As the population of Key West grew in the late 1800's, the island soon ran out of stove wood for cooking. This shortage created a new industry of charcoal makers and wood cutters. Most of the people who worked in this industry were black male immigrants from the Bahamas. 

The men spread out to more unpopulated areas of the Keys and labored in the dense, mosquito infested woods of nearby uninhabited islands. At one point, the only inhabitant of Big Pine Key was a lone wood cutter. 

They would find a thick grove of buttonwoods or red mangrove trees and cut them down, then put up a kiln to begin to dry the wood and make charcoal. The fires for the kiln had to be attended day and night. So, the woodcutters and charcoal makers would bed down beside their fires and kilns, only catching cat naps as they tended their fires. 

The last charcoal maker burned his fire in 1960 and the industry gradually died out as gas and electric cooking stoves replace wood stoves. 

And it was today, Feb. 25, 1893 that the 1893 directory for the City of Key West listed its inhabitants at 23,000.

And that's what happened Today in Key West History.

Today in Key West History is brought to you by 43 Keys Media. You can learn more about us at http://43keys.com.

Today's image is of a charcoal makers shack on Sugarloaf Key in 1939. Photo credit: Stetson Kennedy

Content credit: 

https://keywestmaritime.org/journal/v22-4_2012summer.pdf

John Viele has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Key West Maritime Historical Society of the Florida Keys for the past 20 years. He is the author of three books on the history of the Keys published by Pineapple Press of Sarasota: “The Florida Keys – A History of the Pioneers,” “The Florida Keys, Vol. 2 – True Stories of the Perilous Straits,” and “The Florida Keys, Vol. 3 – The Wreckers.”