Exploring Marathon in the Florida Keys with The Pigeon Key Foundation

Our Florida Keys adventures continued this morning and this morning Tim Bolen took a trip to Marathon, with Kelly McKinnon, who lives on Pigeon Key and is Executive Director of the Pigeon Key Foundation.

The Pigeon Key Foundation is an organization responsible for the Island of Pigeon Key, which is a small five-acre island underneath the historic seven-mile bridge.

Originally, it was where around 400 men lived and built the overseas railway that goes to Key West from Miami under Henry Flagler’s direction.

“We’ve preserved the island and turned the old historic buildings into labs and classrooms and museums,” said McKinnon. “We do educational programming for kids all over the world and we have guided historic tours for the island and museum property as well.”

When Henry Flagler built the bridge that goes over the Island of Pigeon Key from 1908 to 1912, it was the longest bridge of its kind in the world. It would become the highway system going to Key West until 1982, when the current seven-mile bridge was opened.

McKinnon says Marathon is a family-friendly destination with great fishing, snorkeling, diving and other attractions.

“Just this morning, we helped release a rehab sea turtle with the turtle hospital, there’s the Dolphin Research Center, Crane Point Hammock, an aquarium…you could come down here for years and never do everything there is to do,” said McKinnon.

For more information about the contest and how to enter, visit https://www.www.chch.com/keystoadventure.