d residential and business phone numbers by location:
Tavernier = 75
Rock Harbor = 26
Key Largo = 16
Plantation Key = 5
Garden Cove = 1
Matecumbe from Long Key to Snake Creek listed 148; therefore, the Upper Keys had 371 phone listings.
In the mid 1950s the The Homestead Leader began publishing a weekly Keys section in its newspaper. A significant change
was experienced in the late 60s or the 1970s. The Upper Keys did not have any banking institution until the First Federal Saving
& Loan opened in the Port Largo Plaza. In 1972 a reasonably well used small landing strip opened using the breakwater of the
Port Largo subdivision. Then in 1977 the Florida Keys First State Bank opened where it remains today - 2004.
Chronologically this was the era when environmentalism just began to be manifested. In 1934 the U.S. legislature passed a bill
dubbed "Alligator and Snake Swamp Bill." President Franklin Roosvelt signed the bill on May 31, 1934. This parp proposal
included all of Key Largo and part of the reef.
As a significant portion of west Monroe County property was taken for the park, the county prevailed in placing the east park
boundary just west of Key Largo and Cross Key. In 1946 the Park Commission was re-activated with The Miami Herald's
associate editor John Pennekamp as its leader. The park was dedicated by President Truman on December 6, 1947. In 1956
"No Spear Fishing" signs appeared north of Long Key.
The year 1956 also marked the start of the construction of the Cross Key Waterway or the Key Largo Waterway as it was then
known. Today, most simply call it "The Cut." Marvin D. Adams purchased 50 acres of land in the narrowest part of the island of
Key Largo. Barney Waldin had invented a side mounted coral cutting machine and agreed to excavate 'The Cut' for the coral fill
material. Both canal ends and the highway/utility portion were left untouched. Barney excavated the 100-foot wide 40-foot deep
plugged canal in a year and a half. Some time passed before 'The Cut' was completed due to permits, highway and utility
bypasses and reconstruction. It opened in 1963 for maritime traffic and technically Key Largo became two islands.
In 1959 Governor Leroy Collins gave the Coral Reef Preserve control of the ocean bottom out to the three-mile limit. On
December 10, 1960 at Harry Harris Park Governor Collins named the preserve the "John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.
One problem was not a single inch for a land base existed --a total underwater state park. Through John Pennekamp's efforts
the Radford Crane family donated 74 acres for a land base. The problems were not over as not an inch of the 74 acres had
vehicular access to U.S.1. Enter Herbert and Donna Shaw who donated a 60-foot strip of land from U.S. 1 to the property. As
another 'small' donation the Crane family donated the entire Julia island with three miles of oceanfront to the park. With control
of Julia Island, South Creek was dredged deeper to provide reasonable access to and from Florida Bay, via the now Marvin D.
Adams Waterway. The Adams Waterway and Pennekamp have separate web pages.
The 1926 original Key Largo community was considered to be about four linear miles, as opposed to today's Key Largo
spanning about 24 miles from Ocean Reef to Tavernier's approximately defined border at MM 96.
Source - Historical Preservation Society of the Upper Keys - 2000
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