THE NATURAL HISTORY ROOM
Hurricanes Case
The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane Shelf.
Page 2
This page by Jerry Wilkinson
- The World War One Veterans -
There were more World War One
veterans in the
Upper Keys that residents. In 1932 the nation was in a depression. The
World War I veterans had been promised a bonus in 1945. Many wanted
their
bonus now and about 20,000 vets marched and gathered in Washington,
D.C.
in 1932.
The group was called the Bonus
Expeditionary
Forces or more commonly, "The Bonus Army." They were chased out of
Washington
by President Herbert Hoover, but they returned for years to come.
Eventually, President Roosevelt found work
for the veterans in South Carolina and Florida. The 1928 built 128
miles of highway from Homestead to Key West had 40 mile stretch served
only by ferryboats. In Florida, about
800 were given employment to construct a highway to replace the water
gap served by ferry
boats. Veterans began appearing in the Upper Keys in 1934 along with
State Road Department technical personnel. Eventually, three veteran
camps
were constructed; two on Lower Matecumbe Key and one on Windley Key.
See
map below.
The above handdrawn map shows the
approximate
locations for this presentation.
Camp 5 on the upper end of Lower Matecumbe
Key was the last built and lacked more the so-called permanent
facilities
than
Camps 1 and 3.
Camp 3 was the largest camp and the site
where the new road construction would begin. When completed this
section would go from Lower Matecumbe Key to Jewfish Bush Key which
today is Fiesta Key. Now we will consider the
building of the
camps. I do not have an identified photo of Camp 1 when built.
Continued on Page 3
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Hurricane,
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