Conch Republic Flag - Key West Flag - 3 X 5 ft. - Standard

Parrot Head – Key West – Jimmy Buffet – Ernest Hemingway – Joe Forte

Key West seceded from the Union in 1982. It’s true… well, sort of. In early spring of that year, the US Border Patrol erected a blockade on US Highway 1 at Florida City in an effort to keep out illegal immigrants.

On April 23rd of 1982 then-mayor Dennis Wardlow read a proclamation of secession, broke a loaf of stale Cuban bread over the head of a ‘US Navy’ sailor, and then surrendered to the US Admiral in charge of the Key West naval base and demanded $1 billion in foreign aid to rebuild the Republic!

Key West is the the southern most city in the USA and is the southernmost point of US Highway 1.

The United States Government, in an act typically short-sighted, failed to acknowledge the secession.

Key West Motto: We Seceded Where Others Failed