August 10

The new Navy BOQ "Fly Navy" building being built along Garrison Bight, 1960s.

1904 – Construction began on the new naval officers’ quarters at the corner of Whitehead and Caroline streets in Key West.

1920 – A train of 38 tank cars filled with Cuban molasses left Key West for Memphis. Each tank car held 7,200 gallons, making it the largest shipment of molasses ever to leave the island city.

1924 – H.W. Evans, imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, accompanied by other leaders of the organization, arrived at Key West from Havana on the Mallory steamer Concho. They were entertained during an overnight stay on the island by members of the local chapter, before taking the train to Miami.

1946 – Edward Mathews of 304 Amelia Street in Key West was seeking a new home for his white mule. The two had worked together for 27 years, but with age creeping up on both, Mathews wanted to find someone who could care for the mule better than he could.

1955 – A Monroe County program to install streetlights throughout the Florida Keys proved effective when the lights went on at Matecumbe and Islamorada. “They look like little cities,” Commissioner Harry Harris said of the newly illuminated island communities.

1962 – The House Appropriations Committee in Washington approved a $2,516,000 expenditure for a new bachelor officers’ quarters building to be located on the Trumbo Seaplane Base. The new facility would be centrally located and replace all existing BOQs on the base.

1985 – Johnny Carson, star of NBC Television’s “Tonight Show,” was in Key West to visit the wreck site of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha as guest of famed treasure hunter Mel Fisher.

1994 – The Columbus Iselin, a 176-foot University of Miami research vessel, ran aground on Looe Key. The impact damaged the reef, and the vessel leaked about 200 gallons of diesel fuel.

Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Image: The new Navy BOQ "Fly Navy" building being built along Garrison Bight, 1960s. Photo by Don Pinder. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.