centennial celebration will feel the echo of their long-ago joy.