Key-West-Detail

Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about 90 miles (140 km) from Cuba.

Key West is politically within the limits of the city of Key West, Monroe County, Florida, United States.

The city also occupies nearby islands and portions of nearby islands.

The island is about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 2 miles (3.2 km) wide.

In the late 1950s many of the large salt ponds on the eastern side were filled in, nearly doubling the original land mass of the island. The island measures 3,370 acres (13.6 km2) in area.

Cayo Hueso (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkaʝo ˈweso]) is the original Spanish name for the island of Key West.

Spanish-speaking people today also use the term Cayo Hueso when referring to Key West.

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It literally means "callous bone". It is said that the island was littered with the remains (bones) from a Native American battlefield or burial ground.

The most widely accepted theory of how the name changed to Key West is that it is a false-friend anglicization of the word, on the ground that the word hueso [ˈweso]) sounds like "west" in English.

Other theories of how the island was named are that the name indicated that it was the westernmost Key, or that the island was the westernmost Key with a reliable supply of water.

Many businesses on the island use the name, such as Casa Caveman Hueso, Cayo Hueso Resorts, Cayo Hueso Consultants, Cayo Hueso y Habana Historeum, etc.

In 1763, when the Kingdom of Great Britain took control of Florida, the community of Spaniards and Native Americans were moved to Havana.

Florida returned to Spanish control 20 years later, but there was no official resettlement of the island.

Informally the island was used by fishermen from Cuba and from the British Bahamas, who were later joined by others from the United States after the latter nation's independence.

While claimed by Spain, no nation exercised de facto control over the community there for some time.

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Key-West-Detail. Key-West-Florida rental