Issue #38 was distributed by the author during the early morning hours of March 30, 2012, the 126th Anniversary of the Great 1886 Fire of Key West. Receive a complimentary, signed and dated copy of this historic issue with a new or renewal subscription to Key West History. Your new or renewal subscription also includes a complimentary PDF of the endlessly fascinating, educational and just plain fun to read, Chas. B. Pendelton's The Daily Equator-Democrat 1889 Trade Edition, a 28-page, 7-column, 49.000 word newspaper published in Key West 3 years after the fire.

On the 30th of March, 1886, two thirds of the Key West's commercial district was savaged by fire.

Chas B. Pendleton, Editor-in-Chief of the Key West Daily Equator-Democrat reported, "The terror of that awful sight will never be forgotten by any one who witnessed the grand but terrible tragedy. Fire and wind undid in a few short hours the work of many generations of busy men. Human suffering and hardship was exemplified in the period of woe and desolation that followed. Every one was dazed and bewildered. Despair was the key note of every voice, and a scene of blackened ruins and ashy waste failed to inspire hope in any heart of reflect a flash from any eye."

The 1886 Great Fire of Key West began at two o'clock in the morning of March 30, 1886 in a coffee shop next to the San Carlos Hall on Duval Street. According to Pendlelton, "The fire burned to Whitehead Street, where it was stopped at Jackson Square, meantime, it crossed Duval Street and was soon beyond all possibility of control. The Great Fire of 1886 raged for twelve hours before burning itself out." Continued in Key West History #38

It was on Tuesday, October 23, 1962, that Key Westers awoke to find the military had taken over their island. The airport had been commandeered, there was an encampment on Rest Beach, soldiers were stringing barbed wire and HAWK anti-aircraft missiles aboard their launchers were deployed on the beaches beside A1A. But there's more to this issue than those 13 scary days in October. Thirty days after the missile crisis, JFK toured Key West to visit the troops and inspect the defenses. There was a motorcade down Duval Street en route to the Little White House, however, there was no photographic record of it until Editor ML McCarthy got a tip - of the existence of an 8mm film of JFK's motorcade along the 300 block of Duval Street in the almost improbable of places; the Dealy Plaza Museum in Dallas. It took a while but we got a copy, and in this issue we bring you the never before seen frame-by-frame photos of JFK's motorcade along Duval Street in November 1962.

For the first time since 1822, when John Simonton had begun selling parcels of his undeveloped island to William Whitehead and John Fleming, Key West in 1934 had no major industry or employer, save the U.S. Navy--and that WW1.

The city government had laid off most city employees, and fire and police continued to work without pay on promise of compensation once the city found money to pay them.

At least 80 percent of the city's able-bodied workers were out of work, idling on porches and drinking in the hidden bars and backroom joints. Men loitered along the docks awaiting the next ship to unload while others drank themselves into the bushes at Front and Duval streets.