PIGEON KEY

Pigeon Key is located 2.2 miles due west of Marathon in the Florida Keys. Located approximately 45 miles from Key West and 100 miles southwest of Miami, the island connects to Marathon via the Old Seven Mile Bridge built by Henry Flagler for his Florida East Coast Railway. Pigeon Key is operated by the Pigeon Key Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the history and environment of the Florida Keys through education and research.

In 1904, Henry Flagler announced he would build a railroad from Miami to Key West. Critics scoffed. Engineers were aghast. His business partners wondered if the old gentleman was quite sane. A determined Flagler would be the driving force to accomplish the Key West extension, and Florida’s remote tropical island paradise would never be the same.

Henry Morrison Flagler was born in Hopewell, NY in 1830. His humble upbringing would be in stark contrast to his later life as one of the wealthiest men in turn of the century America. In 1867 Flagler had the good fortune to become a partner with John D. Rockefeller. Out of their business relationship grew the monopoly known as the Standard Oil Company. By the time he was 50 years old, Flagler had amassed a huge fortune.

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