Look at the Key West Bight ahead of you, now known as the Key West Historic Seaport, the site of a 200-year-old global maritime trade base. A bend in the shoreline on the northwest side of the island created this bight — a wide bay and naturally protected harbor that has always invited boats and business. Today the Historic Seaport is a lively place of restaurants, bars, boutiques, art galleries, museums, hotels, boats, and watersports excursions, but listen for the echoes of its earlier life.
In the mid to late 1800s sea turtles were a prized commodity: tens of thousands of green turtles were harvested from Key West waters every year. Turtle meat became steaks and soups, their skin was turned to leather, and shells were made into jewelry. Along this very waterfront turtles were kept live in “kraals,” dockside pens, before being butchered, processed, and canned.
One man, Norberg Thompson, began his operations in the turtle trade, founding Thompson Enterprises and The Thompson Fish Company; he significantly developed the bight, and during the Great Depression employed 40% of Key West before going on to become the town’s mayor. Picture the boats tied to the docks, and the waterfront businesses filling this historic bend.